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[0:00] Jesse McAnally: Hi, tiny friend, can you say hello?

[0:29] Jesse McAnally: Tell me why, tiny friend, does your tummy gloat?

[0:35] Jesse McAnally: Do you fly just for fun, or to get somewhere by the dawn?

[0:48] Jesse McAnally: Never fly away, little rope!

[0:53] Jesse McAnally: Hello and welcome to another extra special bonus episode of Theatre in the D. I am joined by my partner in all things, Miranda Moffat.

[1:01] Miranda Moffat: Hello everyone.

[1:02] Jesse McAnally: And today we went and saw the touring production of the Tony Award winning musical Maybe Happy Ending.

[1:11] Jesse McAnally: Miranda, tell us a little bit about Maybe Happy Ending.

[1:14] Miranda Moffat: Maybe Happy Ending is by Will Aronson and Hue Park. I hope I said that correctly. I'll look that up later just to see how badly I messed that up.

[1:23] Jesse McAnally: Do you know who you're talking? I'm the king of mispronouncing names. We recently did an episode on The Wedding Singer, and the book writer of that commented on our Instagram saying you could have at least got my name correct.

[1:35] Miranda Moffat: Well, we're all trying our best.

[1:39] Miranda Moffat: Maybe Happy Ending is a story about two helper bots. The story is based in, I believe, Korea, specifically Seoul, Korea, I think.

[1:51] Miranda Moffat: Because I think it's specifically mentioned several times that the air is nice and clear in Seoul.

[1:59] Miranda Moffat: They are two helper bots who have been essentially decommissioned, who end up going on a journey together and learning a few things about themselves.

[2:10] Jesse McAnally: This has been a musical I've been dying to see. I kind of stayed mostly off the radar of it aside from listening to a few songs from the album and seeing the Tony Award performance, which, in my opinion, sadly ruins what is the most magical part of this musical.

[2:27] Jesse McAnally: But if we're getting general opinions out, I thought it was wonderful, and then it overstays its welcome a little bit.

[2:36] Miranda Moffat: I can agree with that. I am assuming it is the same way for the Broadway production as it is for the touring production, but it is a one-act musical.

[2:46] Miranda Moffat: There is no intermission. It is about an hour and 45 minutes, so there is no pause in the middle, so the pacing does get kind of weird at the end.

[2:54] Miranda Moffat: But it is still very good, and I think one of the most impressive parts of this to me specifically was the staging and the way that they basically told the story to feel both robotic and very human at the same time.

[3:11] Jesse McAnally: And you say no interruptions, but at our performance, we did have a hold early in the first chunk of the story, and I love it because there was a scene that we saw in full that apparently had a staging error, and the actors just nailed it as if there was no staging error, and then something else later happened and we had to be in a pause, and we got to see it properly.

[3:33] Jesse McAnally: So it just goes to show how good these performers truly are and how they can pivot at a moment's notice.

[3:41] Miranda Moffat: I really do want to highlight these two performers because really, there's four actors on stage for the entire time, and it's mostly about these two helper bots, but then you got this jazz singer that pops in and out, and the memories that are done a lot of the time through projections.

[4:00] Miranda Moffat: And you know me, I'm not a big fan of projections in theatre, but my god, the way that they're used here, it's terrifying and daunting and beautiful.

[4:11] Jesse McAnally: I agree. Spoiler warning for anybody who has not seen the show and does not want to be spoiled about what it is about.

[4:20] Miranda Moffat: So essentially the two helper bots, Oliver and Claire, are in what is essentially, you know, it seems like public housing for decommissioned robots.

[4:29] Miranda Moffat: And Oliver is an older model, and Claire is a newer model robot, and they both are dealing with their own past.

[4:39] Miranda Moffat: Oliver specifically believes that his owner was always coming to get him and is waiting all this time, basically over 12 years, for him to come and get him.

[4:49] Miranda Moffat: And Claire realizes that no one is coming for her and that she is essentially dying, her battery life, and her parts.

[4:57] Miranda Moffat: The parts are no longer available to help them fix themselves, so there essentially is a lifespan, there is a time limit that they are working with.

[5:05] Miranda Moffat: So they essentially go on this journey to sort of deal with their past.

[5:10] Miranda Moffat: Oliver to finally come to the realization that he was never going, you know, his owner was never going to come get him, but did love him.

[5:18] Miranda Moffat: And that he was essentially a replacement son for this owner.

[5:23] Miranda Moffat: And Claire to come to the realization that even though something ends or has to end, that it can still be beautiful and it's still worth living through it and going through the journey.

[5:34] Miranda Moffat: So the way that they used the projections was to essentially show the memories that these robots had of their former owners, and gave the audience and each other some context for the specific internal journey that they were going on throughout the piece, basically.

[5:51] Jesse McAnally: And as far as Claire and, what was the gentleman's name, Oliver?

[5:55] Miranda Moffat: Oliver.

[5:56] Jesse McAnally: Oliver's journey goes, it's strange because I felt that Oliver was more like fleshed out as far as things we know about him, but Claire felt more like a character.

[6:07] Jesse McAnally: And I wonder if that was because she was like, I quote unquote, more updated operating system as far as a character goes.

[6:13] Miranda Moffat: I think so.

[6:14] Miranda Moffat: The idea of Oliver is essentially that he is more robotic.

[6:19] Miranda Moffat: And you could really see that in the actor's movements and his characterization of sort of like always planting his feet a certain way and being a bit more stiff in the way that he talked and moved and kind of almost being like a very naive child.

[6:32] Miranda Moffat: Whereas Claire and her sort of like updated, you know, operating system is, as they, you know, from a quote to the show, is more able to do improvisation, is not as naive and was able to sort of learn from her experiences, you know, to be able to become sort of more human-like and have more human sort of interactions with the world.

[6:58] Jesse McAnally: Her story in particular was interesting because I kind of saw it coming and I don't know how I did. Basically, she was owned by a woman who ended up falling in love with a man and then they sort of ended up falling out of love.

[7:10] Jesse McAnally: And the man basically said that, you know, he loved her and wanted to be with the robot.

[7:17] Jesse McAnally: And she's, you know, not in a position as a robot to be able to understand or reciprocate those feelings.

[7:23] Jesse McAnally: Which I think is somewhat of a metaphor for like the discomfort of unrequited love or of like assault in a scenario like that where there's sort of a power imbalance.

[7:35] Jesse McAnally: Like it was just a very interesting kind of backstory, I think.

[7:39] Miranda Moffat: And ladies, this means you definitely have to make sure your boyfriends are not cheating on you at ChatGPT.

[7:45] Miranda Moffat: They're falling in love with the AI chatbot. They can't be doing this. It's a problem.

[7:51] Jesse McAnally: And while it's taken very seriously and done very well in the show, it isn't feeling...

[7:58] Jesse McAnally: I saw it coming too, but I was worried it was going to feel a little jagged, little pill PSA-y, which I'm not a big fan of.

[8:06] Jesse McAnally: I didn't want the musical to stop and just be about that.

[8:10] Jesse McAnally: But it didn't. It really kind of flowed as far as the narrative.

[8:14] Jesse McAnally: There was nothing really... I think as far as what happens, I'm very happy with everything as it went on.

[8:22] Jesse McAnally: The relationship felt honest and real.

[8:25] Jesse McAnally: And you mentioned that Oliver's a little different than Claire.

[8:30] Jesse McAnally: I was feeling how much of it is a robotic nature versus nurture debate.

[8:35] Jesse McAnally: Because Oliver's owner was like this erudite kind of jazz musician who's kind of on the older side.

[8:42] Jesse McAnally: And he's got like these older things.

[8:44] Jesse McAnally: And Claire's owner is this kind of edgy younger girl that's rich and spoiled and has a bit of a different kind of sardonic edge to her.

[8:55] Jesse McAnally: And I think that it's like, you and I have very different people that raised us.

[9:00] Jesse McAnally: You were raised by Gen X, I was raised by Boomers.

[9:02] Jesse McAnally: And I kind of get the same vibe if I hang out with other people raised by Boomers.

[9:06] Jesse McAnally: I'm like, oh, okay, we have that kind of connection there.

[9:11] Miranda Moffat: I agree.

[9:14] Miranda Moffat: But I think that the backstory ultimately, and the nature versus nurture, I can see that too.

[9:21] Miranda Moffat: But it still is, I just think that it was a very well done backstory as far as, you know, seeing those flashbacks and getting that context for why Claire feels the way that she does about love and everything ending.

[9:38] Miranda Moffat: And, you know, things always fall apart.

[9:40] Jesse McAnally: So, like, there's no use in even doing them.

[9:43] Miranda Moffat: And I think by the end of it, she felt more on the side of, like, it is still worth it.

[9:49] Miranda Moffat: And then when Oliver and Claire fall in love, you can really feel her kind of, like, her sort of cynicism about the world that she did get from her experiences with her owner and her owner's, you know, husband.

[10:02] Miranda Moffat: That she is sort of learning from those things and learning that it is okay to fall in love and enjoy what you have left of your life.

[10:10] Miranda Moffat: Like, it is worth it just for that.

[10:13] Jesse McAnally: But I think the story is really well told.

[10:16] Jesse McAnally: And as I said before, I think one of the particular strong suits is the staging and the sets that they have and the way that they were, like, there are so many things that they did that I have no clue how they did.

[10:29] Jesse McAnally: As far as making the staging look like you were, I don't even know how to describe it.

[10:38] Jesse McAnally: Sort of like it would, you know, the screens almost.

[10:41] Jesse McAnally: I think it was a set of screens and also the fact that the sets were moving, moving pieces.

[10:46] Jesse McAnally: And they were kind of closing in and out on specific details in these certain set designs at boxes.

[10:51] Jesse McAnally: Like, it was a very cool.

[10:53] Jesse McAnally: I have never seen anything like it on stage.

[10:55] Jesse McAnally: And I am befuddled.

[10:58] Jesse McAnally: I don't know how they managed to do that.

[11:00] Jesse McAnally: And to, like, have something like that that they can move from place to place.

[11:04] Jesse McAnally: Like, it is very, very impressive staging.

[11:07] Jesse McAnally: And it's not just screens.

[11:09] Jesse McAnally: It is also, like, actual, real, practical sets that make you feel like you are there with them going through this.

[11:15] Jesse McAnally: As well as some, like, more, like, it's very practical, real, realistic sets mixed in with more, like, magical fourth wall breaky kind of things.

[11:27] Jesse McAnally: Like, that make it interesting and very cool.

[11:31] Jesse McAnally: So, I thought that the way that they told the story in addition to the story itself was very well done and very impressive.

[11:37] Jesse McAnally: And for a sci-fi musical, it never leaves the musical theater side of it.

[11:43] Jesse McAnally: Like, with something like this, it could feel quite similar to, like, proper stage play theater where you have just these two people in their own spaces and all that.

[11:52] Jesse McAnally: But no, it is very much musical theater with heightened elements.

[11:57] Jesse McAnally: And I also feel befuddled about how it all kind of flows together.

[12:03] Jesse McAnally: Because sci-fi and musicals don't mix.

[12:07] Jesse McAnally: Like, Starlight Express is not it.

[12:11] Jesse McAnally: But this, it really came together.

[12:13] Jesse McAnally: And I do want to say, this is based on a Korean film of the same name.

[12:17] Jesse McAnally: And it was also a musical.

[12:19] Jesse McAnally: And this was adapted and brought bigger and given the Broadway treatment.

[12:23] Jesse McAnally: And it feels so authentic to both worlds.

[12:25] Jesse McAnally: It feels so authentic to the Korean, like, style of filmmaking.

[12:31] Jesse McAnally: As well as the Broadway style of Feel Good Musical.

[12:35] Jesse McAnally: I know we're kind of in spoiler territory.

[12:39] Jesse McAnally: We don't usually get into this.

[12:41] Jesse McAnally: But, like, on a first watch, I feel conflicted about the ending ending.

[12:46] Miranda Moffat: Yes, and this is another spoiler warning for you.

[12:48] Miranda Moffat: If you do not want to know how the story ends, please, please skip ahead or turn it off.

[12:54] Jesse McAnally: Yes, the ending is somewhat, you know, like I talked about, in the sense that this is a one-act musical, no intermissions.

[13:03] Jesse McAnally: So, the pacing can feel a little weird and different from what you're used to when you're splitting things up into two acts.

[13:09] Jesse McAnally: And it does sort of feel like it is overstaying its welcome.

[13:13] Jesse McAnally: So, essentially, when they go on this journey for Oliver to try to find his owner, which again, spoiler warning, it ends up that his owner has passed away.

[13:25] Jesse McAnally: But he is able to meet his son, who we learn from his son, you know, that he was essentially sort of a replacement for him when things fell apart in his marriage.

[13:34] Jesse McAnally: So, he is able to kind of reach the conclusion of his story in understanding that his owner loved him, but did it, you know, ultimately kind of decommission him.

[13:44] Jesse McAnally: Whereas, you know, for Claire, she wants to go on this journey basically to see the fireflies.

[13:49] Jesse McAnally: She saw the fireflies once with her owner, and she just wants to see them again.

[13:52] Jesse McAnally: And I saw it as kind of a suicide mission for her.

[13:55] Jesse McAnally: Her battery capacity is depleting.

[13:57] Jesse McAnally: She knows she has a limited number of days.

[13:59] Jesse McAnally: And I really thought the story was going to end with her being able to see the fireflies one more time.

[14:03] Jesse McAnally: And essentially, you know, committing suicide in a way by just letting her battery run out after she finally gets to see that.

[14:10] Jesse McAnally: And that is not what ends up happening.

[14:13] Jesse McAnally: It takes a real turn that you are not expecting in the last, like, 20 minutes.

[14:20] Jesse McAnally: It is essentially eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, but with robots.

[14:25] Jesse McAnally: And I, while we're talking about that, but I do want to highlight, the firefly sequence itself is like one of the best sequences of staging with music, with actors, with anything I have seen on a stage.

[15:15] Jesse McAnally: The last 30 minutes is basically they return home from this trip where they have learned the things that they need to learn to grow and change, and they fall in love, or you know, they realize that through this journey they have fallen in love. But they also remember that they have a limited time span, and they think that it would hurt too much for, you know, her to pass away first, or not to pass away, but, you know, to not have any charge, to, you know, die, whatever you want to call it for robot, in robot terms. And so, they make a mutual decision to erase their memories of each other. And I think it's sort of a lesson on, you know, like, what is grief if not love persevering? Grief is the price we pay for love.

Like, you know, as humans, it is worth it to love and to pay that price. And I think that's a big theme in this, is that, you know, even though their relationships with their owners didn't end up going well or ending well, they still wanted to have those memories to learn from and to find peace in. And at the end of the story, she ends up erasing her memory, he ends up keeping it, and he, you know, basically is trying to get them to go back into the cycle of meeting each other again and falling back in love.

[16:51] Miranda Moffat: I don't love that! Like, it removes, yes, that is her choice, her agency, but I think it's an agreement that he just didn't hold up his end of the bargain on. I think it would be interesting, a choice for the actress playing Claire to play, maybe she didn't erase her memories either, and they're both going through the motions of performing this play for each other for no reason. Because, I don't know, when you're truly in love, I'd never want to get rid of them, even if it does hurt.

[17:22] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I think it is kind of a weird choice to have her, like, actually go through with it and him not, but I do think that is, like, still kind of as a piece of her backstory. And like you were saying, like, they're sort of nurture who they were quote-unquote raised by, who their owners were, like, her feeling about those things are much more cynical, things ended poorly. And she maybe errs on the side of, like, you know, we are lucky, she was the one who said, like, we are lucky, humans can't do this, we get to erase it and start over and decide what we want to remember. Whereas he is more like, you know, my memories bring me peace, my memories bring me comfort, like, I want to keep them. So, I think part of their decision making about whether or not to keep it is sort of affected by their past and their owners and their experiences with their owners.

[18:19] Miranda Moffat: I agree. And like, there's a main scene where his owner, James, is like, do the memories of me make you happy? And he says, yeah. And he's like, alright, then you get to keep them. And I think that shows, I don't know, it kind of feels like a negative arc. I'd almost kind of appreciate it if it was in reverse, weirdly, because then Claire is like, becomes less cynical and Oliver becomes a little more cynical. And now it just feels like they're kind of in the same place they started, but one of them has their memories.

[18:52] Jesse McAnally: It is weird. It basically restarts the story back at the beginning. And you're right, it does kind of, like, you have sort of a perfect character arc for both of them from the beginning of the story to the end of them being in the fireflies. And even maybe like, to the point where they fall in love, you know, like, they fall in love. I think if they had fallen in love and that was the end, that would be great because Claire has learned to let go of the cynicism. And Oliver has learned to get out of his comfort zone and try something new and move beyond just his owner. Like, that would have been a great arc. And then it does kind of like, it adds some sort of like complications to the story. Not saying that it's bad, but it almost feels like a different story. Like, it feels kind of like, not like what we were supposed to be building to. But it's not, it's also not bad in any way. It's still very enjoyable and cute.

[19:46] Miranda Moffat: No, like, it just takes what I consider an A-plus musical at the point of the fireflies to an A-musical, you know? But I wanted that A-plus musical, you know? Like, when you get to that high and you're like, oh my gosh, this is theater. And then you have some things where it's like, ah, ah, oh, oh, I'm not so sure. Oh, you keep going, oh, okay, okay. And then that last ending was like, ah, ah, darn. When your last feeling at the end of a musical is ah, darn. So I think I might need to ruminate on this one more, but I think it was just the frustrating part of, it just didn't make sense for the arc and what these characters have learned. For Oliver to make that choice, when, make the choice that he makes and Claire to make the choice that she makes, I think they should be reversed for a proper feel-good-brain arc.

[20:48] Jesse McAnally: Maybe, maybe that is it. It really is funny because that last, you know, I don't know, maybe 20-30 minutes just feels like a weird ending tacked on because we needed a certain amount of run time or we were trying to meet something. Like, it really does feel like a very perfectly formed musical. And there were so many points where I was like, oh, okay, here's the ending. Oh, here's the ending. And it ended up, like I said, you just go down this road of this sort of eternal sunshine of the spotless mind plot where it just sort of like, totally changes. I think it's still on brand with the sort of theme of everything, you know, the theme of like, everything ends, everything has an end, doesn't mean that we still can't enjoy it and, you know, appreciate the journey and take chances and fall in love and do all the things.

It's just, you know, it just felt like it didn't fit almost, but still very enjoyable and still kind of its own cute little vignette, I think. But overall, still a very enjoyable production. And I agree, like some of the best moments in musical theater that we have seen, some of the best production design that we have seen in recent days, recent years, like, just a really, really enjoyable time overall.

[22:17] Miranda Moffat: I agree. And don't confuse my harping on this ending for not thinking this is quality, well-deserved. Every accolade that this musical has been given, well-deserved, well-earned. I want to highlight in our specific performances the two leads. I think that they are really, really well-played and they could come off as caricatures, especially because they have to play robots. And they never do. They never feel boring to watch. And even at their campiest, they still feel like real developed people, despite being robotic in a way. I found myself being more interested in the world that they're in, the way that they're built. Can they have sex when they kiss? Do they have feelings and nerve endings and all that? And that isn't me nitpicking. This is me wanting to know more about how they are.

[23:19] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. I mean, it raises a lot of interesting questions about the capacity, the sort of things that you think about when you're watching something science fiction-y. And it has that really interesting aspect to it. But also just in addition to that, really good book, really good songs. Something that is a particular pet peeve of mine is when the balance of songs to book doesn't really fit or doesn't really feel like a musical too much. If it's completely told in song, or it's basically just a play with a few songs in the middle, this was a really good, honest to God, musical mix between portions of it that were played straight, like if you're watching a play, and the musical aspects of it where a majority of the story and the emotion is being portrayed through the song specifically, and through the songs that they're singing to each other.

So, I think it is a very good mix of things, and a very, very good time, and not like anything I have ever seen before. It is not something that you would think would work, but it does really, really well.

[24:33] Miranda Moffat: Yes. And I think I would have liked this a little bit more if they had gone the full bittersweet instead of just the sweet ending. We talked about this in our Kimberly Akimbo episode, about how you were kind of worried, like, there's only one sad place to go, and it's really sad. And it didn't go there. It stopped at the point where it had a proper, happy ending, and it gave you the musical theater joy ending. And here, I didn't want a musical theater joy ending. I kind of wanted an existential ending, and a bittersweet ending. And this one, it didn't hit the mark for that. And I know I keep harping on this, but it feels like a show where it really needs to jump and hit the Y and be like, get the 10s. And yeah, I wish it had, or else I'd be like, raving, raving.

But with that being said, overall thoughts and cheese rating. And you know what? I'll give mine first for a change. I loved the show. I had a great time. I would recommend it to anyone that is, like, into theater in any way. It really, like, there are times, and I don't do this often, because we're not really cheesecakes like this, where just something romantic would happen on the stage, and I just kind of reach over and grab Miranda's hand and just be like, I love you.

[26:02] Miranda Moffat: What do you mean, we are cheesy like that? You are cheesy like that. What are you talking about?

[26:07] Jesse McAnally: We don't do that much in theater. We don't do that much with media. We are cheesy with each other, but there's rarely, like, a piece of media where we're like, aww, and we have to react. Like, audience goes aww several times at just the cuteness of this relationship, and I found myself doing it, and I'm just like, love is beautiful, and this is the kind of show where, fellas, if you got a date and you want her to, like, feel the love, it's that kind of show, and you'll feel it, too. And I am giving this holographic cheese. Like, remember the holographic meatloaf that Plankton had to eat in SpongeBob? It's that, but the cheese.

[27:00] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I can move.

[27:01] Miranda Moffat: Okay, we'll say chocolate cheese. We'll say, like, a bittersweet chocolate cheese, because it gives you something that you've never tasted before, and it's completely unexpected, but you end up loving it. That's my, that's my overall thoughts. Totally unexpected, but completely amazing.

[27:22] Jesse McAnally: Yes, and I cannot recommend this enough. Like, despite all my bitching and whining, this is a show to go see, and if you can see it, it is playing at the Fisher Theatre right now, and coming up next, we will be seeing, once again, Six the Musical. That is still, like, the Musicals with Cheese episode is still the number one most listened to episode of Musicals with Cheese. It'll be playing at the Fisher Theatre from November 3rd to 8th, and I'm excited for that. I don't think we did an episode on Six last time, did we?

[27:51] Miranda Moffat: That's, that's a good, that's a good one. I don't know. Is chocolate cheese a thing?

[27:56] Miranda Moffat: I don't know if we did, but I'm a huge fan of weird British history, and I really liked it when we saw it the first time, so I am very excited to see it again.

[28:05] Jesse McAnally: And you want better news? It's a one-act. It's another one-act.

[28:08] Miranda Moffat: Another one-act. We're gonna get out of there in good time, in good time and make it home.

[28:13] Jesse McAnally: I will be in bed before 11, but I see Six, oh boy!

[28:18] Miranda Moffat: And in case you like hearing me and Miranda jabber-jabber on, we currently have a brand new podcast called Cinema with Cheese on the Broadway Podcast Network, so just look up Cinema with Cheese, and we're doing an episode on Wildwood and Wicker and other films that start with W.

[28:36] Jesse McAnally: I'll think of another one.

[28:37] Miranda Moffat: I literally, I could not, even if I tried.

[28:42] Jesse McAnally: In the meantime, thank you very much for listening, and we'll see you next time on Theatre in the D.

[29:08] ♪ Musical number ♪