Maybe Happy Ending review: Darren Criss is effortlessly charming in a visually dazzling romance between robots

A record player, a potted plant, and a firefly in a jar, as silly as it may sound, are three critical elements in the emotional journey of Maybe Happy Ending, the new musical from Will Aronson and Hue Park making its Broadway debut after achieving acclaim in its native South Korea. The basic premise? A meet-cute becomes a road trip becomes a love story. All in all, it’s familiar territory, and fittingly so because simplicity is at the core of this tale. 

When we meet our protagonist, he is embracing the simplest joys of life: a room to call his own, and eventually, a friend to share it with. But it's worth mentioning that said protagonist is a robot — a Helperbot 3 to be exact — who is slowly coming to terms with his own obsolescence.

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Don’t let the charging port, semi-reliable functionality, or robotic mannerisms fool you — at his core, Oliver (Darren Criss) is not so different from your average human. He ponders his place in the world, greets the day, brushes his teeth, listens to music, and chats away to his friend and sole companion… a plant named Hwaboon. And he waits. Because against all odds, Oliver believes his purpose is not yet served: his beloved owner James is coming to pick him up, any day now, no matter how many years have passed. 

And then comes Claire (Helen J Shen, wonderfully assured in their Broadway debut). With a knock at his door and a desperate plea to borrow his charger, she changes everything. 

A Helperbot 5, Claire is no less obsolete. Though she’s naturally capable of nuanced emotion, understands slang, and has a working WiFi chip, she too has been dumped in the Seoul Helperbot Yards, left to watch time pass as her body deteriorates. So together, they embark on a quest to find Oliver’s owner and, inevitably, they discover something else entirely along the way.

The retired Helperbots — merely trying to stay afloat in the final chapter of their lives — slowly realize their capacity for love and the result is a wondrous commentary on relationships and the passage of time, woven together by tender storytelling and inventive stagecraft.

Shen and Criss share an easy chemistry as Claire and Oliver, a mismatched pair who delight with their charming interactions. As the older model, Oliver is the more robotic of the two, an amusing distinction for which Criss nails the physical comedy. Oliver is gleefully stilted where Claire is natural and relaxed. Together they are playful, his sass matching her snark, his optimism complementing her jaded outlook. Despite the perpetual pep in his step, it's Oliver whose path forward seems unclear, as Claire embraces the potential offered by the time that remains to her. From that push and pull emerges a constant, endearing tension.

Early in the show, Oliver posits that is isn't love but "inertia and fear of being alone that keeps people together.”

It’s not the most romantic outlook, but might he have a point? Even the two Helperbots are coming to terms with their own loneliness. But Maybe Happy Ending thrives in making the unromantic surprisingly sentimental. These are robots, after all, taking ones and zeroes and adding them up to emotion. Forget about inertia, the best of their relationship is a collection of quiet moments together that allow us to become taken with them and them with each other. 

The modest cast also includes Marcus Choi seamlessly fulfilling a multi-man position as a series of people that the Helperbots encounter in the world while The Voice alum Dez Duron acts as a manifestation of Oliver’s favorite jazz singer Gil Brently, who serenades us with smooth, old school tunes.

Duron is a captivating stage presence and his musical interludes prove critical to the show’s love story: as the in-universe jazz singer takes the stage, Oliver and Claire continue their courtship in montage form, with sweet sometimes wordless interactions. It’s all too easy to be swept up in their romance, with Duron setting the tone, while their chemistry works its magic. 

But the real star of Maybe Happy Ending is the creative team. Director Michael Arden (who won a Tony for his revival of Parade) provides a confident guiding hand through the evocative tale, which succeeds thanks to the ground laid by Dane Laffrey’s sets and Ben Stanton’s lightning design. The scene changes put the show's inventive framing to such effective use that it’s a thrill whenever we move location. An utterly transportive experience, it's a joy to watch our window into their world shrink and expand at a moment's notice, limiting us to a single room or just as easily opening up to show the vastness of the night sky.

Dazzling as the tech can be, it poses the occasional hindrance when relied on too heavily by the story. The tale is dotted with video flashbacks, and while it’s a wonder to see the production's technological scope — to watch the stage open up as it's flooded with visions of the past — they pause the story, pulling us away from the present to provide context already implied. 

The soundtrack, with music by Aronson and lyrics by Park, is sweet and sentimental, sweeping us up in the jazzy atmosphere if not hitching our breath with emotion. There's no obvious showstopper — in fact one of the most memorable sequences contains not a single lyric sung, instead allowing the orchestra to snag the spotlight while Criss and Chen play out a critical moment between the duo. The melodies may not linger when the curtain falls, but the sentiment certainly does.

Despite Oliver’s earnest nature — familiar territory for the Glee alum — Criss is not the one stealing the show. Charming as Oliver’s pronounced quirks are, his interiority feels as though its held at arms length — especially when compared to Claire, whose fraught emotionality pulls focus courtesy of Shen’s moving performance. Oliver may have his optimism challenged and his nerves tested, but he remains much the same, clinging to life’s simple joys.

Alas, charm goes a long way. Criss is often his most compelling when given a character with edge (his stint as the titular East German rocker in Hedwig and the Angry Inch or his Emmy-winning turn in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) but here he is charming, spirited and wonderfully funny.

Meanwhile, the show around him is grasping at many bubbling themes and carrying only a select few over the finish line. But Maybe Happy Ending dazzles with its love story and astounds with its visual accomplishments. There’s nothing robotic about this production: it wears its heart on its sleeve and on charm alone, succeeds. Grade: B