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'Maybe Happy Ending' Story and Characters | The BSB Podcast · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to the BSB Podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm Brian, a helper bot 3 model, and today my friend RJ, a helper bot 5, and I will be discussing the story and narrative of Broadway's maybe happy ending.
• 0:10
  However, before we journey on, like, follow, and subscribe to us, BSB Insider, on all social media platforms at BSB.insider.
• 0:17
  And as always, spoiler warning, if you haven't seen this musical, pause this video and return once you've set off to collect some fireflies.
• 0:24
  Thank you, Helperbot5.
• 0:25
  How are you doing today?
• 0:27
  Ready to talk about maybe happy ending?
• 0:29
  Apparently you're like glitching over there.
• 0:31
  I don't know what's happening.
• 0:34
  Yeah, I clearly I'm short-circuiting just a little bit.
• 0:36
  I'm missing a few of my replacement parts, but that's okay.
• 0:39
  We're just gonna keep plowing right through and figuring out what we're gonna talk about.
• 0:44
  Um, which is we're gonna talk about Broadway's musical, maybe happy ending.
• 0:52
  this was not on our radar I should say it was on our radar, but it was not on our to-do list last year.
• 0:58
  And it seems like it was a
• 1:02
  secondhand suggestion this time.
• 1:04
  Like it felt like we were trying to figure out what shows to go see, what fit with our timeframe, but there wasn't like an extreme pull to go see maybe happy ending.
• 1:12
  um Do you think that part of that has to do with the fact that we maybe didn't know enough of the show prior to attending this production of it?
• 1:22
  Yeah, I mean, because the market, the only real marketing that you get, or at least what I perceived from the marketing that I saw was of course that it was about robots and or like
• 1:37
  AI.
• 1:37
  And I get enough of that.
• 1:42
  Like.
• 1:44
  in my everyday life, so I really didn't feel the need to seek out a play or a musical that was about that.
• 1:54
  But, as we will discuss, I was actually, I don't know, what I thought it was gonna be was not what it was.
• 2:03
  I think that's a fair way to put this.
• 2:06
  And first off, yes, as journalists, as critics, as reviewers, we do come across um AI quite a bit.
• 2:15
  And we do struggle to find voices in that.
• 2:20
  So I think that there is a little bit of like, do I really want to see a show about AI?
• 2:23
  Because I don't think it was super, super clear.
• 2:25
  um In fact, the only thing I can really tell you about maybe happy ending prior to seeing it was
• 2:32
  that I knew Darren Criss played a convincing robot and the once Firefly song that they played at the Tony Awards.
• 2:38
  Other than that, I was kind of completely going into the show blind, which isn't always the way we do Broadway when we go to New York to see shows.
• 2:48
  So it was interesting because like we went into it not knowing much.
• 2:52
  And what we got was a lot more than maybe we were bargaining for.
• 2:56
  Perhaps.
• 2:57
  So just to jump right in, this is a story of Oliver and Claire, uh two helper bots.
• 3:05
  One is a helper bot three, like me, and one is a helper bot five, like RJ over there.
• 3:11
  And they don't really tell you what the difference is other than the fact that it's just a different model, an upgrade, changes.
• 3:19
  But what is your impression right off the bat, RJ, as we're kind of meeting these two robots?
• 3:25
  How are they distinctly different?
• 3:27
  I mean...
• 3:30
  You get the robot vibes from Oliver right away.
• 3:37
  Like you just know that he's a robot and that he's supposed to be feeling like, and when I say robot, mean like traditional, like I'm thinking like the Jetsons, like old school
• 3:48
  robots, mechanical, not so extreme.
• 3:52
  Like obviously he's still formed like a human, but um enough that you can tell there's a stiffness.
• 3:58
  And then Claire, you just like actually wouldn't really have any idea aside from the fact that, you know, she's battery powered, which we will get into.
• 4:09
  But um if she hadn't been introduced to us as a robot, I'm not sure anyone would have assumed that she was.
• 4:21
  I will definitely, I wanna piggyback off of that because you're right.
• 4:25
  What's interesting, so striking about the two of them is that Oliver, so Darren Criss' character Oliver, he is incredibly stiff.
• 4:33
  He moves in like angular, like pivoting, you know, and he has a very flat affect.
• 4:40
  He's kind of, again, he's very stiff and robotic.
• 4:44
  And Claire, what I noticed about her right away was that she emotes a lot more.
• 4:47
  She has a lot more emotions.
• 4:49
  You know, she's excited, she's happy, she's annoyed, she's frustrated, where, truthfully, Oliver only seemed to be kind of like a know-it-all.
• 4:56
  Like, what you would kind of expect, again, like you said from the Jets, I think that's a great comparison.
• 5:00
  Like, very factual, very determined to do his job, but not a lot of uh autonomy in who he gets to be.
• 5:10
  And so that does really set them quite apart as we're meeting them at what is essentially a retirement home for robots.
• 5:17
  Yeah, and the not knowing of a timeline, kind of like you mentioned, like we don't know how far apart their versions are.
• 5:27
  uh
• 5:29
  We don't even, I mean really we don't know anything about the setting.
• 5:33
  for much of a timeline.
• 5:35
  Eventually we get like some flickers of historical timeline, but it's still not like placed in any particular way for us to really follow.
• 5:48
  Yeah, because it kind of feels like this could be any time in the future.
• 5:52
  You know what I mean?
• 5:52
  It feels futuristic.
• 5:54
  feels very much set.
• 5:56
  This is set in Seoul This feels very set in Seoul It just has this feeling of what does the future look like without having to put a time on it.
• 6:06
  And I think that that's kind of what also happens with something like the Jetsons is that they never give you a date.
• 6:12
  It's just sometime in the future.
• 6:13
  We're going to have flying cars and robots.
• 6:15
  dinner that comes in pills.
• 6:17
  And this one is truly like one day we're going to have robots who we retire and we treat them like humans maybe, but like they're not actually humans except that Claire is a
• 6:26
  little more human than Oliver, which sets for a very interesting precedent.
• 6:32
  But even if we take a step further for like backwards, the show actually starts with a human and we get like a glimpse of like what Oliver's life is like prior to being in the
• 6:43
  retirement center and how he's still waiting
• 6:46
  to be picked up by his friend.
• 6:47
  um And you don't really, it's interesting because like his motivation is to return to James and Claire's motivation is definitely more about like let's live a life because
• 7:02
  we're kind of stuck here.
• 7:03
  um What struck you about the difference in the motivations there?
• 7:08
  I mean.
• 7:09
  gender roles, which it's interesting that even when in a play about robots, we're still kind of like, I don't know, to me it's just, and maybe this is bias, probably is, but for
• 7:30
  a guy to constantly kind of...
• 7:34
  want to live in this comfortable space that he knows and doesn't want to leave because it's comfortable and it's it's safe right and then the woman comes in and is like i want
• 7:47
  to do all the things i want to go all the places i don't i don't care about the past like this is now i'm looking towards the future willing to take more risks
• 8:00
  even though there is some ultimately trauma on both sides.
• 8:05
  Now can't say that for every male and female, right?
• 8:10
  Like I know that that's not true, but it does seem like, of course that's the way they would have portrayed these characters.
• 8:19
  Like it would have been weird.
• 8:22
  or weird is not the right word.
• 8:24
  It would have been like out of social norms if they had done it the opposite way.
• 8:31
  It's interesting you say that because I think this goes with a little bit of what we can dive into more in part two, but I think that it does go with this is that we get a very
• 8:44
  1950s feel with a lot of the show, like the way that they're kind of dressed and the way that some of the furniture is.
• 8:50
  You know, you have very modern-esque, know, mid-century modern furniture and you have this feel.
• 8:58
  And one of the things that struck out to me about that is that, so we have Oliver who looks like a traditional 1950s masculine individual.
• 9:06
  And then you have Claire who's looking like a traditional 1950s feminine character.
• 9:10
  And she's also anchored to him.
• 9:12
  So in this show, she wants to go, but she can't leave because of her battery charger and her battery itself is actually not holding as much of a charge.
• 9:21
  And so in a way it's literally the, can't leave the premises unless you go with me.
• 9:27
  the man, which I thought was an interesting little bit of that too.
• 9:30
  I've just been like, you know, maybe this is cultural differences, you know, depending on if you're looking at like where the show kind of takes place, but it does feel like we
• 9:39
  went for the gender norms of the 1950s and the story reflected that in ways that maybe aren't even noticeable at first.
• 9:47
  But when you're thinking about it, I was thinking like she has to be tethered to him because of the charger.
• 9:52
  You know what mean?
• 9:52
  Like, I don't know if that makes any sense.
• 9:55
  Yes, which is a good point.
• 9:57
  I didn't think about that, but it is.
• 9:58
  goes right along the same lines of the reliance.
• 10:04
  Even when she's the one making it happen, there is, yeah, this kind of savior complex happening with Oliver, because where would she be without him?
• 10:21
  Right, she would be kind of lost.
• 10:23
  in turn, obviously, I know that part of the story is that they're there to help find each other.
• 10:28
  But it's interesting that that is where the story starts.
• 10:30
  The story starts with the two of them in a retirement home, deciding to set off to find James and or the Fireflies, which is a very important aspect of the story.
• 10:41
  And it leaves a lot to be desired and pushing past the gender norms that we have come to expect.
• 10:49
  Um, in fact, I can't think of a time that it really does switch until maybe the end, which we'll get to, but like, that's pretty much the standard storyline that we're, that goes
• 10:59
  through the story is Oliver's very much the man, Claire's very much the woman, and they have those very traditional-esque roles.
• 11:08
  Yeah, and just for the heck of it, I was curious if there is like a definitive...
• 11:15
  any definitive timeline on this, like...
• 11:18
  and what I'm reading ultimately is that it takes place in the 2060s.
• 11:26
  Okay.
• 11:27
  um which is also so bizarre to think about because like that's still that's like still kind of close to now you know what mean like in real time um and i think they might
• 11:44
  mention it in the show but she has been living i don't know how long he was living alone she has been alone for 13 about 13 years
• 11:56
  Correct.
• 11:58
  I don't know, do we get a timeline for him?
• 12:01
  I remember at the beginning it was like a month, a year, six years.
• 12:05
  I want to say it was about 12 years for him too.
• 12:08
  So they were about the same.
• 12:10
  So wanna say she even says at one point that they've been living across from each other for about 12 years and they've never talked to each other.
• 12:17
  And she thought it was weird.
• 12:18
  which is an interesting thing again, maybe I'm just stuck on this timeline, but if she was created after him, but they were still both retired at around 13 years.
• 12:37
  Interesting.
• 12:38
  oh But I think that does kind of paint a very interesting picture about the two of them is that retired about the same time.
• 12:45
  She's a few models ahead of him.
• 12:48
  And however, they are modeled and he is still seems to be functioning rather well.
• 12:54
  And I don't know.
• 12:56
  Again, it just makes you wonder of like how they've come to be.
• 12:58
  Why is she falling apart faster?
• 13:00
  Why is she unable to almost save herself?
• 13:05
  There's a lot of pieces here.
• 13:06
  There's a part of that is, I guess, her backstory.
• 13:08
  You know, like it goes back to how does she end up in the retirement home?
• 13:11
  She ended up in the retirement home because of the humans who have treated her wrongly.
• 13:15
  And that's part of this story of as Oliver is going to find his
• 13:23
  for lack of better term, is master, she's dealing with the trauma of the fact that humans are not good people.
• 13:29
  And humans have ultimately treated her very unkindly and they've put her in a position where she shouldn't have been.
• 13:34
  She was punished for something that she shouldn't have been.
• 13:36
  It's interesting to think that robots have trauma.
• 13:40
  I think that was one of the biggest takeaways for me.
• 13:42
  was like, hmm, robots have trauma.
• 13:44
  Yeah, so long as they remember it.
• 13:47
  Correct.
• 13:49
  But really this show's kind of about the idea of loneliness, you know, and finding each other and finding people in the world.
• 13:55
  With such a strong theme, it does end up becoming a bit of a rom-com, but it takes a while to get to the rom-com-ness of maybe happy ending.
• 14:05
  First off, are you a fan of slow burns?
• 14:06
  Because this is exactly what this show was.
• 14:08
  It was a slow burn romance that took forever to get to the point.
• 14:20
  particularly um
• 14:23
  Yeah, I think it could have moved.
• 14:27
  two times faster, if not more than it did.
• 14:30
  yeah, like it easily could have been at most an hour and a half.
• 14:43
  There were just some songs and as we'll get into and scenes, like we didn't need a full.
• 14:51
  Ultimately going forwards and backwards like we just went forwards and backwards in so many ways in so much time
• 15:00
  It was like, this is something like in a movie you would typically fast forward through because it just is mundane.
• 15:08
  Yeah, ah just to let listeners know, it takes an hour and a half to get to the part where they actually fall in love.
• 15:16
  And then it's about 20 minutes fast forwarding through them, falling in love with them, ultimately falling out of love, or trying to at least.
• 15:23
  So you're slow burning through this getting to James, finding out that, spoiler alert, James is no longer with them, uh and trying to...
• 15:35
  find each other, trying to find, like they're not trying to fall in love, but they do end up falling in love.
• 15:42
  And it's just very, very slow.
• 15:45
  And if you're talking about scenes to cut out, what purpose does any scene with Gil Brentley have to do with the show, other than the fact that it is just taking up time to
• 15:55
  add in more songs and to give it a little more poppy jazz?
• 15:59
  Like I am, well, listeners are gonna know very quickly, I am not a fan of the show.
• 16:04
  and the part of it is just that.
• 16:07
  there's, the story could be shorter, but also some of these pieces just were unnecessary to telling the story of Oliver and Claire, which is ultimately the story that people are
• 16:15
  there to see.
• 16:16
  Correct.
• 16:17
  So I understand why they added this musical act.
• 16:22
  Like it breaks up the show a little bit, but the songs were so, like you could have done a eighth of the song, like each song that he sang and.
• 16:36
  It would have had the same...
• 16:38
  Like, I wasn't...
• 16:39
  It didn't help the story at all.
• 16:42
  You could have easily just literally played music without anyone singing, and I feel like it would have had the same effect.
• 16:49
  No offense to Dez, who played this role, but...
• 16:54
  I just...
• 16:56
  His voice was great.
• 16:58
  I was like, I would go listen to you in a jazz club.
• 17:00
  Like, do you have an EP?
• 17:03
  But...
• 17:05
  I felt, it felt very, again, I was like jumping from 2060 to the 1950s, back to 2060.
• 17:15
  For not, for no reason.
• 17:18
  I think that, well, first off, the other night they had a performance, granted, this is gonna be months and months, probably by the time this airs, um where the performance had
• 17:26
  to be stopped for some reason.
• 17:28
  And they brought Dez out to sing, just like songs from the 1950s and stuff like that, or like whatever people were requesting.
• 17:35
  And they said it was such a cool experience, because it did help bring that alive.
• 17:39
  So yeah, I get like the concept, and maybe it's just because, you're right, we had a story that had backtracked so much and had...
• 17:48
  retreaded so many storylines.
• 17:51
  I think there was a way to convey the loneliness and to convey to want something from our past that we can't have anymore one time without having to go back three or four times.
• 18:03
  I think that if you just would have the story of him getting to Jeju Island and to talk to James and then realizing James is no longer there and James' son was really mad, that's
• 18:15
  all you needed.
• 18:16
  I don't think we needed flashbacks to his time with James.
• 18:18
  I don't think we needed necessarily as much of a scene of Claire looking at her background.
• 18:26
  Spoiler alert, her owner's boyfriend slash fiance slash husband falls in love with her because she's attentive.
• 18:34
  Which again speaks to a whole nother story and she gets abandoned for that.
• 18:38
  But I'm just like, was that 20 minute scene necessary to convey that?
• 18:45
  I knew in the first five minutes from the way he talked with her, and I'm assuming most adults who saw that within the first five minutes of the way he talked to her, knew that
• 18:52
  he had fallen in love with her and knew that the wife was jealous.
• 18:54
  You know what mean?
• 18:55
  I feel like that's where this story really got lost, is that there's so many big scenes that could have been smaller flashbacks and smaller scenes, and we would have gotten the
• 19:07
  same feelings, but maybe even better, because my knees wouldn't be so cramped.
• 19:14
  Yeah, I mean everyone loves a little bit of backstory, but there was just like we got it after I mean how many scenes did they do that there were flashbacks?
• 19:23
  It was like every other scene and it really didn't play that like yes, we're understanding they have trauma This is why they were dumped.
• 19:33
  Okay
• 19:34
  At the end of the day, you still had the main plot and it didn't really affect it that much.
• 19:42
  Like, every scene should mean something.
• 19:44
  Especially in a show like this.
• 19:46
  Yes, like why did we get six flashbacks?
• 19:50
  At that point, you're just like almost coinciding on a whole other story.
• 19:55
  both sides, but
• 19:57
  And this is where I'm going to be real controversial and pretend like I know how to write a Broadway show.
• 20:02
  So bear with me.
• 20:03
  I think that the more intriguing story for me, and I know there's some people who love Maybe Happy Ending and obviously they love it, it won Tonys.
• 20:12
  And I understand why Darren Criss won the Tony for the performance.
• 20:16
  And I think this is where when I was younger, I never understood how like people could win for best actress of an Oscar, not when like the picture itself couldn't win.
• 20:26
  and I'll get into that in just a moment.
• 20:29
  But for me, the more intriguing storyline that I would have liked to see play out more was when they came back from the island and the heart like them falling in love.
• 20:41
  So, OK, they go to the island, they capture a firefly, they come back, they decide that they're going to be in love, everybody.
• 20:47
  Spoiler alert.
• 20:48
  And they're in love for many, years.
• 20:50
  And then they decide because life's going to get complicated because they're not going to be together because forever.
• 20:57
  which talk about parallels for somebody who, A, the idea of dying sometimes gets in his head and B, the fact of not being around the people that you care about the most forever
• 21:07
  can be, feel daunting, you know, or scary.
• 21:11
  I connected with that storyline and I wanted almost more of that in dealing with the grief of not having each other, where I think that the journey to Jeju Island could have been 30
• 21:21
  minutes, 40 maybe, and then you come back and the real story happens.
• 21:27
  with them together.
• 21:28
  think that was the more intriguing part to me, watching these two people who shouldn't have fallen in love, who are ultimately changed because Oliver becomes more emotional,
• 21:36
  Claire becomes more logical, and then they have to make the decision of is it worth staying together even though we love each other or is it just going to hurt more in the
• 21:44
  end?
• 21:44
  And like, as a psychologist, that's my bread and butter, you know?
• 21:49
  Well, and of course, the romanticism.
• 21:51
  Everyone wants that rom-com-y feel.
• 21:59
  And I'm almost wondering if that's what they were actively trying to stay away from.
• 22:03
  Because it is still romantic, but it's not so romantic that like...
• 22:11
  It's gushy.
• 22:12
  You know what I mean?
• 22:12
  Like it's just like here's how it is and now they're in love and here's a flash for like again these flashes we're getting like Let's cover a lot of time in a small amount of
• 22:23
  time, which fine um
• 22:27
  but let's balance that out maybe at least a little bit more.
• 22:32
  I'm gonna go ahead and challenge you a little bit there.
• 22:35
  What part of having to decide that you cannot be together is a rom-com to you?
• 22:41
  RJ.
• 22:42
  That's not a rom-com, that's a drama, that's a heartbreak.
• 22:46
  It is...
• 22:48
  I mean
• 22:49
  Because it's so ridiculous.
• 22:52
  Although, like literally as you said that, I was like, damn, you know who this reminds me of?
• 22:56
  Myself.
• 22:57
  um Because I would be the person, and I probably actually have been, hopefully literally none of my previous partners are listening to this, um I have been that person that's
• 23:11
  like, you know what, like this is not gonna end well, and I don't wanna hurt you, and I don't-
• 23:18
  wanna hurt and therefore we're just gonna stop this thing before it goes anywhere.
• 23:25
  Which is an awful idea by the way, you can't, which this show inevitably also says.
• 23:33
  But it's still, okay so com there was comedy in this, very light, was, Claire was basically the comedy line.
• 23:42
  Correct, yes.
• 23:44
  She has the personality.
• 23:45
  So it is, I don't know, like it's a dramatic romance.
• 23:49
  It's just a romance.
• 23:51
  um
• 23:54
  I think what I love about that end scene though, and this is where again, you learn more about the show as you're talking about it because as I was staunchly hating on the show up
• 24:03
  until we started this, I did like the ending because I think as a couples therapist, I've been in the room with people when they have just decided that I love you, but I don't love
• 24:14
  this or I love you, but the pain of it's going to be too much.
• 24:17
  And I think that is such an interesting concept of being like the, love you, but I can't be here anymore.
• 24:24
  for whatever reason, I'm gonna protect you, I'm gonna protect myself, we're gonna try to get through that.
• 24:28
  And so to me, I was just like, yes, that's awesome, that's cool, let's have more of that.
• 24:35
  And then it breaks your heart when you discover, real big spoiler alert people, real big spoiler alert, when you discover that both of them choose not to do it.
• 24:43
  And they're like, they're kind of lying to the other person.
• 24:46
  But the idea is that you actually can't like...
• 24:49
  I will never forget when I went through my first breakup.
• 24:52
  as I was thought I could go in, it happened on a Saturday, I thought I could go into work on a Monday.
• 24:58
  And first session, somebody talked about something and I started bawling my eyes out because I couldn't handle it.
• 25:03
  And I came out of that session and I was talking with another therapist and she goes, Brian, you are a great therapist, but you need to go home.
• 25:12
  And one of the things she had told me is that nobody leaves a relationship unscathed.
• 25:16
  I think that's what goes through my mind with this.
• 25:18
  That's a long way to say that I think that they were both changed in such fundamental ways that neither one of them could actually leave it and be okay.
• 25:26
  You know what mean?
• 25:26
  And so they chose not to.
• 25:27
  So I think that's the beauty of the story.
• 25:29
  I just wish it didn't take so long to get to that message.
• 25:32
  Like it would have been better if I had more time to invest in the two of them when I felt like Oliver was so staunchly against being in a romantic relationship or having feelings
• 25:42
  until about an hour and a half into it.
• 25:44
  And that's where I struggled with this part because the ending
• 25:47
  you don't feel like you earned the ending even though I loved the way it ended.
• 25:51
  Yes.
• 25:51
  um
• 25:54
  And I mean so many power dynamics, but so many relational dynamics too, because when we're not talking about Claire and Oliver, it's either like, I can't remember her owner's names,
• 26:07
  but it's either about her owners and that relationship or his relationship with James.
• 26:14
  Actually, I feel like it's very heavy on the James side.
• 26:17
  uh
• 26:19
  her owner.
• 26:21
  So I think initially I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be paying attention to and I think I was focusing a lot on James and Oliver.
• 26:33
  And then once she came in, I think literally once they were like about to leave, I was like, okay, so now we're, now this is a romance.
• 26:47
  Like before, I don't know what I thought it was before, but.
• 26:50
  Again, I came into this thinking it's about robots and AI and like, like I thought that was like the plot and it's not.
• 26:57
  It's just they happen to be robots.
• 27:00
  I mean, obviously there's some pieces because the whole battery thing, but um it's basically a love story, but the people in love just have to be plugged in.
• 27:13
  I mean, that's a very astute way of saying it.
• 27:18
  And sorry, I was also looking things up to see, as you were talking about Jiyeon and stuff like that.
• 27:23
  This originated in Seoul in 2016, and in that production, Gil Brentley, Jiyeon and the husband aren't even in the production.
• 27:34
  They're not even roles.
• 27:36
  And also,
• 27:38
  The plant does not have an actual name and or a significant role in it as well.
• 27:42
  It's just the generic plant that was given a personality for the show.
• 27:46
  So it shows you maybe how they try to...
• 27:49
  I would be interested to see how that show was beforehand now.
• 27:53
  Because it makes sense as to why James was such a major part of the show, whereas Jiyeon was not.
• 28:00
  Yeah, well, and yeah, because we start with him.
• 28:04
  Literally.
• 28:05
  But interesting, I wonder if people saw it and they were just like, we need more of a backstory for her because it feels not equal.
• 28:16
  I um do want to say real quick about um the the plant.
• 28:22
  uh do you say his name?
• 28:24
  I'm gonna mess this up.
• 28:27
  HwaBoon I think is his name.
• 28:28
  um But it's interesting that they didn't, it's just a generic plant, but in the show, our show, it's the one piece of humanity he has left in his room and that he's still
• 28:41
  connecting with and that he's still holding on to.
• 28:43
  And so I do like that parallel as well as we're kind of going through this.
• 28:46
  ah But we do need to talk about individual performances.
• 28:50
  And I'm going go back to something I said earlier.
• 28:53
  I understand now more as an adult about how somebody can win best actor or actress, but not win for the best show and or best direction.
• 29:02
  So maybe happy ending one for best direction, Michael Arden and Darren Criss one for Oliver.
• 29:10
  This.
• 29:11
  His performance as Oliver, I get it.
• 29:13
  He is phenomenal.
• 29:15
  Like how he's moving on stage to look robotic, how he's talking and modulating his voice to sound robotic.
• 29:23
  I couldn't imagine doing that night after night on stage, like not even just like for a film, but on stage.
• 29:29
  I was like, this is actually probably one of the coolest performances I have seen from an actor on stage since we've been going to Broadway.
• 29:37
  bold statement.
• 29:38
  bold statement, yeah.
• 29:41
  I mean, I agree, like he's...
• 29:45
  The transformation or journey that he takes ah makes you realize how much work he's initially putting in to look and sound like a robot.
• 29:57
  by the end, you're like, okay, he seems human, right?
• 30:03
  But then when they reset...
• 30:09
  and he goes back to being a robot, it becomes very night and day drastic in regards to his acting.
• 30:17
  So I can totally understand between that and of course we all know that his vocals are incredibly smooth.
• 30:24
  um So, not shocked about that Tony.
• 30:31
  Um, were there I mean comparatively as you're Oliver to Claire, do you think that there is a good balance between Darren and Helen?
• 30:42
  Helen J.
• 30:42
  Shen who is Claire in this in our production
• 30:46
  I think that she matches, is, there's a balance that's happening or that gradually happens.
• 30:58
  And acting wise and vocally, I mean, I think that they blended really well together.
• 31:05
  um And she offset.
• 31:11
  Like the role, the Claire as a role feels like kind of quirky to me.
• 31:16
  Um, and way more eclectic than Oliver.
• 31:21
  I mean, just like looking at her room, you're like, okay, this feels, I don't know.
• 31:28
  It reminded me of like a teenager's room, which is a little bit weird because we don't know how old she is, which another thing, age is not really a thing here.
• 31:36
  But anyway,
• 31:37
  Correct.
• 31:39
  Just to, yeah, like it's, now I'm like cringing a little bit, cause I'm like, it's like looking at like grandpa's house and then go into like a teenager's room.
• 31:52
  But I think it explains to like how they were raised though too.
• 31:55
  She was raised by someone who was a lot younger who respects her too.
• 31:59
  I'm letting you go, but I'm going to give you your password, which is a big deal.
• 32:02
  Robots are not supposed to help robots are not supposed to have their passwords to have autonomy.
• 32:07
  And she does.
• 32:09
  And so that's where you get to see like, it's kind of like the idea of like, you know, people stop growing wherever the trauma is.
• 32:14
  And then like when they start growing, they still have to grow from that age.
• 32:18
  She's like a teenager because that was when everything kind of happened.
• 32:22
  And he was living with a grandpa, you know, records and plants and, you know, the house again was mid-century modern when they showed it and everything looked old and old timey.
• 32:33
  So it makes sense as to their two personalities.
• 32:35
  But again, I guess maybe age doesn't matter when you're a helper bot.
• 32:39
  Right, like, could be hundreds of years old, we don't know, you know, like it, and it doesn't really matter.
• 32:45
  But that's where like those differences and even in acting choices come out because she, I don't think, she has to do work in a different way than he does.
• 32:56
  You know, obviously he's working really hard towards the robotic side of the character.
• 33:03
  And I think she, much like...
• 33:07
  Claire is having to do the heavy lifting emotively.
• 33:11
  um
• 33:13
  Yes.
• 33:15
  Where he's striking because he doesn't have emotions and you don't see that a lot.
• 33:18
  Where she was being the emotional one.
• 33:21
  She was being the human of the story almost.
• 33:25
  And so that does, it does create an interesting dynamic.
• 33:27
  And at first it does, I think, feel comedic.
• 33:31
  And then eventually it feels a little more like emotive.
• 33:35
  You know, I think, I think that's the journey I did like with her because they do balance each other out.
• 33:41
  She gets to have a little more of the fun and he has to be a little more of serious.
• 33:44
  Which is why I think he ultimately won the Tony Award.
• 33:47
  Yeah, yeah, I would say, of course, both great actors and vocalists, but I do think he is doing a different kind of heavy lift for that role.
• 33:59
  Was there anything about this show that, or to the story or the characters that surprised you?
• 34:07
  I think I was ultimately surprised with how much emotion this show was gonna have.
• 34:13
  And I know we've talked about a little bit, but I didn't think that this show was gonna have such a depth to it about grief and loss and craving connection.
• 34:22
  ah So I think that's what ultimately surprised me about this show.
• 34:26
  Yeah, I mean, I don't know what I was expecting, honestly.
• 34:30
  Not this.
• 34:33
  I think I it was going to be way more shallow and very reliant on tech, which it still very much was, um but not from an acting perspective.
• 34:51
  So...
• 34:52
  Yeah, literally the whole thing.
• 34:54
  I don't know.
• 34:56
  The whole thing.
• 34:57
  And with that, we're running out of time.
• 34:59
  However, stay tuned for part two of our maybe happy ending discussion.
• 35:02
  Thanks again for joining us here in our box seats.
• 35:04
  Until next curtain call.