Maybe Happy Ending

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from a musical about robots. But I was thrilled with what I received. Maybe Happy Ending is a near perfect show that will leave you questioning a number of things that you thought you already knew: What qualifies as love? Can you genuinely love and be genuinely loved by something without emotions? And if so, what does that look like? When does someone become “human”?

This show tackles a lot and it does so seemingly with ease. The entire show is framed in two ways: The first being the set which moves around to literally frame what the audience is intended to be paying the most attention to. The second framing is done musically. The first robot that you meet is Oliver (played by Darren Criss), who has a penchant for the music that his owner/friend used to listen to. This music is used to frame the show (it is music that you would hear from the 1940’s and 1950’s that would be commonly sung by Frank Sinatra and the like) and it is sung superbly.

The plot is simple. Oliver is eagerly awaiting the return of his friend/owner. While he waits, he lives in a building that is for retired helper bots. He has never interacted with the other helper bots in his building. One day another helper bot, Claire (played by Helen J Shen), knocks on his door asking to borrow his charger because she desperately needs to recharge. This sparks a story of hope, love, longing, desire, friendship, loss, death, and so much more.

Both Darren and Helen are wonderful in their performances. Darren’s robotic movements really shine, especially in the beginning, when you view Oliver as just a robot. Through their performances, the audience learns to love and care about these robots, often getting to the point that you forget altogether that these characters aren’t human. Which leaves you to wonder: what makes someone human anyway?

This show made me laugh. This show made me cry. This show was absolutely beautiful in every aspect.