Romantic robotic musical is superb on Broadway — actually

The elegant begin of “Maybe Happy Ending” is the closest I’ve ever come to experiencing a Pixar film on Broadway.

Oliver, a lonely robotic performed by Darren Criss, goes by means of his traditional each day routine — over and time and again. 

With a large grin in a small studio condo, he tends to his plant, HwaBoon, receives deliveries by means of a mail shoot and patiently waits for his proprietor, James, to come back get him. 

Weeks and months move, seasons change and the HelperBot does the identical chores on repeat.

Then comes a shattering message: “Twelve years later.”

Oliver continues to be there in his 300-square-foot, comfortably appointed cell. James is nowhere in sight.

As my eyes welled up — and it was nonetheless solely the primary quantity — the devastating opening of “Up” instantly sprang to thoughts, as did Andy gifting away his cherished childhood associates in “Toy Story 3.”

“Maybe Happy Ending,” like Pixar at its perfect, nourishes the soul in a manner few Broadway reveals even try and do.

The blissful, boundlessly artistic present of a musical from South Korea, which opened Monday evening on the Belasco Theatre, has no bulldozing ballads to cue the waterworks. There are not any kitschy dance transitions to appease our overworked brains.

The considerate rating by Will Aronson with lyrics like firing neurons by Hue Park is sprightly and harmless — harking back to the pastoral soundtracks of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated movies, similar to “Spirited Away” or “Howl’s Moving Castle.”      

As an alternative of predictable bombast, the tender musical’s many heartbreaking and uplifting moments sneak up on us and supply an more and more uncommon sensation for a style that has turn out to be formulaic and by-product: shock.  

No person will assume to deliver tissues to the singing android present, however you’d be nicely suggested to top off.

In any case, you’re at a robo rom-com. 

Oliver’s dozen years solo ends full-stop when a fellow machine named Claire (Helen J Shen) knocks on his door begging to make use of his charger. With out that plug, she stops functioning — just like the Tin Man when he rusts.

Claire is a HelperBot 5; Oliver is a 3. Lengthy within the bluetooth, he chides her about how the 3s are extra sturdily constructed than the youthful, glitchier fashions. The unhappy reality is that they’re each out of date and deserted.

Quickly, Claire is stopping by every single day to borrow the wire. Oliver’s Scroogey annoyance turns into expectation and finally he’s standing puppy-like by the entryway.

The spark plugs fly on Dane Laffrey’s set that’s each brutalist and comfortable.

Then, as quickly as we’ve wrapped our heads round “Maybe Happy Ending” as a two-hander, two-room, automaton love story, the digital duo embarks on a humorous street journey.

Claire accompanies Oliver on a dangerous journey to hunt out James (Marcus Choi) at his new residence on an island 100 miles away. 

They’re not supposed to go away their facility, so that they each undertake faux identities. Their efforts to faux to be people at a lodge meant for, um, spicy late-night dalliances are hysterical.

After all, coming head to head with the one that consigned them to the scrap heap may deliver on an existential disaster. 

And so the second half of the present confronts the challenges that the appearance of synthetic intelligence may sometime pose for, nicely, synthetic intelligence: Am I a being or an object? Do my wants and wishes matter? Do I’ve the capability to like?

That’s numerous complicated inquiries to ponder, however “Maybe Happy Ending” isn’t lower than terribly charming because it asks them.

This large swing of a musical wouldn’t work with out the peerlessly tuned performances of Criss and Shen. These roles may simply be twee and irksome — they’re something however.

Criss’ Oliver is a smiley mixture of J. Pierrepont Finch from “How to Succeed” and Pee-Wee Herman with a little bit of earnest boy subsequent door. He’s a bucket of bolts with a coronary heart of gold.

As his crush, Shen imparts a sit-com sensibility to her newer, extra naturally behaving Claire. Quippy and forthright, she’s the realist of the pair, save for a ardour for fireflies. Shen is as incandescent as that summertime staple.

Their flirtation is helped alongside by silky-voiced Dez Duron as an omnipresent Frank Sinatra-like crooner named Gil Brentley. He hacks into their arduous drives as he sings tunes akin to “Fly Me to the Moon” that deliver the battery-powered courtship all the way down to earth.       

Welding comedy, romance and science fiction, string quartets and bourbon-inflected jazz, holograms and furnished residing rooms is director Michael Arden, who has merely outdone himself right here.

The director, who will get higher with each present, treats these in any other case disparate parts like important apps on one harmonious machine. Nothing upstages the rest. Most reveals are fortunate to have a single breathtaking second. On the Belasco, you lose rely.

Arden, who additionally did splendid work in “Parade” and “A Christmas Carol,” had an unenviable job with “Maybe Happy Ending”: Singing robots, they’re similar to us!

And but he’s succeeded brilliantly. He’s introduced Wall-E to Broadway.

I’ve criticized Broadway many instances through the years for being too robotic. 

This time, nevertheless, it’s excessive reward.