As will Ambika Mod and show's originator Jonny Donahoe

Lenny Henry, Sue Perkins and This is Going to Hurt’s Ambika Mod are to star in a West End transfer of a touching comedy play that first gathered acclaimed at the Edinburgh Fringe 11 years ago.

Jonny & The Baptists comic Jonny Donahoe helped write the script for Every Brilliant Thing with Duncan Macmillan and first performed it at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2014.

He has frequently performed the play in subsequent years – including a New York run and a return to last year’s Fringe – with around 400 other professional productions having been staged in 63 countries.

Now it will come to London’s @sohotheatre from August 1, with Donahoe sharing the starring role with the well-known guests over the two-month run.

The show is based on a seven-year-old child making a list of all the things worth living for after his mother’s suicide attempt – a catalogue of delights that grows over the years and into adulthood.

Donahoe said: ‘It's actually, properly brilliant to be finally bringing Every Brilliant Thing to the West End… It's been 12 years since Duncan and I did two little scratch shows at a Shropshire poetry festival and a rural community centre; a decade since we ran off-Broadway for four and a half months; and a year since we started putting it back together at last year's Edinburgh Fringe.

‘I am over the moon to be back performing this show that Duncan and I are so proud of, and to be joined by such an array of talent in Lenny, Sue and Ambika: it's a dream come true.'

Sir Lenny, who opens the run, hailed the show as ‘so touching [as it] celebrates the importance of finding joy in the everyday - despite life’s obstacles. I cannot wait to perform this important play in the intimate setting of @sohoplace.’

Mod, who also starred in Netflix’s One Day, said: ‘I have loved this play since first seeing it at the Fringe as a student comedian when I was 19 years old, so it’s a dream come true to now be able to bring it to the West End with the original team, as an adult actor, almost exactly 10 years later.’

Perkins added: ‘I was blown away when I read Duncan’s sparkling script and I’m so excited and honoured to get the chance to perform it @sohoplace.

Published: 8 Jun 2025