Show guide
Maybe Happy Ending
Maybe Happy Ending is a gentle science fiction love story about two obsolete helper robots finding connection in a near future Seoul.
- Broadway premiere
- 2024
- Music by
- Will Aronson
- Genre
- Rock/Pop
- Setting
- Timeless
Maybe Happy Ending: quick answers
What is Maybe Happy Ending about?
- In near-future Seoul, two discarded humanlike helper robots, Oliver and Claire, meet and fall in love, and the romance forces them to face questions about relationships and mortality.
When did Maybe Happy Ending open on Broadway?
- Maybe Happy Ending opened on Broadway on November 12, 2024, at the Belasco Theatre and is still running. It won six 2025 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.
What kind of musical is Maybe Happy Ending?
- It is an original romantic musical with music by Will Aronson, lyrics by Hue Park, and a book the two wrote together. It premiered in Korea in 2016 before its American debut at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre in 2020.
Where and when is Maybe Happy Ending set?
- Maybe Happy Ending is set in and around Seoul in the near future, which the creators place in roughly the 2060s.
Is there a Maybe Happy Ending movie?
- A Korean-language film adaptation, My Favorite Love Story, premiered at the 2023 Jecheon International Music Film Festival and opened in Korean theaters in October 2025.
The story of Maybe Happy Ending
Set in a near future Seoul, Maybe Happy Ending follows Oliver, a discontinued helper robot living a quiet, routine life while he waits for an owner who will never return. His solitude is interrupted when Claire, another aging robot from a neighboring apartment, asks to borrow his charger, and the two begin an unlikely friendship that grows into something deeper.
As Oliver and Claire travel together to Jeju Island in search of fireflies and of James, the owner Oliver still hopes will return, they confront what it means to love, to fade, and to be replaced by newer models. The show also gives Oliver a quieter companion in HwaBoon, his potted plant, a small, steady presence that underscores the story's questions about memory, obsolescence, and connection without ever losing its warmth or humor.
The music and the makers
The music is by Will Aronson, with book and lyrics by Hue Park, a Korean American songwriting team who originally developed the show for a Seoul stage before it was translated and adapted for Broadway. The score is intimate and melodic, closer to chamber pop than a big Broadway belt fest, matching the show's small scale, two hander structure.
That origin as a Korean musical gives Maybe Happy Ending a distinct voice on Broadway, quiet and understated where many contemporary musicals aim for spectacle, relying instead on tender melodies and a spare, jazz inflected sound to carry its emotional weight.
Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway
Maybe Happy Ending opened on Broadway in November 2024 at the Belasco Theatre, starring Darren Criss as Oliver and Helen J Shen as Claire. The production won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2025, with Darren Criss also winning the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance.
Its success on Broadway marked a breakthrough for a musical originally written and staged in Korea, and it has been credited with bringing a smaller, more intimate style of storytelling back into the spotlight on a Broadway landscape often dominated by large scale spectacle.
Maybe Happy Ending: frequently asked questions
When did Maybe Happy Ending open on Broadway?
Maybe Happy Ending opened on Broadway in November 2024 at the Belasco Theatre.
Who composed Maybe Happy Ending?
Will Aronson wrote the music, with book and lyrics by Hue Park.
What is Maybe Happy Ending about?
It follows two aging helper robots, Oliver and Claire, who fall in love in a near future Seoul.
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