B'wy Musical MAYBE HAPPY ENDINGS Definitely a Sappy Robot Love Story

The Broadway musical MAYBE HAPPY ENDINGS has some things going for it. It has a talented cast, clever staging and a diverting but forgettable score. It's set in the not too futuristic city of Seoul. Basically it is a love story between two android servants left abandoned in the same building. Claire (think Ishiguro's novel "Klara and the Sun") knocks on the door of Oliver (think Dickens' abandoned orphan) for assistance in getting charged. Both androids have become obsolete and discarded by their owners. This is the melancholy plot to Ishiguro's novel which evokes memes of selfless dedication that is met by eventual disregard not unlike  Klara or Woody in Disney's "Toy Story." Whereas these fictional characters all elicit our sympathies for their becoming obsolete despite their steadfast devotions, "ENDINGS" fails to compute similar emotional resolutions. Claire and Oliver are different models. Claire is by far the more worldly wise android aware of the nature of their similar situation whereas Oliver is irrepressibly optimistic of being reunited with his benevolent owner. Claire convinces Oliver to take a road trip with her to track down his benevolent benefactor whom Claire realizes is not returning to reclaim him. Oliver is protective of his plant and brings it along on their road trip. (Think ET's connection to plant life.) Their delight in their exposure outside their monotonous quarters is mildly amusing. There are delightful interludes of jazz vocals that represent the music Oliver listened to and grew fond of under his owner's tutelage. This Broadway musical illicit comparisons to other entertainments which fare far better. Overall,  HAPPY ENDINGS is pedantic and predictable and only mildly amusing. Are human failings embedded with codings to enable callous dismissal of one another? Will Androids evolve to develop human emotions? Does MAYBE HAPPY ENDINGS  have broad appeal. The answers are: yes, no and not outside the Wednesday, matinee crowd.