Darren Criss wants audiences to take a chance on 'Maybe Happy Ending'
The Emmy Award-winning actor is originating a Broadway role for the first time in this new, original musical that received near-universal critical acclaim.
Here’s a riddle. What do Batman and Broadway’s most critically acclaimed new musical have in common?
“If I was to sit here and try to explain to you what Batman was, and it wasn’t as culturally ubiquitous as it is, you’d be like, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’” said Emmy Award-winning actor Darren Criss. “But actually, the world’s going to love it!”
His point was that much of the most beloved IP on Earth was once an original concept yet unheard of, as is the case for Maybe Happy Ending, in which Criss currently stars at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre. The gist: Oliver and Claire, two humanoid robots on the verge of obsolescence, go on a forbidden joyride to South Korea’s Jeju Island, and it doubles as their journey from enemies to wire-crossed lovers. As Oliver, Criss originates a Broadway role for the first time after headlining revivals of American Buffalo, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
“There is something singular and special about this show that I’ve felt for a long time,” he said at Maybe Happy Ending’s opening night. “And I can feel it from the audience, because it’s not something that anyone is familiar with [...] it’s not unlike the experience I had when I first experienced the show.”
Maybe Happy Ending premiered in Seoul in 2016, enjoying numerous productions there and in Japan before making its U.S. debut in Atlanta, Georgia — in January 2020. A certain virus halted any NYC-aimed momentum it had, such that when the Broadway premiere was announced earlier this year, it all but came out of nowhere. No one quite knew what to expect from this robotic rom-com, a matter not helped by yet another delay: Its planned start date of September 18 got pushed back a month due to supply chain issues.
But word-of-mouth was strong from the very first performance on October 16, and the official reviews that dropped in November were uniformly glowing — an extremely rare feat for any production, let alone one by Broadway-debut writers (Will Aronson and Hue Park). New York Theatre Guide’s critic called it “an emotional highlight of this Broadway season” and continued, “No maybe about it — Maybe Happy Ending has theatrical magic.”
The reception confirmed what Criss, who is also a producer on the show, already knew. At a Maybe Happy Ending press event in September, he had shared (in addition to the Batman analogy) his view that audiences tend to expect three things from a Broadway show: a good time, a spectacle, and well-crafted, moving writing.
“Check, check, check down the board,” Criss said of his musical. “These songs are wildly accessible yet super sophisticated, which is a very hard thing to do [...] they’ll make you feel something, but if you lean in a little harder and listen to the lyrics, there’s a level of poeticism that is timeless.”
As for the spectacle, Criss credited director Michael Arden and the futuristic set by Dane Laffrey, which employs intricate projections and moving parts that give way to multiple surprising reveals. “Our show literally got delayed because we have technology [...] that has never been considered at the Belasco Theatre or any theatre in New York City.”
In this way, like Batman, Maybe Happy Ending has a sprinkle of science fiction, but it’s grounded in the places, experiences, and emerging technologies of our world. That’s where the good time comes in: The show is packed with gorgeous visuals and enough humor to fill a sitcom season, but amid all that is a simply enjoyable story. Maybe Happy Ending may be about robots, but it’s about the universal and very human instinct to connect with others. And not just in the electronic way.
“While I don’t think our show is Batman, I think taking a chance on a new idea with which you carry no baggage is a good thing, to have your receptors open to a new experience,” said Criss.
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A version of this article appears in the January 2025 issue of LondonTheatre.co.uk's London Theatre Magazine.
Photo credit: Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
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