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.
Swept Away tells the tale of a shipwreck and the majority of the show is simply four characters in a life boat drifting through the open ocean. The four main characters are: Mate (John Gallagher, Jr.), Big Brother (Stark Sands), Little Brother (Adrian Blake Enscoe), and Captain (Wayne Duvall). In addition to these four, there are 12 more actors in the ensemble
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this show. I went in without knowing much about the plot beyond that it involved a shipwreck. The acting in this show blew me away. Four actors in a life boat, even in a single act show, seems like a difficult concept to sell, but these four definitely sold it. At no point did any of the cast come off as being dishonest, which made the strife the characters go through seem absolutely believable. Add to this the amazing singing talents of our main four (special shout out to Adrian Blake Enscoe for his singing ability) which brought this tale to life.
Even more impressive, perhaps, was the set. The show opens with a dying Mate in a tuberculosis ward and he lies there as the audience fills the theatre. The show itself is then told through flashback, as three of our main characters (beginning the show as ghosts) urge Mate to “tell their story” before he passes away. We, the audience, are then quite literally swept away onto a whaling ship where we meet the entire cast of characters. The whaling ship is huge. And the ship wreck was amazing and definitely believable. Ropes are thrown down, dropping the sails of the ship, as one by one the members of the ensemble are thrown overboard. Finally, the entire ship rises until the audience is left looking at the underside of the boat (covered with mirrors), and revealing our main cast left in a life boat, looking absolutely disheveled. It is here that the vast majority of the show takes place. The life boat itself is on a turn table, and it didn’t just rotate, but rather it would sometimes rotate, and sometimes bounce between which direction it span. It moved slowly and delicately, and even allowed the life boat to have a slight rocking to it, which did a great job in making the audience believe that they are watching people randomly drifting in the open ocean. It is here that we really see the actors shine. We learn of the strife, the struggle, the heartache, the emotional toll that losing his crew creates for Captain, who has to come to terms with the fact that members of his crew went down with the ship, but he did not. We learn of Little Brother’s love interest and the life that he wants to live. We also learn that Little Brother was hit by the mast of the ship as the boat sank, injuring him gravely. We see the desperation from Big Brother as he works diligently for weeks to keep Little Brother alive. And we see Mate, who is the most realistic of all the characters – he understands from the start that they will all likely die and that horrible things may need to be done in order for any of them to survive.
And it all felt so real… until the last fifteen or twenty minutes of the show.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
After being lost at sea for at least 10 days, it gets to the point where the audience is informed that Little Brother will likely not even live until the next day due to the injuries that he sustained when the ship sank. Honestly, Adrian Blake Enscoe really did a great job at physically appearing weak and frail, making Little Brother appear like he was barely surviving. This provokes Mate to ask Captain for his approval to kill Little Brother with the intention of eating him so that the other three can survive. Captain, at this point emotionally destroyed, refuses to make a decision and leaves it up to Mate. Meanwhile, Big Brother overhears and begins resisting this idea. Little Brother tells Big Brother that it is fine and that he is willing to sacrifice himself because it will save the others and he is dying anyway. But he wants to see one more sunrise, which everyone agrees to. Come the sunrise, Big Brother insists on being the one to actually kill Little Brother, however, in a shocking turn of events, Big Brother cuts his own throat…
And from that point on, the entire show felt like an afterthought. Immediately, the show shifts back to the tuberculosis ward and we see Mate surrounded by the ghosts of Little Brother, Big Brother, and Captain. The audience is then informed, not shown, of each character’s fate and the eventual rescue of the three remaining characters. And this is the only part of the show that felt so fake, so jarringly out of place with the rest of the show that I wanted to scream, “Show! Don’t tell!” The audience is not shown the rescue, but we are told about it. Captain nicely informs everyone of how he was treated when he was rescued, when he got home, and when and how he eventually died. Little Brother does the same thing, but it doesn’t make any sense for the character of Little Brother to survive. The script makes it very clear that Mate, Captain, and Little Brother survive this ordeal by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Big Brother. This destroyed my suspension of disbelief, leaving me only in disbelief. So, I am left with a few conclusions: either Little Brother was not actually hit by the ships mast, however, nothing in this show indicated that Mate is an unreliable narrator or Big Brother (who, as a character, is very religious) is literally Jesus Christ, which feels very blasphemous for the very religious character to actually be Jesus. The show went from being incredibly realistic to not being realistic at all in what felt like a blink of the eye.
This show did not last long on Broadway and I have a few ideas as to why. The first being the sheer size of the cast. While having 16 actors on stage for the big muscle numbers that take place before the shipwreck was certainly impressive, it was also unnecessary and could probably have been done with just four or five ensemble members. I have to wonder if paying for 12 ensemble members was a factor in this show not making enough to stay open. That’s a lot of actors to pay to be there when they are only on stage for maybe half an hour. Combine that with an ending that feels so unfinished and I understand why people may not be so interested in spending the money to see this musical. I would have loved to have seen what this show could have been if it was expanded into two full acts, showing the audience the rescue, and more. Flesh it out and remember to show, not tell.
I loved the use of the entire theatre, the simplistic, yet intricate set and staging. The actors were able to really bring the story to a modern day light, without it being silly (they used knives and no one was shot with a gun literally labeled “longsword”), which was very much appreciated.
Kit Conner and Rachel Ziegler were both wonderful and convincing and made the performance come alive in both seriousness, but also the youthful vibe. Seeing Romeo’s transition to loving Juliet was very adorable and the perfect showing of kids “falling in love”. In fact, the whole cast did wonderful and I was glad to see such a diverse cast play a wide range of characters.
I could have definitely lived without the blaring techno music for the entire time that the theatre doors are open until the show actually begins. It doesn’t just vibrate your chair or the walls, but also your literal eardrums. I also felt the full out singing numbers felt out of place. Most of the time it could be excused by it being at a party (portrayed pretty much as a rave), but at least once, that was not applicable and it stood out.
Holy crap! Could there be a more poignant time for this show? I saw the Sally Bowles understudy (Gabi Campo) and holy crap can that lady belt! Amazing vocals. Adam Lambert nailed it. I hope to see him in more Broadway shows because that man, as we all already know, is a star! And he has the vocals.
More than that though, the immersive experience of this show is beyond belief. It really did feel like stepping into a new world where “everything is beautiful!” starting right with the pre show. “Look, don’t touch” is right as these performers use dance and mime to entrance you. By the time the curtain rises, the audience is ready for a good time. And then the seriousness of the show slowly hits. And the desperation of trying to keep it “normal” becomes apparent. I pity anyone who cannot see the parallels to modern day America.
I made my return to Fleet Street mostly due to the addition of one cast member who was set to make their Broadway Debut. That cast member being Joe Locke making his debut as Tobias. As someone who has watched Heartstopper, I was curious to see what the young talent could bring to the stage.
What I found was basically a whole new style of production with both pros and cons when compared to this same production with its previous lead roles going to Josh Groban and Annaleigh Ashford. In this casting, Aaron Tveit took over the role of Sweeney and played opposite Sutton Foster’s Mrs. Lovett. Tveit played Sweeney in a much more deeply brooding way. You could physically see the weight that his torment has brought him over the years as Sweeney moved about the stage. This version of Sweeney felt much more introspective. At no point did the entire theatre feel like it with filled to the brim with emotion, instead it felt like it was closely guarded and eating him alive from the inside out.
Similarly, Sutton Foster never felt like she would bring down the house with the emotion shown in her voice. She did bring the house down with her superb comedic timing, though. This Mrs. Lovett leaned into the campiness of the role, at times going overboard with her affection towards Sweeney. This led to some hilarious scenes in which you, as the audience, got a chance to see just how much fun Foster and Tveit were able to have as they struggled to keep straight faces. Luckily, Mrs. Lovett can absolutely be played in this style and still fit the character, but the contrast was drastic when compared to that of Annaleigh Ashford’s portrayal.
This brings me to Joe Locke, the main reason I wanted to see this cast. This show Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is not a show that I would consider easy by any means. It is fast paced, off-kilter, and relies heavily on the choreography to keep the audience feeling uneasy. All that to say, it must be a difficult show to do as a debut. I was struck at Locke’s singing ability. I was not sure what to expect from him vocally, having only seen him in one Netflix series that is not a musical, but I was very pleasantly surprised. His voice was quite angelic and kept Tobias feeling innocent. I did not feel that in Locke’s portrayal the same sense of Tobias being broken at the end. Locke’s portrayal felt more as if Tobias was legitimately in the wrong place at the wrong time… he understood what the people saw when they found him in front of the ovens. This was a strong contrast to Daniel Marconi’s portrayal in which it felt as if Tobias had completely lost his mind and therefore was not fully aware of the implications of the end situation of which he is found.
The logistics. Holy crap, the logistics. The amount of things that have to go right for things to go wrong! And the ability to keep the audience at the perfect amount of participation needed for the awkward moments, arguing with the audience, and many many other off the wall moments. Very well done. As someone who enjoys camp, things going awkwardly wrong, and the meta-ness of having the tech guy pull pranks on the actors – this was well done. For those who haven’t seen it, think Clue meets Noises Off (and throw in a clever play within a play playbill) and this is show is the love child. Luckily, I love both Clue and Noises Off.
Suzie’s performance was wonderful. It did get a bit confusing towards the end of the show, especially in the final scene, to keep the many, many characters being performed on stage completely straight. Plot lines were changed (Shakespeare is in the public domain), so Hamlet was sent away to England later on that expected, but it worked. The most notable change perhaps being the “What a Piece of Work is Man” soliloquy performed in the first act of the show (the show was done in two acts), in the graveyard, but without Hamlet having found the skull of Poor Yorick yet. In the second act, Hamlet returns to the graveyard where he discovers Poor Yorick’s skull and he discusses his memories of Yorick. The change in the timing some of the plot points may have contributed to some of my confusion. Obviously, I don’t expect anyone to be putting on all five acts of any of Shakespeare’s work, and truthfully the changes didn’t really impact much. I’d love to see Suzie do Romeo and Juliet. I think she would have a lot of fun with it. She is an impeccable actor and person.
This production did something that I was not sure was possible – through the choreography, this show was able to keep the audience not only slightly tensed and uneasy, but it went so far as to make you feel as if you are undulating with the waves as the boat Sweeney arrives on comes into port. Combine that with the impressively booming vocals of a deep, brooding, emotional Sweeney (played by Josh Groban) and the funny, quick-witted, and vocal mad house of Mrs. Lovett (played by Annaleigh Ashford) and there is no question as to why this show is such a hit.
In fact, it felt as if the entire theatre was brimming to the top with the emotion as each singer in this show rose to the occasion and matched the intensity brought forth by its stars. Speaking of intensity, a special shoutout must be given to Daniel Marconi and his portrayal of my personal favourite character, Tobias. I have never seen Toby so broken as I did by the end of this production.
Beautifully acted, powerfully sung, choreographed so, so well. Bravo!
I’m curious to see what the next cast of this production will bring.
I always have great expectations when I see Suzie Eddie Izzard perform. My great expectations were not only reached, but very much surpassed by her one woman show of Great Expectations.
