How Every Brilliant Thing Helped Tony Nominee Daniel Radcliffe Let Go of Perfection

After winning a Tony in 2024 for his performance as Charley Kringas in the acclaimed revival of Merrily We Roll Along, Daniel Radcliffe is nominated again, this time for his solo turn in Every Brilliant Thing. The show relies on audience participation to tell the story of one person’s journey through life.

“I definitely didn't expect to be back here again so soon, and I could never have imagined the success that this show has had,” Radcliffe told Broadway.com Editor-in-Chief Paul Wontorek near the end of his run. “(Radcliffe departed the production last month. It now stars Mariska Hargitay.) "This show lets me interact with audiences in a way that no show I ever do again will. So I'm really trying to soak up those last bits of incredible connection. There are still people coming in every night who are clearly very alarmed to see me just running around the theater beforehand. I love surprising people in their seats.”

Radcliffe became a public figure as the titular “boy who lived” in the Harry Potter film franchise. “If people are coming in expecting to see a person that is famous to them, I think there's something about that first half hour of seeing me running around, sweating, stressing out, trying to get the show together that I feel like is a real leveler and makes us all feel like we're all in this together. I've spent my whole life meeting Harry Potter fans and they are generally speaking a really lovely, excited, enthusiastic group of people. So this has been no exception.”

The seat-of-its-pants nature of Every Brilliant Thing has been liberating for Radcliffe. “This show has taught me some really valuable stuff about achieving a kind of a Zen state. When you're doing a play or you're doing a musical, you want the show to be as close to perfect as you can get it every night. There's something about doing this show where it will change and you can't control it. That has been really nice in terms of letting me release that and just go, ‘Okay, I'm going to let perfect be the enemy of the good and just take each show as it comes and meet the audience where they are."

“I talked to an actor the other day that did this play a couple of years ago and who told me, ‘I haven't done a play since because I found it so hard to find something that will make me feel what this felt," Radcliffe shared. "I'm sure that won't be the case for me. I will be coming back at some point, but it's going to be hard to figure out what's next after this."

Watch the full interview below!

Get tickets to Every Brilliant Thing!