In forty years, there will still be fireflies, and there will still be love. But fireflies will only still exist on Jeju Island near Seoul, Korea, and when Oliver and Claire (Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen) travel there to see them, they don’t realize yet that they’re in love. As robots, the two are not programmed for that emotion.
“Maybe Happy Ending” starts out cute, combining the conventions of several familiar genres — science fiction, romantic comedy, road trip, chamber musical — for what at first seems as light and evanescent as those fireflies. But it somehow turns into something just as rare – an original show, charmingly acted and cleverly staged, with a touching take on love and mortality
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Oliver, looking just as chipper as a cyber Pee Wee Herman in a cheerfully painted face and high-waisted pants, is initially happy in (as the song he sings puts it) the World Within My Room.
With stiff (robotic) moves, he brushes his teeth and then his eyes, listens on his record player to his favorite jazz crooner, Gil Brentley (Dez Duron), talks to his plant, HwaBoon, and waits each day for the delivery of his mail, which arrives from a chute hanging from the ceiling , announced in voiceover by an AI assistant. Out pops the latest issue of Jazz Monthly.
“Any mail from James Choi? “ Oliver asks.
“Delivery complete,” replies the voiceover.
James Choi (Marcus Choi) is his owner, who ignited Oliver’s own enthusiasm for jazz and whom Oliver expects will come get him any day now. But this daily routine, which takes place in an apartment building reserved for retired Helperbots, goes on year after year (as we see in projected titles) for twelve years.
Finally one day, there is a knock on his door, but it isn’t James. It’s Claire, who’s been living across the hall for twelve years, yet they have never met. She approaches him now because her charger is broken, and she needs to borrow his. By the time he answers the door, she has completely wound down. He helps her – he is a Helpbot after all – but he is unsympathetic, especially when he sees that she is a Helperbot series 5, a later model; he’s a series 3. “It’s a well-known fact,” he tells her officiously that Fives might be more fashionable, but Threes are more durable.
“What’s the difference, we’re both obsolete, we both live here in the Yards with all the other antique robots.”
Oliver takes great offense; an argument ensues. So they meet cute and start out hostile.
But much that follows keeps the formula fresh. Their awkwardness in attempting human behavior is amusing. When they go on their road trip, Oliver is unnerved when he has to talk to a motel clerk, since he hasn’t had any human contact for a dozen years.
“Stay focused,” Claire advises him.
“Okay, baby,” Oliver replies, then explains: “Human couples call each other babies.”
It eventually struck me how much “Maybe Happy Ending” uses the story of these Helperbots in the near future to comment on the increasing loneliness of the average human being in the present. There are glimpses into the difficulty of making connections in virtual scenes of Claire’s former owners, a couple who split, and in the solitary scenes with James and eventually of his son (also portrayed by Marcus Choi.)
This sense of isolation is underscored by Dane Laffrey’s state-of-the-art scenic design, in coordination with video designer George Reeve. The sets feel claustrophobic and apart, sliding back and forth, framed by a “curtain” of a black screen that opens up only big enough to allow one small interior at a time.
As futuristic as “Maybe Happy Ending” looks, much of its music is a deliberate exercise in nostalgia. The Oliver-Claire duets are quiet, often cheerful, orchestrated with gentle strings; not Broadway bombastic.
Duron appears outside the action (presumably he’s on the records Oliver is listening to), dressed in dinner jacket or sexy t-shirt, getting to the heart of the matter in a handful of 40’s style songs spread throughout the show.
But one of his both begins and ends “Maybe Happy Ending”:
Why, love?
Why did we bother to try love?
Why did we foolishly stop to say hello instead of going our way?
But your heart was free, and mine was on my sleeve
Were we brave, or were we just naïve?
Maybe Happy Endiing
Belasco Theater
Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $74 – $249. Digital lottery and digital rush: $45. General rush: $40
Book and songs by Will Aronson and Hue Park
Directed by Michael Arden
Scenic Design by Dane Laffrey; Costume Design by Clint Ramos; Lighting Design by Ben Stanton; Sound Design by Peter Hylenski; Video Design by George Reeve; Additional Video Design by Dane Laffrey; Hair and Wig Design by Craig Franklin Miller; Make-Up Design by Suki Tsujimoto
Cast: Darren Criss as Oliver, Helen J. Shen as Claire, Marcus Choi as James, Juseo and others, Dez Duron as Gil Brentley
Photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
