Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Darren Criss returns to Broadway alongside Helen J Shen in the new romantic musical comedy Maybe Happy Ending. Inside a one-room apartment in the heart of Seoul, Oliver lives a happily quiet life listening to jazz records and caring for his favorite plant. But what else is there to do when you’re a Helperbot 3, a robot that has long been retired and considered obsolete? When his fellow Helperbot neighbor Claire asks to borrow his charger, what starts as an awkward encounter leads to a unique friendship, a surprising adventure, and maybe even…love? Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award, Maybe Happy Ending is the offbeat and captivating story of two outcasts near the end of their warranty who discover that even robots can be swept off their feet. Helmed by visionary director and Tony Award winner Michael Arden, with a dazzling scenic design by Dane Laffrey and book, music, and lyrics by the internationally acclaimed duo Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe happy Ending is a fresh, original musical about the small things that make any life worth living.
After the amazing firefly scene, and even more spectacularly, a scene in which our lovers’ inner circuits reveals themselves in a heart-stopping, full-stage display of light and sound that explodes from the set’s early, more constricted (if still lovely) aperture approach, Maybe Happy Ending could happily end, and if Arden and his team can’t quite restrain themselves from stretching things a bit, well, it’s hard to blame them: There still a delight or two, not to mention a lump in the throat, that demand to be experienced. Maybe Happy Ending deserves no less.
There is no “maybe” about it when it comes to the brilliance and winning charm of Maybe Happy Ending (Belasco Theatre, booking to May 25, 2025). Visually, theatrically, and musically, Maybe Happy Ending, directed by Michael Arden with a nuanced delicacy and lightness of touch, is the most original and innovative show on New York’s main theatrical drag this autumn—and it dazzles with subtlety rather than bombast.
2024 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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