Review of Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway

I often go to New York to see shows, as I work in the theater industry myself. Every time I board a bus back up to the city it’s usually for work, and I seize the opportunity to catch a handful of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows whenever I get the chance.

That said, in December 2024, when I am typing this, I had to go up for our work’s holiday party. I arranged a place to stay for four days and booked my tickets. This trip I had an agenda: I wanted to see Adam Lambert in Cabaret, Rachel Zegler in Romeo + Juliet, and I generally wanted to get to Maybe Happy Ending.

I didn’t end up seeing Romeo + Juliet, as Rachel called out for almost all of the shows I was in town for (I got a refund, as it was such an expensive ticket and her name is above the title), but the first show I go to was Maybe Happy Ending! I caught a Tuesday night performance, and, regrettably, despite knowing there’s no intermission I should’ve gone to the bathroom beforehand.

That’s my one tip: this is a hundred straight minutes approximately, which means you can’t get up and go to the bathroom during intermission because there is none. I had to go to the bathroom so bad by the end that I rushed as soon as bows were over to the bathroom.

Bathroom woes aside, I purchased a center mezzanine ticket through TodayTix during their Black Friday sale. I paid $79 for an aisle seat in the center mezzanine; I would highly recommend this area for sight lines, as I could see how in the Belasco the sight lines might not be great in certain orchestra or balcony seats.

Alright, I’m rambling, so let’s get into the review!

Two obsolete robots decide to go on an adventure to find Oliver’s owner.

As I mentioned before, this show is 100 minutes long, but it flies by. If I didn’t have to pee so bad, I think it would’ve gone even quicker because I was so sucked into this story. There are only four characters on stage, but we do get video footage of Claire’s previous owners (who were very familiar faces, I was surprised to see them) as we learn more of her story.

We first meet Oliver, who waits 12 years for his owner to pick him up. He believes James, his owner, only temporarily put him in the Yards, which is a place where robots that have been retired are left behind at. So he listens to his records, chats to his plant Hwaboon, and reads through the subscription of a jazz magazine.

One day everything changes when his neighbor Claire (and one of his only neighbors—she reveals that everyone around them has powered down permanently at one point) comes frantically knocking at his door. She’s an upgraded model of robot compared to him, but she can’t use her charger as much anymore.

Reluctantly, he lets her borrow it, which leads them to slowly becoming acquaintances as he awaits for her to come at 1 PM every day and return the charger at 5 PM. But when she realizes that eventually she’s going to power down for good or be stuck to her charger forever, Claire decides to help Oliver out.

Her owner left her a car, so she says let’s go to Jeju, where James is allegedly living. Oliver packs everything up with Hwaboon, thinking that he is never coming back to the Yards, while Claire hides the fact she might never be coming back to the room with him.

And so they set off on their adventure together. This show is a rollercoaster of emotions from this point onward. There are some gorgeous decisions made with the set design in this show, as as the two of them progress through their emotional and physical journeys, eventually falling in love, the set itself evolves with them. There’s a stunning moment later in the show involving the orchestra that had people around me gasping in awe.

I think everyone in the cast really shines in their roles. Darren Criss plays an awkward and robotic Oliver really well, although I think I noticed one point where he missed his line and broke character in a subtle way. Helen J. Shen was the surprising standout for me; she’s a bit snarky, delivers her lines flatly in a comedic way, and has such a gorgeous voice.

I’ve seen Marcus Choi before in Hamilton, as he played George Washington, but it was nice to see him basically play four different characters in this show. I had no idea who the guy playing Gil was before this, but he had such a nice voice for the character he played.

Bring tissues though. Everyone around me was sobbing all the way through the last twenty minutes. The girl on my left was actually losing it and kept wiping her tears constantly as we hurtled towards the end.

Overall Thoughts

I honestly really enjoyed this show. I don’t think it’s the strongest musical, as many of the numbers are kind of forgettable, but I think this is a show that’s very much about the experience and how it unfolds in front of us.

If you have the chance to see this production, please go and do so! It is technically AAPI led, as it comes from Korea, where it had massive success and multiple revivals, and the majority of the cast are of AAPI heritage.

I think it’s an important show to see in terms of representation for sure, plus it’s really good. The set design alone had me in awe—I’m surprised they haven’t run into more technical difficulties during the previews or frozen shows, as I could see how one mess up of the technology could mess up a big part of the show.

Anyways, in summary: go see it!

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