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2024 Broadway
Maybe Happy Ending the Musical - SYNOPSIS
A jazz song is faintly playing in the background as Oliver, a male Helperbot-5 model, begins his daily routine ("Prologue: Why Love?"). Oliver has been staying in an apartment for abandoned helperbots for ten years, thinking that his old owner, James, would come back to pick him up as he promised ("World Within My Room"). One day, while going about his routine, Claire, a female Helperbot-6 model and one of his neighbors, knocks on his door to ask for help as her charger is broken. At first, Oliver ignores her, but after coming back and seeing Claire lying on the floor with her battery dead, he brings her inside. After learning that she is a newer model than him, he makes a special clasp to charge her. Not long after, Claire finally wakes up, much to the dismay and apprehension of Oliver. Claire says she feels she has seen him before. However, Oliver, dissatisfied that she is a newer model than himself, begins listing down all the advantages of his model compared to hers. Offended, Claire goes back to her room to attempt to fix her charger. However, she only makes it worse. She also tries calling her other friends, but they are all too busy to help ("The Way That It Has to Be").
Her door is suddenly met with a knock, and when she opens the door, a paper cup is seen on the floor, with an attached string leading to behind Oliver's door. She is happy that Oliver has decided to help her and runs to his door. However, Oliver quickly slams it shut, saying he would prefer talking through the make-shift telephone instead. They begin to talk, and Oliver decides to give her an offer, saying that if she came at a certain time every day, he would lend her his portable charger. Claire accepts and begins going to his house twice a day. Finally, at the end of the week, Claire’s friend John comes over to fix her charger. Oliver, worried as he waits for Claire, who is not arriving, goes over to her apartment door to check if there’s any sound coming from her room. At that very moment, Claire and her friend are about to leave when they encounter Oliver waiting at the door. This startles Oliver and makes him fall over, breaking his ankle part. Claire apologizes and leaves with her friend. Oliver, annoyed, goes back to his own apartment and is relieved that he won’t have to deal with her anymore. But later, Claire shows up with flowers to thank him for letting her borrow his charger and apologizes again for causing him trouble.
While at Oliver's place, Claire notices a yellow raincoat and asks whether he wears it often. He says that it’s his friend James’ raincoat. Claire asks if he is Oliver’s previous owner, and Oliver replies that he is and that his former owner was also his friend too ("Where You Belong"). Claire suddenly remembers where she’s seen him before. It turns out that Oliver has been seen on the news as the helperbot that wears a yellow raincoat and gathers bottles to sell in the middle of the night. This is illegal for robots to do, so Oliver denies that it is him. However, Claire says that he will not report him and that she is only curious as to why he does it. Oliver tells her that he’s trying to save money to go see James, who lives in Jeju Island. Claire replies that if he wanted to go now, he could tag along with her, as she too wants to go there to see the fireflies, which are almost extinct and now only exist there. Oliver reluctantly accepts, and they begin preparing ("Hitting The Road", "Goodbye, My Room", "Hitting The Road, 2"). It’s illegal for robots produced before the year 2044 to drive, so to avoid being caught, they plan to pretend to be a human couple going on a holiday. Following some slight disagreements, they finally make up a believable story for how they first met ("My Favorite Love Story").
They arrive at a motel to stop and charge, and Oliver is very nervous that they’ll be caught. Claire easily helps them get past the hotel staff and into their room without being discovered ("Jenny"). After switching through a few channels, they land on a channel playing the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day. While watching, Oliver pokes fun at how people used to think of robots and begins imitating the robots from the film. Claire, enjoying Oliver's antics, realizes that it might not be that bad being stuck with him ("How To Not Be Alone"). The following day, they set off once again. While on the road, Claire tells Oliver to promise that he won't fall in love with her, which he laughs at and says that she should be the one promising. Claire takes it seriously and makes the promise, which Oliver is taken aback by and also makes ("Rearview Mirror").
Soon, they arrive at James' house. As Oliver walks to his house, Claire attempts to stop him, pleading with him not to go as she's afraid he'll get hurt based on her past experience with her former owners, a couple, at which she learned that human hearts change ("What I Learned From People"). Oliver shouts back at her to stop, saying that she's just jealous that, unlike her past owners, James still likes him as he walks inside. However, not long after, a sad Oliver comes back holding an LP record of James playing piano. He explains that he had learned that James had died the past year and that his family could only laugh that a helperbot would get that far as they have far newer helperbot models. Oliver says that Claire was right, but Claire immediately shuts it down, saying that she was wrong as she had never seen a human leave gifts for their helperbot, declaring that he truly was his friend. An inconsolable Oliver listens to the record, remembering the times James would play piano for him ("Goodbye Love" Piano Solo). Claire, attempting to cheer him up, immediately decides to go see the fireflies. They walk deeper and deeper into the forest, and slowly they start to appear ("Fireflies In Jeju (Instrumental)"); they both jump up and down in excitement and even manage to catch one, which they put into a jar ("Never Fly Away", "Home Again").
They return to Seoul but feel something is different between them. ("A Sentimental Man") They can’t stop thinking about each other and slowly realize that they’ve fallen in love with each other ("When You're in Love"). They rush out of their rooms at the same time and are both shocked to see each other. Realizing they've broken their promises, they both apologize. Slowly, they walk towards each other and share an awkward hug. But both feel electricity when they touch and become nervous. They try to touch again until it feels natural and then share a kiss ("Touch Sequence (Instrumental)"). Afterwards, they spend many happy days together holding hands while charging and trying to do what they think a human couple would do, even attempting to have a fight.
One day, Claire's arm suddenly stopped working. Oliver panics and rushes to fix it, but is unsuccessful. Oliver says he’ll try to get a Model-6 manual and try to fix it, but Claire says not to worry. She explains that she's had problems like this in the past, and even if her arm isn’t fixed, it won't change anything. She quietly says that she has a year or so left of fully functioning capabilities as her body is deteriorating. Oliver gets worked up and says that it may not be so certain. Claire tells Oliver that he must also know that he is deteriorating too, and she says that seeing him suffer because of her hurts her heart and suggests that they end the relationship. Oliver immediately rejects the idea and says that he’s okay, even if it hurts, because he’s willing to endure. Claire, feeling better, says she doesn’t want to end it either and wants to keep loving until their bodies stop working. They continue the relationship, but as time progresses, Claire becomes more heavily reliant on Oliver as her body begins to break down. Claire can’t take it anymore and asks Oliver to end it there, which he also agrees to. They slowly revert back to their lives before they met ("Then I Can Let You Go").
Oliver sadly talks to his potted plant about Claire and how he needs to forget her and go back to the past as well ("World Within My Room (Reprise), "Goodbye, My Room (Reprise)"). However, he soon realizes that he cannot forget Claire, and it is also evident that she too can't forget him. They meet up once again, and they both suggest deleting their memories of each other ("It's Okay To Remember That"). He stands up and gives Claire a piece of paper, on which are written emergency procedures if her charger ever breaks down again. He is about to leave Claire’s apartment when she stops him, asking that he not delete the time when she told him to move his potted plant away from the sun. Oliver gives Claire a final kiss on the cheek and leaves. They both begin getting rid of things that they had to deal with the other person and finally erase their memories ("Erasure Sequence (Instrumental)").
An unknown amount of time has passed, and things have seemingly returned to normal as Oliver wakes up and begins his daily routine as usual. However, there is a sudden knock on the door, and after opening the door, sees Claire asking for help as her charger has broken down. With a pained expression, he welcomes her inside. As he watches her struggle to walk inside, he whispers at his potted plant not to tell her anything. As they begin talking, Claire soon realizes that she is a different model than Oliver, and he, digging through his belongings, eventually finds the clasp he made for her before. Claire asks if everything will be alright, and Oliver replies that maybe it will. ("Finale").
Review: Maybe Happy Ending the Musical Lyrics
Maybe Happy Ending the Musical Lyrics
My Favorite Love Story
A Sentimental Reason
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