Broadway's 'Maybe Happy Ending': A Charming AI-Themed Musical Explores Love and Humanity

Review: 'Maybe Happy Ending' on Broadway finds surprising charm in a musical love story between robots

NEW YORK - Oliver, played by Darren Criss, is a lonely, nerdy apartment dweller with a love of Chet Baker, a plant as his sole companion and a persistent air of melancholy. Claire, played by Helen J. Shen, is the smart, cute neighbor across the hall who takes pride in her appearance but has abandonment issues and worries constantly about her future. One day, she knocks on his door looking for a charge. Add some falling snow and spontaneous street musicians and you'd have a saccharine Hallmark holiday movie, or perhaps a sweet off-Broadway date-night comedy, but, as written by Will Aronson and Hue Park, the new Broadway musical "Maybe Happy Ending" comes with a very arresting twist. Both these characters are highly sophisticated South Korean robots. They act like sentient beings as they navigate life, so to speak, in Seoul, but they've already been discarded by owners moving on to a new model. Their mutual "retirement" means they have been shoved in the metaphorical drawer like some sad-sack iPhone 8, with nothing left to do except wait until their internal batteries degrade to zero. Can their love save them from their fate? Can they even feel at all, even to save their own rechargeable lives? Can a human audience care about robotic characters? Those are the salient questions of the night. As adroitly directed by Michael Arden, "Maybe Happy Ending" turns out to be a very charming, romantic and slightly unnerving little musical that keys into our current collective worry - induced by artificial intelligence (and the election) - that the easily manipulated but chilly Siri might soon evolve into a pliant, all-knowing, emotional treasonous companion that we come to prefer over actual people, and who might one day start making its own demands. Various manifestations of that fear are showing up on Broadway a lot this season. We're all current witnesses to that growing neurosis. But the appeal of this particular piece, which really is most pleasurable to watch, revolves not just around its sweet, quirky score (it kept putting me in mind of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and, specifically "La La Land") but also in how skillfully the show sets and keeps its own rules about what these bots can and cannot do, and how well it allegorizes their robotic angst with human mortality. We might have hearts rather than batteries, the show implies, but they eventually disintegrate in much the same way. Better yet, "Maybe Happy Ending" is smart enough not to stick around so long that you start to question its internal assumptions; conceptual musicals are typically better when confined to 90 minutes and this one knows that score. Thanks to Dane Laffrey, the show also benefits from the freshest and most cinematic set design of the season ("Sunset Blvd." notwithstanding) that keeps the audience constantly guessing as to what will happen as various screens and platforms keep sliding around (they're both digital and analog), constantly restricting views to just one section of the stage and then suddenly opening up as the retired robots start to grasp more of the emotional opportunities that present themselves and they interact with a small ensemble cast of humans. This kind of show needs that sort of confining focus. I was never entirely clear why Criss's robot has jerky movements while Shen's model operates almost entirely like a person. I assume it's because she's a more advanced model, but it's still a bit jarring for the whole show and the overall effect was perhaps not worth that focus-pulling detail. Still, both actors are most engaging, with Shen making a very sophisticated Broadway debut, her performance filled with the right combination of guilelessness and vulnerability, with just enough of an ironic twist to allow the audience in on the joke. That's how she sings, too. And Criss is most certainly all-in when it comes to his guy. He's pretty wacky here, but I enjoyed his work, too. The whole shebang is quite the slow-burning charmer, honestly, and deserves to be a bit of a sleeper hit. Both robots have been given the equivalent of a gold watch from their former owners (she got a wardrobe of designer clothes, which dovetails nicely with the needs of a Broadway musical, and he got a love of jazz music, ditto). But as you watch their love of their stuff deteriorate within their hearts (if they had them), you become surprisingly invested in their fates. Here, two robot characters, for goodness sake, are carrying on that age-old Broadway declaration of love, and only love, being the existential necessity we cannot live without, here manifested in ways that Stephen Sondheim, even, could not have dreamed.

'Maybe Happy Ending' review: Romantic robot musical is glorious...

One hour and 45 minutes, with no intermission. At the Belasco Theatre, 111 W. 44th Street. The sublime start of "Maybe Happy Ending" is the closest I have ever come to experiencing a Pixar movie on Broadway. Oliver, a lonely robot played by Darren Criss, goes through his usual daily routine -- over and over and over again. With a wide grin in a small studio apartment, he tends to his plant, HwaBoon, receives deliveries through a mail shoot and patiently waits for his owner, James, to come get him. Weeks and months pass, seasons change and the HelperBot does the exact same chores on repeat. Then comes a shattering message: "Twelve years later." Oliver is still there in his 300-square-foot, comfortably appointed cell. James is nowhere in sight. As my eyes welled up -- and it was still only the first number -- the devastating opening of "Up" immediately sprang to mind, as did Andy giving away his cherished childhood friends in "Toy Story 3." "Maybe Happy Ending," like Pixar at its very best, nourishes the soul in a way few Broadway shows even attempt to do. The blissful, boundlessly creative gift of a musical from South Korea, which opened Monday night at the Belasco Theatre, has no bulldozing ballads to cue the waterworks. There are no kitschy dance transitions to soothe our overworked brains. The thoughtful score by Will Aronson with lyrics like firing neurons by Hue Park is sprightly and innocent -- reminiscent of the pastoral soundtracks of Hayao Miyazaki's animated films, such as "Spirited Away" or "Howl's Moving Castle." Instead of predictable bombast, the tender musical's many heartbreaking and uplifting moments sneak up on us and provide an increasingly rare sensation for a genre that has become formulaic and derivative: surprise. Nobody will think to bring tissues to the singing android show, but you would be well advised to stock up. After all, you're at a robo rom-com. Oliver's dozen years solo ends full-stop when a fellow machine named Claire (Helen J Shen) knocks on his door begging to use his charger. Without that plug, she stops functioning -- like the Tin Man when he rusts. Claire is a HelperBot 5; Oliver is a 3. Long in the bluetooth, he chides her about how the 3s are more sturdily built than the younger, glitchier models. The sad truth is that they're both obsolete and abandoned. Soon, Claire is stopping by every day to borrow the cord. Oliver's Scroogey annoyance turns into expectation and eventually he's standing puppy-like by the entryway. The spark plugs fly on Dane Laffrey's set that's both brutalist and comfy. Then, as soon as we've wrapped our heads around "Maybe Happy Ending" as a two-hander, two-room, automaton love story, the digital duo embarks on a funny road trip. Claire accompanies Oliver on a risky journey to seek out James (Marcus Choi) at his new home on an island some 100 miles away. They're not supposed to leave their facility, so they both adopt fake identities. Their efforts to pretend to be humans at a hotel meant for, um, spicy late-night dalliances are hysterical. Of course, coming face to face with the person who consigned them to the scrap heap could bring on an existential crisis. And so the second half of the show confronts the challenges that the advent of artificial intelligence could someday pose for, well, artificial intelligence: Am I a being or an object? Do my needs and desires matter? Do I have the capacity to love? That's a lot of complex questions to ponder, but "Maybe Happy Ending" is never less than extraordinarily charming as it asks them. This big swing of a musical wouldn't work without the perfectly tuned performances of Criss and Shen. These roles could easily be twee and irksome -- they are anything but. Criss' Oliver is a smiley mix of J. Pierpont Finch from "How To Succeed" and Pee-Wee Herman with a bit of earnest boy next door. He's a bucket of bolts with a heart of gold. As his crush, Shen imparts a sit-com sensibility to her newer, more naturally behaving Claire. Quippy and forthright, she's the realist of the pair, save for a passion for fireflies. Shen is as incandescent as that summertime staple. Their flirtation is helped along by silky-voiced Dez Duron as an omnipresent Frank Sinatra-like crooner named Gil Brentley. He hacks into their hard drives as he sings tunes akin to "Fly Me To The Moon" that bring the battery-powered courtship down to earth. Welding comedy, romance and science fiction, string quartets and bourbon-inflected jazz, holograms and furnished living rooms is director Michael Arden, who has simply outdone himself here. The director, who gets better with every show, treats these otherwise disparate elements like essential apps on one harmonious device. Nothing upstages anything else. Most shows are lucky to have a single breathtaking moment. At the Belasco, you lose count. Arden, who also did splendid work in "Parade" and "A Christmas Carol," had an unenviable task with "Maybe Happy Ending": Singing robots, they're just like us! And yet he's succeeded brilliantly. He's brought Wall-E to Broadway. I've criticized Broadway many times over the years for being too robotic.

Review | Darren Criss in a robot rom-com that will fly you to the moon

Broadway's "Maybe Happy Ending," starring Criss and Helen J. Shen, is a refreshingly original exploration of love and loneliness Art about artificial intelligence tends to warn us about the dangers of playing God and creating monsters. So there is an immediate element of surprise and delight to "Maybe Happy Ending," a swoony and only-slightly-dystopian rom-com between robots. The musical by Will Aronson and Hue Park, like most science fiction, still reflects on human experience, but with an eye toward exploring our best impulses rather than our worst. It's a darling gem of a show with a big heart and a captivating sideways sensibility. And in a Broadway assembly line churning with revivals and remakes, it's a refreshing model of innovation. The so-called Helperbots in question, like Siri or Alexa taken to extremes, are nearly indistinguishable from humans. The two we meet are among those put out to pasture. Having been replaced by newer iterations, they're holed up in a retirement high-rise turned cheerful mausoleum on the outskirts of Seoul, for tech too lifelike to be thrown in the trash. Their single-occupancy apartments are the vision of urban loneliness. Flashbacks to the cozy but bleak self-sufficiency of solo pandemic-era isolation are inevitable for some of us when Darren Criss, who plays a model No. 3 named Oliver, sings an ode to the world within his room. (I'm not saying I also sang to my favorite plant, but I'm not saying I didn't.) Part toy box and part hypermodern studio, Oliver's is a space for maintenance and introspection. Claire, a more-advanced model No. 5 played by Helen J. Shen, comes knocking because her charger is busted and she needs some juice. (Newer models have advantages, but Oliver is quick to point out sacrifices in durability.) Oliver, who inherited his owner's appreciation for Duke Ellington and Bill Evans, moves like a graceful marionette; Claire carries herself like a regular girl next door. There's an offbeat ease to their chemistry, and Criss and Shen are both lovely singers with an unshowy confidence that's become all-too rare. The plight of discarded robots turns out to be an insightful window into our own. Like young adults stripped of their programmed intentions, they're searching for belonging. Assembled from parts that have been discontinued, they're facing mortality like we all do. What's left but to fall in love? What such a thing could mean for Oliver and Claire, who are built for function not feeling, is the heart of the most affecting musical numbers. Park and Aronson's score dissects love's component parts -- "how to be not alone," as Claire puts it -- with a mellow, jazzy sound that blends old-fashioned crooning with contemporary-style hooks. The results are delicately dazzling, like the fireflies that Oliver refers to as "little forest robots." The sleek staging, by director Michael Arden, tapers in and out on their living quarters with panels of gliding black, which open onto a broader world when the pair embarks on a road trip to Jeju Island. (The set is by Dane Laffrey and the anime-meets-watercolor video by Laffrey and George Reeve.) Claire wants to catch firefly season; Oliver naively hopes to reverse his abandonment. A dapper vocalist played by Dez Duron accompanies the action with Sinatra-esque standards -- a device whose randomness is easy to forgive for setting an elegant mood. Skip to end of carousel The Style section Style is where The Washington Post explains what's happening on the front lines of culture -- including the arts, media, social trends, politics and yes, fashion -- with wit, personality and deep reporting. For more Style stories, click here. To subscribe to the Style Memo newsletter, click here. End of carousel The odd and simple premise of "Maybe Happy Ending" accomplishes something profound, in examining the nature of connection. Hologram-like scenes from their memory drives hint at how Oliver's and Claire's users shaped their understandings of emotion. But those backstories prove less impactful to their fates than what the two wind up teaching each other, a uniquely modern metaphor for adulthood. A Korean-language version of the show premiered in Seoul in 2016, followed by an English production in Atlanta before theaters closed in 2020. The Broadway debut benefits from the swells of self-reflection many of us have waded through in the meantime -- about what makes us who we are, why we want to be with each other and how long any of this is really going to last. Whether anyone's ending turns out happily or not, at least we have the choice to be together. Maybe Happy Ending, ongoing at the Belasco Theatre in New York. 1 hour, 40 minutes with no intermission. maybehappyending.com.