Like I mentioned above, I’ve never done a musical/theatre review before. When I saw this musical on Broadway during my trip to New York, I immediately knew that I had to share my thoughts. This was such an overwhelmingly powerful and original story about the love and life moments shared between two robots who are slowly growing into disrepair. I have never laughed that much, smiled that much, or cried that much for a musical (not even watching a performance of Hamilton while it was touring brought me this much joy). It makes it even better that I got to see the original cast and made a donation to receive a signed poster from the show. 

So, I want to get started with the story and I’ll talk more about the acting, songs, and production afterwards. With the story, though, there are huge symbolic moments throughout the entire play pulling the helperbots’ experiences in contrast to the experiences of humans. For instance, there is a song in the musical, “The Way That It Has to Be”, where Claire is basically having an existential crisis knowing that, with almost all her replacement parts discontinued and her charger malfunctioning, she doesn’t have long. This is the third song on the track list and honestly reflects the human experience as we all grow closer to dying each day. This, along with SO many other moments, just parallels what we have in the human experience as opposed to what the helperbots were experiencing. It made the story that much more powerful. Not to mention, the slow burn of Oliver and Claire falling in love was just beautiful throughout the show. Everything the story had was meaningful and had a purpose. Every subplot and moment made an impact. Especially when, after the sixth song, “Hitting the Road”, you learn that Oliver is finally taking the leap to go find his owner instead of just waiting around in his room. 

With our actors/actresses, you should probably already know this with all the rave reviews (it is  “Best of the Year” after all) that Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen did PHENOMENALLY. Their voices are beautiful and so in sync, their acting was incredible, and I loved every moment watching them onstage together. Criss had the best robotic movements and really displayed his character’s naivety and close adherence to his programming while Helen J. Shen showed Claire’s defiance towards her own. There were so many laugh-out-loud moments between these two onstage that I wouldn’t even be able to list them all if I tried. Aside from them, you have a minor appearance from a few other random characters (but I don’t want to mention too much to stop myself from spoiling it for anyone). Just know that everyone onstage played their part so beautifully (the orchestra especially was enchanting).

I want to talk about the production first before talking about the music because, aside from the story, the music is always my favorite part. With Maybe Happy Endings‘ production, you are almost always within the two helperbots’ rooms. During the journey to find Oliver’s owner, you get to see Claire and Oliver interact with the outside world, which is hilarious in itself. The stage itself uses a turntable similar to the one used in Hamilton to show the characters moving, but a majority of the set movements for the production happen with four black paneled screens with projected neon lights on the borders of each. These panels can create square openings illuminated by the neon lights projected onto them and it felt very high-tech and great for immersing you into the world of the helperbots. Everything in the production felt so extraordinary even with the touches being so small. You have the orchestra joining the characters onstage a few times, which makes for a beautiful scene. You also have the incorporation of jazz and an actor dedicated to singing the jazz songs (Dez Duron). Guys, I can’t gush about this show enough. 

As far as the songs go, I literally would not be able to rank them because I loved them ALL so much. This is by far one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen (and thankfully had the privilege to watch the original cast). The songs, music, and musical itself were all created by Hue Park and Will Aronson. The tunes were so catchy, fun, and downright entrancing. I have already downloaded the entire album to my Apple Music. I know this paragraph is short in comparison to the others, but seriously, I loved every song. I don’t even have more words than those to describe just how much they touched me. 

Overall, this has been the best original story and Broadway musical I’ve seen in a long long time. I was just complaining the other day how most movies/tv shows are becoming so similar and unoriginal that it just makes me sad. This is the exact kind of original story that I want more of. I will be reliving that magical experience in my head and through the songs for a long time. Now, I’m going to play the whole album on repeat 🤍☺️.