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How Broadway’s ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ Star Darren Criss Makes Robots Human by Embracing the ‘Beep-o-Boop-Bop’


Darren Criss and his co-star, Helen J. Shen, play retired, robotic "helperbots" in the near-future love story "Maybe Happy Ending."

In his latest Broadway project, Emmy winner Darren Criss(“The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”) and his co-star, Helen J. Shen, play retired, robotic “helperbots” in the near-future love story “ Maybe Happy Ending.” And although it might seem like a challenge to find the emotion in an android, Criss is finding that more he plays with the artifice of it, the more relatable his robot becomes. You know, like ‘beep-o-boop-bop,’ for lack of a better description,” Criss said in a conversation with Shen on the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety’s theater podcast. Now the musical has arrived Stateside — in an English language version also by Aronson and Park — in a technologically ambitious staging featuring intricate projections and a highly mobile, automated set.

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