By Lucy Komisar
This musical play by Will Aronson and Hue Park, set in South Korea, is about two robots who are sentient. That is taken for granted and not explained.
In fact, they each have very different personalities, akin to real people. The only difference is that instead of food they get electric charges to survive.
And they have liked being servants of humans. In fact, the male robot, Oliver (Darren Criss), loved his master, James. Calls him his friend. Claire (Helen J. Shen) had a complicated relationship to her master. If these servants were black slaves, the story would get quite a different reception.
Director Michael Arden works with an effective set device in which scenes appear in shifting opening and closing frames. Set and video are by Dane Laffrey. They are better than the script.
The two robots are sorry they are obsolete and have been “fired”, they call it “retired,” sent to a home where they live in single rooms across the hall. They are so isolated, that they haven’t met for the more than 12 years they’ve been there.
This is apparently a reference to some Koreans who sequester themselves in rooms for long periods. (A slightly different version had a world premiere in Seoul in 2016.) They don’t leave, except Oliver goes out at night to collect bottles for their deposits, though robots are not allowed to have money.
Oliver is an obnoxious jerk, his only good trait that he loves jazz, a legacy from his master, James, along with a record player and a subscription to a jazz magazine. Claire’s owner gave her designer clothes and a car. But she is bored. So far, typical millennials.
They decide to visit Jeju Island where James lives. (The bottle deposits are to pay for the trip.) Claire drives. They stop at the Motel Sexx where the desk clerk tells them they don’t have to pretend to be married, just bang each other. (Most of the script is not this crude.)
Oliver tells her if he didn’t work for James, he’d have no purpose. Claire tells him, profoundly, that everything must end. Such platitudes dominate the script.
On the island, there are lively scenes that include buzzing fireflies. As if the play didn’t have enough gimmicks.
We learn that Claire’s former master is having an affair with a man who evidently has a lot less money than she does. At one point he appears to Claire and says he loves her. Then he begs her to delete those minutes from her hard drive. Of course, everything is on hard drives.
The best parts of this silly show are the jazz songs done by Dez Duron, crooning “A Sentimental Person” and “Why Love.” I appreciate James’ musical taste, including jazz trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker (1929-1988). When Oliver takes a drink offered by the singer, smoke comes out of his head, an apparent electrical short.
In their effort to approximate real lovers, Oliver and Claire have a noisy fight. They will meet again when they are better at pretending. Maybe in their next try, Aronson and Park will be better at writing a show. Or maybe they should let AI write it.
“Maybe Happy Ending.” Written by Will Aronson and Hue Park, directed by Michael Arden. Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44th St, NYC. Runtime 1hr45min. Opened November 12, 2024, open run.