Good morning, and welcome to Broadway News’ Broadway Review by Brittani Samuel — our overview of reactions, recommendations and information tied to last night’s Broadway opening of “Maybe Happy Ending.”
RUNDOWN
Good things come in small packages. In the case of the original new musical “Maybe Happy Ending,” the best things. Will Aronson and Hue Park’s one-act romantic, robot comedy — a Broadway transfer from South Korea — brims with gooey performances from its four-person cast, tickling humor and pools of heart. It’s a production with gimmicks (commentary on our para-relationship with technology, a set design of industrial wonders, “Glee”’s best male actor), but miraculously and mercifully it doesn’t solely bank on them.
The show drops us into an unfamiliar time, 2064, an unnerving reality where human owners and humanoid helperbots, like Oliver (Darren Criss) and Claire (Helen J. Shen), live in tandem. Oliver is an earlier model, so Criss embraces staccato movements, like he’s full of tightly-wired joints. Shen, as the more advanced Claire, uses smoother gestures. The two subtly capture the differences in physicality and vocal inflection between their makings, but their connection when partnered in scenes — as they evolve from nuisance neighbors to chatty friends to honeyed lovers — is always in sync. These two even have chemistry with a prop: Oliver’s plant, HwaBoon, tags along for the musical’s adventure like an animal sidekick in a Disney film.
