How Duncan MacMillan & Jeremy Herrin Planned the Spontaneity of EVERY BRILLIANT THING

What goes into crafting the words that make up our favorite Broadway shows? How do Broadway playwrights and book writers make our favorite characters shine and our favorite scenes come alive? BroadwayWorld is finding out with Notes on a Script.

Every Brilliant Thing is an exhilarating and heartwarming play, in which a man looks back at his life and the glimmers of hope that carried him through. All told through a list of every wonderful, beautiful, and delightful thing—big, small, and everything in between—that makes life worth living.

What's so brilliant about it? "Part of what makes this play work I think is that there's so many baked-in variables and moments of spontaneity, so every single performance is different. So talking about [this play] as a sort of set text is quite interesting," explained co-writer and co-director Duncan MacMillan. "In rehearsal, Dan [Radcliffe] learned the text, learnt the play word for word, and then came in knowing that every single night he was going to have to change and he was going to have to improvise and work around what was there. 

"I think one of the brilliant things about the play is that Duncan manages to weave in very serious themes in quite a joyous and celebratory form," added co-director Jeremy Herrin.

In this video, watch as creators MacMillan and Herrin break down their words in the newest episode of BroadwayWorld's Notes on a Script and go inside opening night!

Every Brilliant Thing is running on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre.