Music Review: Maybe Happy Ending – Original Broadway Cast Recording

Maybe Happy Ending – Original Broadway Cast Recording (Ghostlight Records).

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Maybe Happy Ending is a new addition to the Broadway scene, having opened in November 2024, but has clearly arrived with a bang. It was named ‘Best of the Year’ by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, Time Out New York and Entertainment Weekly – no mean feat for a competitor to some of the best-known and well-loved theatrical classics still playing after years of popularity.

Perhaps part of the reason for its success may be that the plot is less conventional than might be expected from a ‘typical’ musical, set in near-future Seoul and following the blossoming friendship between two ‘Helperbot’ robots – Darren Criss as Oliver, and Helen J Shen as Claire – facing obsolescence. And just when you think you’ve got your head around that, expectations are subverted yet again as the score is far less futuristic-sounding than would be expected for a story about robots. By contrast, it is heavily influenced – somewhat conflictingly – by jazz and a big band feel, inspired by Oliver’s love of jazz music.

There is a considerable focus throughout the album on the unaccompanied orchestral sound, without vocals. Will Aronson and Hue Park’s score features several purely instrumental tracks, showcasing some wonderful melodies, but unfortunately the actual songs seem to fall a little short of reaching the same impressive heights.

While a few of the tracks are clearly cleverly written and do succeed in bringing about a smile – ‘The Rainy Day We Met’ gives a particularly nuanced insight into Oliver and Claire’s relationship – the listener is almost left waiting for the big crescendo moment, a big dramatic number which is by no means compulsory in a musical set list but does feel lacking here.

Given the true creativity of the subject matter, and indeed the originality of Aronson and Park’s music and lyrics, it feels like more could have been delivered in terms of the power and impact of the soundtrack. Having said that, as this is currently only on Broadway and not yet in the West End, it may be that the score lands differently when experienced alongside the production itself, and it would certainly not put me off seeing the show. In any case, the sheer novelty of the concept and material should be very highly commended and cleverly weaves some surprisingly thoughtful and resonant deeper narratives through a storyline initially appearing to focus on quite a different topic.

Sorcha Exworthy