Love is never obsolete.
The cast of Broadway’s “Maybe Happy Ending” – Darren Criss, Helen J Shen, Dez Duron, and Marcus Choi – visited the Empire State Building to celebrate the show’s success with a tour of the building’s Observatory Experience.
The celebrated new musical swept the 2025 Tony Awards, as it took home the night’s top prizes for Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book of a Musical, among others.
In an interview with the Empire State Building, Criss reflected on his preparation for the show and his first stint as an original Broadway cast member.
The story of “Maybe Happy Ending” – a futuristic tale of two humanoid “helper-bots” who discover each other after abandonment by their owners – could seem to appeal only to a niche audience, but its themes of love, friendship, and adventure render it timeless. To prepare for his role as Oliver, Criss called upon some unlikely inspiration.
“Everything about Oliver is what you see. There’s no subtext,” Criss said. “I employ a lot of the conventions that you see in animated films, which is such a wonderful way to display and transmit heightened emotions. He’s not human, so he’s trying to copy and synthesize human-like things.”
“Maybe Happy Ending” granted Criss several firsts – a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical and his first opportunity to originate a role on Broadway. When asked about his path to the role, Criss knew it was a case of high risk, high reward.
“To [work on] something new is kind of scary. [But] what I’ve realized is audiences are coming in completely free from the chains of comparison and expectations,” said Criss. “They are unencumbered and dilated from new experience.”
Criss expressed tremendous gratitude for his role as Oliver, as he remarked on the musical’s cultural significance.
“There are a lot of special things about [“Maybe Happy Ending”] that are much bigger than … a bit of dazzle and a bit of music,” he said. “There is a joy, a resilience, and a hope that it offers in a fractured universe. Being a part of something like that is an extraordinary privilege.”
Learn more about “Maybe Happy Ending” online.
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