Honestly, I did not think much would come of an original enw musical starring Darren Criss of “Glee” TV show fame.
I was very wrong. “Maybe Happy Ending” is the most charming new show I’ve seen in ages, a gem full of wonderful songs, a clever book, and inspired direction. If you don’t like this show, there’s nothing that can be done.
The musical is amusingly about a young couple falling in love, although this time around they are robots. Or Helperbots, as they are called, who’ve been put in the equivalent of retirement homes after they’ve reach obsolescence. Their owners don’t need them anymore. Criss is Oliver, who hasn’t left his tiny apartment in years. Helen J. Shen, a real find, is Claire, the girl across the hall whose personal power supply is broken. She knocks on Oliver’s door in the futuristic equivalent of asking to borrow some sugar.
Will Aronson and Hue Park wrote the book, music and lyrics, setting the show sometime in the future in Seoul, South Korea. Considering all the really dreadful songs I’ve heard on stage in the last few seasons — except for “Suffs” — it’s almost a miracle that there are tunes galore, In an interesting twist some of them are crooned by a fictional lounge singer named Gil Brentley, a made up kind of unknown jazz star whose records — among many– have been left to Oliver by his former owner.
Oliver pines to be reunited with his owner, even though he’s been retired from service by a man named James Choi. This leads him and Claire on a journey to find James. Claire has her own reasons for instigating the trip. But the writers’ reason is to bond this odd couple of humanoids before power sources expire.
The show is helped by director Michael Arden’s witty take on the actors, their unusual scenic design and lighting, and video projections that add to the proceedings rather than appear as lazy diversions (see “McNeal” or “Sunset Boulevard”).
The trio of primary performers can sing like crazy, so luckily they have a lot of melodies with hooks. From the opening “Why Love” through almost two dozen newly composed old fashioned sounding songs, the swoony seduction of robots proceeds. This is a soundtrack we will want to hear on CD or streaming immediately. One song, “When You’re in Love,” a duet, sounded like a radio hit to me if it’s discovered by a — not kidding — Billie Eilish and Charlie Puth.
Is there a future for Oliver and Claire? Well, they are in the future, and somehow these things work out. Is there a box office future for “Maybe Happy Ending? Let’s hope so. It seemed to me like a path forward after a lot of last year’s lumbering, listless shows. “Maybe Happy Ending” is the bright light at the end of the tunnel.
