Machines Like Us

A new musical on Broadway—imported from Seoul—asks age-old questions about romance, mortality, and living life to the fullest. The twist? Robots.

- Lisa Wong Macabasco

Nine years ago, writer Hue Park was sitting in a Brooklyn café when Damon Albarn's song "Everyday Robots" came on. "We are everyday robots on our phones / In the process of getting home," Albarn sings. Park and his writing partner Will Aronson had been reflecting on alienation exacerbated by technology, specifically hikikomori, a form of extreme protracted social withdrawal first identified in Japan that leaves young people unable to leave their homes. They'd observed a similar affliction among their peers. "It was a trend among people our age of becoming more withdrawn and living only in your own space, where you can control everything and get what you want digitally," recalls Aronson, 43.

What if, the duo thought, you could make a musical about the phenomenon? Maybe Happy Ending-which first opened in Seoul in 2016 and has been charming New York audiences since November was the result: a show about solitary robots facing obsolescence that, paradoxically, has the most heart of anything on Broadway.

Set in near-future Seoul, it follows two discarded androids (dubbed Helperbots) on an odyssey across South Korea to track down one of their beloved owners. There are scenes of instant aversion that gradually becomes affection and screwball-comedy conversational sparring, but underneath it all are weightier themes: grief, loss, living and loving boldly in the face of our own finite shelf lives. "We wanted to write about being isolated but eventually taking the risk of leaving your little safe zone—and all the possible joys that come with that," Aronson says.