A Few of My Brilliant Things

It happens often. You hear the glad tidings: “Coming Soon! 2 Fast 2B Furious 15! Your favorite action stars collide in this hilarious, horrifying addition to the ancient and beloved series!” Then, after seeing it, you feel totally let down.

That was my fear before traveling to NYC on Wednesday to see Every Brilliant Thing, a solo show starring Daniel Radcliffe (with a good bit of audience participation.) Reviews were very enthusiastic. I knew EBT dealt with themes of depression and suicide (and I am all for more awareness and stigma-busting of these issues). I’d seen Radcliffe’s terrific performance in the musical Merrily We Roll Along, and was, of course, aware that he WAS Harry Potter in all those movies. So, perhaps, I’d set myself up for disappointment.

Thankfully, the show delivered. Radcliffe was so engaging and charming, and his interaction with audience members was delightful. He showed great range, embodying everyone from a sad seven-year-old trying to keep his suicidal mom alive (and pouring out his heart to a sock puppet), to a spouse realizing the impact of his own depression on his marriage. He sang and danced. He cried. At one point, he ran exuberantly through the theatre, high fiving everyone.

The script has been performed quite a bit over the past decade, but it had never made it to Broadway. Radcliffe says he’d planned to take time off from acting but, after reading Every Brilliant Thing, he felt called to do this play.

What did he—and I—find so compelling? The unifying image of noticing, then writing down, all the little and big things that make life worthwhile. What started as a plea from a little boy to his mother to keep going (Brilliant Thing #1: Ice Cream!), grew to encompass the beautiful moments in all of life: “Waking up next to someone you love.” As the show went on, and the numbers of brilliant things multiplied into the hundreds of thousands, many shouted out from the audience on cue, the power of this idea became clear…for all the pain in life, there are still so, so many reasons to keep on living.

The show’s website invites people to share their own “brilliant things,” and keep growing a master list. Here are just a few of mine:

*Hearing your baby laugh for the first time

*Watching sunrise over the ocean on a beach, alone

*Reconciling with an old friend after a serious argument

*Permanent Press!!!!

*Mahler's Symphony #2

*Having your spouse bring you coffee in bed every single morning of your marriage

I am sure you could each make your own list of the brilliant things in your lives, and I encourage you to do just that. Share it or don’t, that’s totally up to you. Just the act of noticing is enough. On Wednesday afternoon, in a sad and difficult time for our world, a simple little play reminded me that MY life is filled with brilliant things, places, and people. And I'm so grateful.