Mariska Hargitay to replace Daniel Radcliffe in 'Every Brilliant Thing'
Published in Entertainment News
Mariska Hargitay of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” fame is heading to Broadway to replace Daniel Radcliffe in “Every Brilliant Thing” when he leaves the solo show in May.
The Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actress will breathe new life into the show, which had been set to close upon Radcliffe’s May 24 departure but has now been extended through June 28.
Whether Olivia Benson can compete with Harry Potter in drawing audiences remains to be seen. But casting someone vastly different than Radcliffe is exactly what directors Jeremy Herrin and Duncan Macmillan (who also co-wrote the original play with Jonny Donahoe) had in mind.
“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,” Herrin told The New York Times. “We wanted somebody going in a completely different direction.”
While this marks Hargitay’s Broadway debut, she appeared off Broadway in the early 2000s in “The Exonerated.”
The interactive“Every Brilliant Thing” has one protagonist who starts out as a 7-year-old trying to cheer up their mother by listing life’s joys after her suicide attempt, then morphs into the person’s adult self, endlessly adding to the list for their own sake until it stretches into the millions. The character gets help from participating audience members who volunteer to read list items and occasionally are tapped to play a character.
Macmillan first performed his work in 2013, and it has since played in more than 80 countries. The current revival, the first to hit Broadway, has been running at the Hudson Theater since Feb. 21.
Hargitay said the play’s “themes of healing and renewal” grabbed her. In reading it she “ cried, rejoiced, laughed, cried some more, and loved it so much,” Hargitay said in a statement.
“It feels like an extraordinary gift to make my Broadway debut, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream, with a play that affirms life so emphatically,” the actress, producer and director said. “For me, the triumph of this beautiful piece of work — this luminously brilliant thing — is that through a deeply personal story, we experience the universal endeavor of keeping ourselves pointed towards light, compassion and hope.”
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