Darren Criss, who parlayed a breakout role on “Glee” into a multifaceted career in television, theater and music, is returning to Broadway this fall in a new musical nominally about robots but also about life , love and loss.
The show, “Maybe Happy Ending,” is a rarity for Broadway: a completely original musical — not adapted from a pre-existing story or song catalog. Criss will star alongside Helen J Shen and two other actors in the musical, which is set in Seoul in the late 21st century and is about two outmoded helperbots who meet in a robot retirement home and strike up a relationship while grappling with their own old age. .
The musical, by Will Aronson and Hue Park, had an initial Korean-language production in Seoul in 2016, and an English-language production. in Atlanta, at the Alliance Theaterin 2020, where New York Times chief theater critic Jesse Green called it “a charming, Broadway-ready new musical about robots in love.”
The Broadway production, announced Tuesday, will be directed by Michael Arden, who also directed the Atlanta production, and last year won a Tony Award for directing the revival of “Parade.” “Maybe Happy Ending” is set to begin previews on September 18 and open on October 17 at the Belasco Theater.
“It’s a weird, futuristic look at love, with a beautiful score that feels like a classic,” Arden said in a phone interview. “When I first read it, I found it absolutely devastating and heartbreaking and beautiful — it’s one of the most human stories I’ve ever seen, even though our leads aren’t human.”
Criss, an Emmy winner for “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” last appeared on Broadway in a 2022 revival of “American Buffalo”; he previously starred in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
“Maybe Happy Ending” will be the first Broadway show for Shen, who is currently in “The Lonely Few” at Off Broadway’s MCC Theater. Criss and Shen will play as robots; The cast also includes Dez Duron, a one-time contestant on “The Voice.”
“Maybe Happy Ending” is capitalized for $18.25 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But a spokesperson for the production said the actual budget may be lower; he said producers are looking to raise between $16 million and $18.25 million to finance the show.
The musical’s lead producers are Jeffrey Richards and Hunter Arnold, who on Friday announced they are also among the producers of a new Off Broadway play, “N/A,” starring Holland Taylor and Ana Villafañe. That play, written by Mario Correa and directed by Diane Paulus, begins previews June 11 and opens June 23 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. The play, described in a newspaper as inspired by real people and events, is about the tensions between the first female speaker of the House and the youngest woman elected to Congress; the characters bear similarities to Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
