In the twenty months since “Maybe Happy Ending” opened on Broadway, it’s the Broadway show I most often mention when out-of-towners ask for a recommendation. Some have reacted skeptically when they hear it’s about two Korean robots who fall in love. I’ve tried to explain that, although the show is constructed out of several genres that are perhaps overly familiar — science fiction, romantic comedy, road trip, chamber musical – the end result is a rare original work of theater that’s not just charming and cleverly staged; it also offers a touching take on love and mortality. 

I just saw the show again last week, and I have to modify my spiel: There are even more reasons to recommend it. 

This is not, frankly, because of the newly cast robot couple: Zachary Noah Piser now portrays Oliver, the role for which Darren Criss won a Tony Award, a helpbot who has been waiting for years in vain for his owner James (Marcus Choi) to reclaim him from the apartment complex for retired/obsolete helpbots. Hannah Kevitt is Claire, the character originated by Helen J. Shen, who has lived across the hall, never meeting, and for the first time knocks on Oliver’s door to borrow a charger — igniting the eventual love story.  Don’t misunderstand: Piser and Levitt are credible replacements. As Oliver, Criss achieved a mastery of precise robot-like moves that Piser doesn’t try to emulate. His Oliver is less prissy and more cuddly.  But that’s a reasonable interpretation, and he certainly can carry a tune.  Here he is imagining his reunion with James in “Where We Belong”:

Here is “The Rainy Day We Met,” performed at Broadway in Bryant Park last week, with Piser and Savy Jackson (normally the understudy for Claire) coming up with a cover story of how they became a couple (which they are not) in case they run into any humans on their road trip to see the fireflies that at the time the musical is set (2064) exist only on Jeju Island near Seoul, Korea:

Everything else and everybody else in the production remains the same, including standout Dez Duron as 40s crooner Gil Brentley, who appears outside the action; presumably he’s on the jazz records that were James’ favorite, and thus Oliver’s as well.  Dressed in a dinner jacket or sexy t-shirt, Gil sings melodies that evoke a sense of nostalgia without putting it in ironic brackets: “your heart was free, and mine was on my sleeve/Were we brave, or were we just naïve?” Here is Duron performing at last year’s Broadway in Bryant Park:

What a new viewing drove home, though, is that for all the love songs, “Maybe Happy Ending” is just as much (if not more) about loneliness and alienation.  This manifests in a number of ways.   

Oliver lives in the memory of his connection to his former owner,  but his sole actual connection before meeting Claire is with Hwaboon, the name he gives to his houseplant. James had far more contact with the robot he had bought than with his own son. We eventually meet the son Junseo (also portrayed by Marcus Choi), who explains his coldness to Oliver: “It was hard enough for us to talk without him having his perfect, fake son around.”

The closeness of these helpbots to human beings – closeness, both in the sense of proximity and in resemblance – has some uncomfortable implications, which the show doesn’t explicitly explore. What does it say that the company that made them has created an apartment complex for them to live in retirement? If they are that  human-like,  the relationship with the people they call their owners strikes me as creepy. Is this a preview of an evolving relationship that presents evermore practical challenges and moral dilemmas? I didn’t think about this in 2024, but “Maybe Happy Ending” has become even more relevant just in the time that the show has been running on Broadway, a time of remarkably – and scary – developments in Artificial Intelligence.

Maybe Happy Endiing
Belasco Theater
Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $55 – $349. 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: Zachary Noah Piser as Oliver, Hannah Kevitt as Claire, Marcus Choi as James, Juseo and others, Dez Duron as Gil Brentley
Photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman