Maybe Happy Ending

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Since it has been running for almost a year and has been recognized by the Tonys for best musical, best book, best original score, best leading actor, best direction and best scenic design, there is very little I can add to the accolades that has not already been said. If there were a Tony for originality, I would have awarded that too. Darren Criss is a wonder as Oliver, an obsolete Helperbot spending his remaining years in a retirement home for robots outside Seoul, blindly optimistic that his friend, i.e. former owner, James (Marcus Choi,) will show up to reclaim him. Oliver has acquired a taste for classic jazz from James, especially for the fictional jazz pianist Gil Brentley (Dez Duron), whose song “Why Love” both opens and ends the show. Twelve years after his arrival, in a scene reminiscent of La Boheme’s first meeting between Mimi and Rodolfo, Oliver answers a knock at the door by Claire (Helen J. Shen), his neighbor across the hall, needing an emergency charge. Unlike La Boheme, it is not love at first sight. Oliver reluctantly lets her into his room and eventually into his life. Although also obsolete, Claire is a newer model Helperbot with greater sophistication and less optimism about human nature. Eventually, the two decide to undertake a trip to Jeju Island, where there is a firefly forest that Claire has longed to see and the place where James moved when he left Oliver behind. Disappointment awaits Oliver at James’s home. Claire and Oliver are each given the opportunity to erase their painful memories from their operating system to find a satisfactory ending. The acting is uniformly excellent, with Criss as the standout. The scenic design by Dane Laffrey is absolutely breathtaking. The blending of neon-bordered shape-changing boxes containing action in many locations with black-and-white projections depicting the bots’ former owners is skillfully done. The scene in the firefly forest is magical. The costumes by Clint Ramos are a delight. Michael Arden’s direction is flawless. Although the story is superficially about robots, its underlying themes delve into aspects of human behavior including the vagaries of love, jealousy, aging and mortality. The play never loses its good humor though and offers lots of laughs.  My only disappointment was that Will Aronson’s music, though completely congruent with the book (by Aronson and Hue Park), offers no “hummers."  I urge you to see the show while Darren Criss is back in the leading role. Running time: one hour 40 minutes; no intermission.