Every Brilliant Thing: 2026 Broadway Edition

by Duncan Macmillan

Genres: Plays, Fiction

78 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2026

About the author

This page is for the English playwright. For the Scottish art historian, see Duncan Macmillan.

Reviews

[Suzanne Gluck]

I’m seeing Mariska Hargitay in Every Brilliant Thing this week. I wasn’t familiar with the play before picking it up, though I knew it centered around the themes of suicide and mental health. As a suicide loss survivor who lost a parent to suicide, I found this story to be beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, and deeply moving. It handles an incredibly difficult subject with such grace, humanity, and hope. I read it with Daniel Radcliffe’s voice in mind, and now I’m especially excited to see what Mariska brings to the role. I have a feeling this production is going to stay with me!

[Bookworm]

The script is great, as the footnotes also give background, and highlight some of the different artist/style choices made by different performers of the musical, so you get some insight into how the show plays out in a theater. The script is funny, real, emotional, and raw enough to make you bleed.

[Jenn]

Having been fortunate enough to see this exact performance on Broadway with Daniel Radcliffe, (and getting my own Broadway debut with #314), and then again less than a week later at a local college, (where I got to play Mrs. Patterson), Every Brilliant Thing has become one of my own Brilliant things: a play and performance more special to me than almost any other, and a cornerstone of my life in 2026. Being able to not only read the script, but the edition directly linked to my first experience of it, along with footnotes and anecdotes compiled from performances around the world simply took this magnificent thing to me... and made it even better.

This play is something special. Whether you've been able to see it live or are reading it in the pages, it is a thing of beauty and grace. Bringing awareness and witness to mental health and suicide, illustrating its effects, encouraging finding help, offering hope. It is powerful. It is universal. It is connection.

It is Brilliant. (My autocorrect automatically capitalizes that now.)

5 stars

[Nathanael Barr]

Powerful. Brilliantly funny. Deeply moving. Just absolutely amazing. The script for the play is wonderful, but the footnotes just added so much depth (at one point i was almost in tears for pure wholesomeness; sometimes in really hard situations people can be amazing). Addressing a heavy subject in suicide and depression, the message here is very clear: ‘if you need help then ask for it, if you are asked for help then give it.’

Read this in one sitting (couldn’t go to sleep) because i genuinely could not put it down. Few books, if any, have engaged me quite so well as this one. Will definitely be recommending this. Hoping I can go and see it performed sometime, and be part of what is a brilliant play.

[Rusty]

How I wish I had acted on my instincts and had gone to see Daniel Radcliffe perform this on Broadway. Sigh.

But reading it is the next best thing. A lovely and funny play that starts off with the Narrator explained how he started a list of 'every brilliant thing' to cheer up his suicidal mother.

As the list grows longer, the situations change and you start to see how depression can take hold.

Very powerful, both poignant and funny. I'd love to perform this at my local community theater!

[Marshaferz]

I saw the show this week and couldn't wait to see what that script lookd like on paper. It did not disappoint. All the footnotes about different ways the show has been done are fascinating, as is seeing what is on the page and what is improvised each time. Really enjoyed the show, and especially enjoyed reading this afterwards.

[Erica Deb]

I just saw the play and I wanted to read the stage directions. It’s a conceptually brilliant show. It’s funny and touching and thought provoking. The improv and uncertainty makes it a community experience. I loved the performance so so much, but I cried more reading the book because of the added perspective and the stories of past performances. Excited to see it again soon.

[TJ Hoban]

A must read for any and all people, especially mental health professionals. There are so many beautiful things in life and this play really captures that at the core especially live and in the text. I saw it with SVU legend Mariska Hargitay in the role and it was life changing! Things will get better and we all need to make our own lists! :)

[jacob]

that was so sad i want to go see this

[Joseph Adia]

Yes even in reading form there's a lot to take away

[Ines]

I'd love to see this IRL one day.

[Carol]

Brilliant! Triggers: depression, suicide

[Kloe Potter]

Everyone has to watch this play. I’m sad I wasn’t there to witness with my bare eyes.

[Myles Resnick]

The way the show is performed kind of automatically makes reading the script a little weird but tbh i dont care i love this show

[Sherwestonstec]

Loved this! Decided I needed to read this after I saw the play on Broadway with Daniel Radcliffe.