Is Broadway ready for a quiet musical? The timing is perfect. Recently, a mini-war broke out on Broadway when an actor in “The Roommate,” Patti LuPone, asked that something be done about the loud music seeping into her theater from the walls of the theater that’s home to “Hell’s Kitchen.” That’s when an actor in “Hell’s Kitchen,” Kecia Lewis, charged LuPone with a “micro-aggression” due to her use of the word ‘loud.’ The problem is, all Broadway musicals are too loud.
Until now. “Maybe Happy Ending” opens Tuesday at the Belasco Theatre, and it is downright peaceful, as well as charming and beautiful and poignant. The irony of over-amplification is that while one can be swept away by the sheer sound, if not bludgeoned, that loudness makes it often impossible to decipher lyrics. The lyrics by Hue Park and Will Aronson for “Maybe Happy Ending” are both simple and very smart, and adding to their allure is that they’re written for two characters that are not people.
Oliver (Darren Criss) and Claire (Helen J Shen) are robots, servants of sorts, who have been retired to what is called “the Helperbot Yards outside of Seoul, Korea.” Park and Aronson also wrote the book, and a wonderful touch is how Oliver and Claire meet. It’s just how Mimi and Rodolfo meet in “La Bohème,” only set sometime in the future: Mimi’s candle has gone out and she needs a flame from Rodolfo’s stove to relight it; Claire’s body is about to stop functioning, and she knocks on Oliver’s door because she needs recharging.
Oliver is an older model, so Criss delivers a lot of robotic mannerisms — there’s a distinct jerkiness to his gestures and gait, his speech sometimes emphasizes the wrong syllable. All and all, Oliver is a remarkable achievement and brings to mind Haley Joel Osment’s David in Stephen Spielberg’s “A.I.,” if that boy robot had ever been able to grow up.
Shen’s Claire is completely human-like, and her relationship with Oliver gets off to a much rockier start than Mimi and Rodolfo’s. Theirs is not love at first sight, because this couple immediately launches into a debate on which robot model is superior. To deliver another movie reference, Claire is very much like all the replicants in Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner.” In other words, Claire can pass.
“A.I.” and “Blade Runner” were not critical or commercial hits when first released, but went on to achieve great reputations. It is hoped that “Maybe Happy Ending” is declared a hit on all levels right out of the box. Otherwise, there will be no way to stream it a few years from now when the public and the critics finally catch up to its brilliance.
But enough with the movie references. Park and Aronson’s book is original; there’s no source material, and they have fashioned something that’s rare in the world of robot fiction: “Maybe Happy Ending” is a fairly upbeat story. Since Oliver and Claire have been discarded by their owners and are now living in a retirement facility, we do fear for what will happen to them when they journey to find Oliver’s owner (Marcus Choi, cast in several non-singing roles). Being smarter, Claire knows it’s a fool’s journey, but goes along to protect Oliver. Claire has her own challenges and thinks she can learn from fire flies how to stay perpetually charged. The insects are nearly extinct, but continue to live on one island in South Korea. Her discovery of real fire flies delivers one of the most arresting Broadway show-stoppers of this century when the orchestra of “Maybe Happy Ending” makes a brief, surprise appearance on stage. It is also a very quiet moment, so hushed you can feel the audience falling in love with a musical and not being blown away by it.
Aronson also writes the music, and since he gives us only three singers on stage, old timers might be reminded of “I Do! I Do!” and “They’re Playing Our Song.” He also eschews the old razzle-dazzle of those shows to deliver something closer to the magic of Jason Robert Brown’s two-hander “The Last Five Years,” which gets its first Broadway production later this season. There’s a sweet sameness to Oliver and Claire’s opening songs, but a dissonance and darkness in the harmonies begins to take hold as the show progresses. Park and Aronson have also mixed things up musically by giving Oliver’s owner an alter ego: a lounge singer (Dez Duron) who comments on the action. Let’s say that the owner’s taste in jazz is on the more conservative side, as in Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, complete with high ball in hand. In place of a chorus, Aronson provides lots of underscoring and even a couple of big orchestral moments that are absolutely glorious. Who knew a musical could be written in this century that avoids the scourge of both the anthem and the female empowerment ballad?
I vividly recall seeing “Blade Runner” at a June 1982 preview in midtown Manhattan, and when I walked out of the theater into Times Square where it was raining, I thought I had walked back into the movie. I’d never experienced anything like it. The production of “Maybe Happy Ending,” directed by Michael Arden, is also unlike anything I’ve ever seen — although, once I left the Belasco Theatre, I definitely knew I was not back in the beautiful dream world of this musical. Dane Laffrey’s complex set design leads the eye through at least a dozen completely realized locations, the color palette covering every shade available in a roll of Necco candies. Laffrey and George Reeve’s video design features the actors Arden Cho, Young Mazino and Jim Kaplan in breathtaking flashbacks that effortlessly transport you in time.
I came to New York City in the early 1970s and was schooled in musical theater by seeing everything directed by Harold Prince. Some of those shows weren’t successful, but even in flops like “A Doll’s Life,” there was always a real intelligence at work. Arden brings that intelligence back to Broadway. “Maybe Happy Ending” follows his revelatory revival of “Parade” from two seasons ago. More than delivering big, Arden knows how and when to hold back to make the audience a participant. His direction never fails to activate the imagination.
“Maybe Happy Ending” opens Tuesday at the Belasco Theatre.
