Maybe Happy Ending

Wow, Maybe Happy Ending is a beautiful show. It addresses really profound issues in a touching, effective and clever way, and it left me choked up a few times--something that's rare for me for a Broadway musical. It's nearly impossible to describe the show without telling the entire story; it's not a typical, brash, showy musical (there are only four in the cast), with no big show stoppers or a big 11 o'clock number. But the cast is great, and Darren Criss hardly left the stage in the 100 minute show. And in these times, where some asshole is talking or on their phone through just about every public experience, the audience was captivated when I saw it the other night, and you could hear a pin drop in the Belasco throughout.

And I’m posting here because the production is fantastic. They use a >lot< of modern show technology in very effective and clever ways, and it's integrated beautifully and always in service of the story. As a show technology geek, I was occasionally distracted trying to figure out what exactly I was looking at. But I've been doing and following this stuff for a long time, so to get me wondering means they are using our modern, mature entertainment technology tool set in very inventive ways (I’ve written a lot about that here). The production is incredibly polished and tightly integrated.

And it was fantastic to find out that two of my former students were on the crew; I got to go backstage afterwards and wander around. It's a tough show to market, so who knows how long it will run, but I think it's well worth seeing and I would recommend it for just about anyone looking for a thoughtful and beautiful experience. Given the set, I would recommend sitting dead center if you can. I didn't see the stage right parts of the set until I went onstage But it's blocked well enough that you can still enjoy it in from anywhere in the house.