'Every Brilliant Thing' brings joy, tears, humor and a brilliant Daniel Radcliffe to Broadway

Editor's note: If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

"Every Brilliant Thing," a new-to-Broadway show starring Daniel Radcliffe, is about a list: a list of reasons to keep on living (from simple things like "ice cream" or "things with stripes" to heartfelt entries like "waking up with someone you love").

But 'Every Brilliant Thing," by playwrights Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, is also about much more: It's about a young boy's intense desire to "fix" his mother's depression and mend her after her attempts to take her own life.

It's about searching for answers and finding solace through friends and mentors. It's about failing and trying again. All seen through the prism of the growing list that starts when Radcliffe's character is seven years old, and grows, in the decades that follow, to a stunning one million entries.

The show is sometimes poignant, often hilarious and brimming with a near-manic energy. It also incorporates audience participation, plenty of improv, and an unusually insightful and authentic portrayal of mental illness.

Radcliffe received a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of the protagonist. The show was nominated for Best Play Revival. Radcliffe spoke with Robin Young before the Tony nominations were announced.

How did you get involved?

“I got sent the script and I just had a really visceral, emotional reaction to it. And I also had a reaction, which is something that I very rarely have when I read something. But when I do, I have learned to listen to it, which is that I had a moment of thinking, ‘Oh, I think I'm really right for this.’

"There's actually one of the list items — the number is 1,010 — and it is reading something which articulates exactly how you feel but lack the words to express yourself. And whenever you as an actor find something that says something about the world that you truly believe but would never have been able to say this wonderfully. That's the stuff that I feel like you've really got to do well.”

There are a million things that young kids try to get their parents to do to be safe and healthy. Is that something that resonated with you?

"I mean, no. I think everybody who works on our show has been in some way touched by mental health issues. There’ve definitely been, you know, other people in my life who I have loved, and I have felt the helplessness of not actually being able to pull them out of it. And I think that's why we all feel so lucky to be doing this show, is because we've all been touched and affected by the things in some way. Yet we are given the opportunity to deal with them in a way that feels very joyful as well as having that heaviness."

The show includes the audience. Can we talk just a little bit about that? I didn't know that Daniel Radcliffe was going to be standing right next to me, you know, talking to other people, pulling them up on stage. It reminded me a little bit of speed dating, only speed casting.

"It is very speed dating-esque. I am running through the audience. I'm trying to get a sense of who might be sort of keen to do something, but not too keen.

"You know, the other night we had the psychologist character called Mrs. Patterson, and we had one of the best Mrs. Pattersons that we'd ever had. And me and my friend Dave, who helps me cast the show before we start, had just watched her turning around and talking to the people in the seats behind her, and she just had a very warm feeling about her. We are going for vibes, but also people who are not going to feel the need to, you know, take over the play if they get up on stage."

Is it all improvised?

“Everything they do is improvised, though I never tell them that they have to make a joke. I will often say to the person who's with them, ‘Don't tell them I'm going to ask them to tell a joke.’ So if they can't think of one after about five, 10 seconds. Can you just have one?

"The thing we're really, truly trying to look for when we go through the audience is kindness. And if you're kind, the play flies. She gave such great advice to my character. She was so kind. She talked a lot about the necessity of keeping going through adversity. And I found out after the show, I spoke to her, that her daughter had just been going through like her first true heartbreak. And so, the play allows this thing to happen where this woman is giving me and my character advice while simultaneously talking in a very real way to the daughter who is sitting next to her and to me as the performer. That's the most beautiful thing to be on the receiving end of."

Have you had people speak to you about how that list impacts them?

“Oh yeah. I'm normally signing at least the beginning of one list every night at stage door. Like there are some people who sort of leave the theater and start making them immediately. During rehearsal, Duncan and Johnny, the playwrights encouraged us to all make our own list and come up with brilliant things, some of which have made it into the play and are now in the text every night.

"I mean, I spoke to a friend of mine the other day who had told me that, you know, they had had an attempt when they were in their early twenties and they had, as part of their recovery, had to make a gratitude list. And so, this is not an uncommon practice. And the way that Duncan and Johnny have made this play kind of a communal experience is in itself a brilliant thing like that is to me, it's a really joyous experience."

What's your favorite on the list?

"Oh, I love number 518. And it is when idioms coincide with real life occurrences. For instance, waking up, realizing something and simultaneously smelling coffee. Bart Simpson was one that I added in myself because there's one that felt like you have to be right in my timeline. But I will say that in my own life, my son is the source of the most brilliant things. And you could do a sequel to this play that would just be brilliant things that this character's child has done or said."

This interview was edited for clarity.

Karyn Miller-Medzon produced this interview for broadcast. It was edited by Robin Young. Michael Scotto adapted it for the web.