Daniel Radcliffe stars in Every Brilliant Thing, which officially opened on Broadway on Thursday, March 12. It’s an audience-participation heavy show, written by Duncan Macmillan with Jonny Donahoe, that follows a young man who decides to come up with thousands of wonderful things about the world in hopes of helping his suicidal mother, who suffers from depression.
Radcliffe, 36, — who has starred in plays and musicals on Broadway for years — is great in the tricky part, which often finds him enticing random audience members to play various roles throughout the 70-minute production. It’s the kind of high-wire act that sounds scary but in the Tony winner’s capable hands winds up being a rather moving exploration of viewers’ shared humanity and connection.
With such an emotional show, it’s no surprise in his downtime he’s kicking back with a comedy. Radcliffe shared with Us that these days, he’s all about St. Denis Medical, a mockumentary-style comedy starring Wendi McLendon-Covey, Allison Tolman and David Alan Grier set in an underfunded Oregon hospital where a group of overworked doctors and nurses try to care for patients while dealing with chaotic workplace dynamics.
Radcliffe himself is also currently starring on a comedy: NBC’s The Rise and Fall of Reggie Dinkins.
“It’s a dream job,” Radcliffe recently told Us. “[The writers’] ability to flip from an incredibly niche but wonderfully funny joke for like nine people, to something amazing and universal and just inherently silly joke next [is the best]. The ability to hold smart and dumb together is just my favorite.”
Below, from the latest issue of Us Weekly, the actor tells Us what he’s currently obsessed with:
St. Denis Medical
“[This] TV series is the comedy that has brought me the most joy to watch over the past few months. Incredible performances all around and great writing.”
I’ve Got Me
“I love [singer, songwriter and visual artist] Joanna Sternberg’s I’ve Got Me album. It feels like classic songwriting.”
The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule
“One of my favorite nonfiction books. Angela [Saini] is incredibly skilled at taking huge, complicated ideas and making them digestible.”
