The grand opening of “Maybe a Happy Ending” is the closest you’ll get to experiencing a Pixar film on Broadway.
Oliver, a lonely robot played by Darren Criss, goes through his normal daily routine – over and over again.
With a wide smile in a small studio apartment, he heads to his plant, Hwaboon, receives deliveries via mail chute and patiently waits for his boss, James, to come pick him up.
Weeks and months pass, seasons change, and Helperbot does the same thing over and over again.
Then comes a shocking message: “Twelve years later.”
Oliver is still in his cozy 300 square foot cell. James is nowhere to be seen.
As my eyes welled up – and this was still only the first number – the disastrous opening of “Up” immediately came to mind, as did Andy’s delivery to his beloved childhood friends in “Toy Story 3.”
“Maybe a Happy Ending,” like Pixar at its best, nourishes the soul in a way that even few Broadway shows attempt to do.
There are no bulldozing ballads to signal the waterworks in South Korea’s joyous, boundlessly creative bonanza of musicals, which opened Monday night at the Belasco Theatre. There are no kitschy dance changes to calm our overworked minds.
Will Aronson’s thoughtful score is edgy and innocent, with songs like Hugh Park’s firing neurons – reminiscent of the pastoral soundtracks of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films like “Spirited Away” or “Howl’s Moving Castle.”
Instead of predictable bombast, several heartbreaking and uplifting moments of gentle music come our way and provide a rare sensation for a genre that has become formulaic and derivative: surprise.
No one would think of bringing tissues to a singing android show, but you would be well advised to have a stock.
After all, you’re on a robot rom-com.
Oliver’s dozen years of single life come to an end when a fellow machine named Claire (Helen J. Shen) knocks on his door to use her charger. Without that plug, it stops working – like the Tin Man when it rusts.
Claire is a Helperbot 5; Oliver is 3. Long into Bluetooth, he scolds her about how the 3s are more sturdily built than the younger, messier models. The sad truth is that they are both obsolete and abandoned.
Soon, Claire is stopping by every day to borrow the cord. Oliver’s scrooge irritation turns to hope and eventually he stands puppy-like at the entrance.
Spark plugs fly on Dan Lafrey’s set in a way that is both brutal and relaxing.
Then, just as we’re thinking of a “probably happy ending” as a two-handed, two-room, automaton love story, the digital duo sets out on a fun road trip.
Claire goes on a risky journey with Oliver to find James (Marcus Choi) in his new home on an island nearly 100 miles away.
They don’t want to give up their convenience, so they both adopt fake identities. Their efforts to pretend to be human in a hotel meant for spicy late-night revelry are hysterical.
Of course, coming face to face with the person who sent them to the scrap heap can bring about an existential crisis.
And so the second half of the show tackles the challenges that artificial intelligence might someday pose with the advent of, well, artificial intelligence: Am I a creature or a thing? Do my needs and wants matter? Do I have the capacity to love?
There are a lot of complicated questions to consider, but “Maybe Happy Ending” is never less than exceptionally fascinating as it asks them.
This big swing of music wouldn’t work without great performances from Chris and Shane. These roles can easily become boring and annoying – they are anything but.
Chris’s Oliver J. from “How to Succeed”. Pierpont is a smiley mix of Pee-wee Herman with Finch and a serious boy next door. He’s a bucket of bolts with a heart of gold.
As for her crush, Shane imparts sit-com sensibilities to her new, more naturally behaved Claire. Smart and articulate, aside from his obsession with fireflies, he is the realistic one in the pair. Shane is just as hot as that summer staple.
Their flirtation is aided by the silky-voiced Dez Duran as an omnipresent Frank Sinatra-like singer named Gil Brantley. He hacks into her hard drive as he sings tunes like “Fly Me to the Moon” that bring a battery-powered courtship down to earth.
Wedging comedy, romance and science fiction, string quartets and bourbon-inflected jazz, holograms and furnished living rooms is director Michael Arden, who has outdone himself here.
The director, who gets better with every show, treats these disparate elements like essential apps on a cohesive device. Nothing rises above anything else. Most shows are lucky to have even one captivating moment. At Belasco, you forget count.
Arden, who also did stellar work in “Parade” and “A Christmas Carol,” had an incredible job in “Probably a Happy Ending”: singing robots, they’re just like us!
And yet he has succeeded spectacularly. He’s brought Wall-E to Broadway.
Over the years I have criticized Broadway many times for being too robotic.
However, this time it is getting a lot of praise.
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