Video: Behind the Scenes of MAYBE HAPPY ENDING's 'Where You Belong' Sequence
The hit musical has been nominated for 10 Tony Awards.
In a new featurette for the Tony-nominated musical Maybe Happy Ending, director Michael Arden, scenic designer Dane Laffrey, and more take viewers behind the scenes of the musical number "Where You Belong." In the song, Oliver (Darren Criss) has a memory about his owner, James, and the wonderful life they spent together.
The video highlights the set changes required to bring Oliver's memory to life. "The space is deliberately really lush. It's a forest, [making] it the sharpest possible contrast to the space in which we have seen Oliver and Clare so far," Laffrey notes. Watch the full "Anatomy of a Scene" video now!
Maybe Happy Ending stars Darren Criss and Helen J Shen with music by Will Aronson, lyrics by Hue Park, book by both Aronson and Park, and direction by Tony Award-winner Michael Arden. The cast also includes Steven Huynh, Hannah Kevitt, Daniel May, and Christopher James Tamayo.
Inside a one-room apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, Oliver (Criss) lives a happily quiet life listening to jazz records and caring for his favorite plant. But what else is there to do when you’re a HelperBot 3, a robot that has long been retired and considered obsolete? When his fellow HelperBot neighbor Claire (Shen) asks to borrow his charger, what starts as an awkward encounter leads to a unique friendship, a surprising adventure, and maybe even...love?
Nominated for 10 Tony Awards and winner of the Richard Rodgers Award, Maybe Happy Ending is the offbeat and captivating story of two outcasts near the end of their warranty who discover that even robots can be swept off their feet. Helmed by visionary director and Tony Award winner Michael Arden (Parade, Once on This Island), with a dazzling scenic design by Dane Laffrey (A Christmas Carol) and book, music, and lyrics by the internationally acclaimed duo Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending is a fresh, original musical about the small things that make any life worth living.
Maybe Happy Ending was written in both Korean and English-language versions. The Korean-language version opened in December of 2016 at DaeMyung Culture Factory in Seoul and subsequently won six Korean Musical Awards including Best Musical. The English-language version was awarded the 2017 Richard Rodgers Production Award and had its U.S. premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in the 2019-2020 season under the direction of Michael Arden.
