“Every Brilliant Thing,” a Broadway show about suicide, gratitude, and the power of collective storytelling, is shaping up to be this spring’s first hit thanks to the charm and energy of its popular star, Daniel Radcliffe.
But Radcliffe’s run, which began Feb. 21, is ending May 24, leaving the production with a choice: declare victory and close, or try to extend with another actor. And now they believe they’ve found a performer who can pick up the baton: Mariska Hargitay, the (very) long-running star of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
Hargitay will make her Broadway debut in “Every Brilliant Thing,” with a five-week run from May 26 to June 28 at the Hudson Theater. She is, obviously, quite different from Radcliffe — he’s a 36-year-old Englishman who spent a decade playing a boy wizard (Harry Potter) on film; she’s a 62-year-old American woman who has spent nearly three decades playing a police detective (now captain) in the longest-running prime time drama.
“She’s very warm and funny and bright and tender and vulnerable, with a background in comedy and improv, and this felt like a nuanced idea, rather than having somebody who was going to imitate the success that Dan has had,” said Jeremy Herrin, one of the show’s two directors. “We wanted somebody going in a completely different direction.”
The play, in which a solo performer talks about making lists of reasons to stay alive in an effort to cheer a suicidally depressed mother, has been around for a dozen years, always with significant, but voluntary, audience participation. It had a recent run in London’s West End with five performers taking turns as the narrator.
The change in performer requires minor tweaks to the script to reflect age, gender, nationality, and to personalize some cultural references, but the show has proved remarkably adaptable. The producers, Second Half Productions, Seaview, and Gavin Kalin Productions, have not yet decided whether to continue with another performer after Hargitay’s run.
Michael Paulson is the theater reporter for The Times.
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