Every Brilliant Thing
In the theatrical catharsis system, tearjerker-based dramas are considered especially manipulative. This is one critic's story.
Content Guidance: Every Brilliant Thing and this review discuss suicide.
Every Brilliant Thing is built on a fairly simple concept: after an early childhood encounter with suicide, a person keeps a running list of all the wonderful things life has to offer. The experience of seeing Every Brilliant Thing, though, isn’t quite so simple to explain. On one hand, it’s an uplifting, feel-good play that celebrates joy and connection. On the other hand, it’s a poignant meditation on depression, neglect, and death. On one hand, it’s a scripted play that’s being revived. On the other, parts of its script are rewritten for different actors, and it includes lengthy sequences of improv. On one hand, it’s a one-person show. On the other, much of its fun comes from the ways it incorporates various audience members as “guest stars,” playing integral roles like our protagonist’s father, first love, and counselor. Theatre people love to rhapsodize how their art is special because it is live, which means you never see the same show twice…and, sure, that’s true. But at Every Brilliant Thing, you REALLY never see the same show twice.
Of course, one of the most obvious and impactful differences comes down to who’s headlining the production, which, again, is true of any piece of theatre, but feels particularly true for one-person shows. When Every Brilliant Thing opened this spring, it starred Daniel Radcliffe, making his first appearance on Broadway since his Tony-winning run in Merrily We Roll Along. Perhaps the Harry Potter aura still glows brightly enough around him that his presence could turn any production into a box office smash, especially a one-hander where it’s all-Daniel-all-the-time. Nevertheless, when word got around that Every Brilliant Thing involves extensive audience participation, giving Potterheads the chance to rub elbows with Harry himself, demand skyrocketed beyond expectation, and supply went “Evanesco!”
As much as I respect Radcliffe—who has genuinely pushed himself as an artist since childhood stardom and steadily grown into a consummate showman—there’s no way I was paying $1,000 for the chance to play his father. (However, after seeing him nude in Equus, I might pay that much to be his daddy.) After repeatedly losing the Lucky Seat lottery for $45 tickets during his run, I was able to secure a $45 TodayTix rush ticket to see his replacement, longtime Law and Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay.
Hargitay was a surprising choice to succeed Radcliffe: a different sex, a different age, and a different persona. Radcliffe’s fame is built on magical fantasy and coming-of-age tropes. Hargitay’s is built on gritty realism and borderline prurient procedural tropes. Even their levels of experience are stark contrasts: Every Brilliant Thing marks Radcliffe’s sixth Broadway production and Hargitay’s first.
And yet you would never know it from the way Hargitay commands the space from the moment she enters. It’s something even more impressive than a confident stage debut; it’s a natural, almost effortless one. She seems supremely at ease whether alone or working intimately with someone from the audience, whether delving into the play’s darker scenes or yucking it up in its silliest scenes. You wouldn’t know it from SVU, but Hargitay has excellent comic timing (a fact I knew because I first discovered her on a one-season sitcom called Can’t Hurry Love where she played a Samantha Jones–type opposite Nancy McKeon’s Monica Geller–type). Everything about her performance here suggests that Hargitay could have a successful career in theatre whenever she desires.
As good as she is, though, Hargitay can’t fully make sense of a crucial turn in the play’s last third. However, the problem lies more in Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s script than her execution. This is a play born out of theme, which the writing prioritizes over plot and character. To convey their message and hit certain emotional beats, the playwrights impose some narrative turns on the story that don’t feel earned or wholly believable. I doubt any actor could justify them.
I also doubt that it matters to most people. Despite its flawed storytelling, Every Brilliant Thing offers audiences three things they love: proximity to a celebrity; a chance to shed a tear or two; and an uplifting takeaway that—even better!—can be easily translated into action. Imagine Pay It Forward if it had been a one-man show where Haley Joel Osment did crowd work. Maybe he can star in the tour.
Lest you think I’m acting superior, I’ll freely admit that I too enjoyed my proximity1 to Mariska Hargitay; found (admittedly light) catharsis when my eyes filled with tears; and left with both a refreshing sense of hope and a renewed commitment to my daily gratitude list. The ways Every Brilliant Thing manipulates its audiences’ emotional reactions, both negative and positive, can feel whorish…but sometimes it feels so good to get off, you don’t care how you got there. A fittingly skeevy note to end on for Olivia Benson.
the not-a-bottom line
🌈🌈🌈 (out of five)
a guide to ticket-buying
IF YOU WANT TO SEE HARGITAY, YOU ONLY HAVE UNTIL THIS SUNDAY, JULY 5.
As mentioned, I got a $45 rush ticket through the TodayTix app. My seat was actually onstage, but someone associated with the production asked if I’d be willing to move to the first row of the orchestra and play a role. Given that it was about 104 degrees under the stage lights, I readily agreed.
Even though Every Brilliant Thing has popped up on TKTS since Hargitay joined (i.e., became) the cast, I haven’t seen it on TDF. However, they do currently have tickets posted during the run of Hargitay’s successor, Tracee Ellis Ross. It makes me wonder: Will Ross become the latest recipient of the Maria Conchita Alonso Award for Halfhearted and Commercially Ineffective Second Replacement Casting? Previous winners include Dixie Carter for Master Class, David Alan Grier for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Elaine Paige for Sunset Blvd.
a key to the pictures
In 2016, the original off-Broadway run of Every Brilliant Thing was captured by (of all people) RuPaul’s Drag Race masterminds Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato for HBO, where it is still streaming.
I was indeed picked to play one of the characters who interacts with her—I’d call it my Broadway debut, but I killed in my onstage seat at Xanadu.
1,074. Strike-through photo captions that make me laugh aloud
Smart, funny, and probably completely accurate review. (I didn’t see the show.). Have you seen DOG DAY AFTERNOON? I was surprise how entertaining the story, the leads, the recreation of the period, and the ensemble were.