Theres nothing new about an awkward meet-cute turning into a love story…
But what if that love story is between two robots?
You think, ‘Oh, cute, like androids falling in love, that sounds sweet.’
Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen in “Maybe Happy Ending”.Maybe Happy Ending the Musical/YouTube
Then Claire comes by to borrow a charger, and changes everything.
When youre in love, youre never satisfied, they lament.
The thing you want is always out of reach.
By the end, theyre piecing together both the joys and painful realities of their newfound feelings.
Second one was,Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I grew up as a teenager loving that show.
[Maybe Happy Ending] is a brand new show, which is wildly exciting.
But I have yet to figure out that answer.
Or what did you respond to?
It’s a really great way for audiences to subconsciously look at their own experience objectively.
It’s funny that it takes inhuman characters to examine humanity in a way that feels somehow accessible.
If you see yourself up there, it maybe hits too close to home.
So having said that, this is a story about two HelperBots, two robots falling in love."
And of course the music is fun, and it’s cute, and funny, and charming.
Is that something that you immediately connected with, or was that surprising?
I think that song’s very interesting because it’s them putting the pieces together.
Which I think goes back into the main thesis, which is love in many ways is loss.
They kind of coexist in this yin-yang.
I mean, people treat their phones like babies.
And the idea of shelf life and things being outdated, we’re pretty comfortable with.
It’s more comprehensible with tech and objects.
But what happens when our objects become closer in likeness and experience to people?
And how will they feel?
Will they feel at all?
How will they feel about their impermanence as it relates to ours and vice versa?
So there’s a lot of really, really nice questions being asked in this show.
Are you finding that it’s changing your relationship to Siri and Alexa and your technology?
As of now, absolutely not.
Well, maybe in the future.
I’ll bite my tongue…
In a few years, who knows?
I’ll be nice to you Siri, I promise.
As long as you’re nice to me when you decide to take over the planet.
Well, after you’ve played a Helperbot, you’ve got an in.
Hopefully that’ll soften the AI takeover, they’ll let us loose.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
