한국국제교류재단

Maybe Happy Ending follows Oliver and Claire, two Helperbots created to assist humans, as they gradually discover love. The musical premiered in Korea in 2016 and arrived on Broadway in 2024, becoming a breakout hit.
Courtesy of NHN LINK

Maybe Happy Ending took an interesting path to the stage. In 2014, the nonprofit Wooran Foundation decided to fund the project after seeing an early draft by lyricist Hue Park and composer Will Aronson. At the time, Korea had modest infrastructure to support new musicals. Nevertheless, the project steadily crystalized with the creators’ envisioning a global stage from the start, working in both English and Korean at the same time. A reading followed in 2015, then a workshop in 2016 in New York, where the creators had first met while studying at New York University.

The story offers a blend of freshness and quiet emotional pull. Set in the near future, it unfolds in aging apartment blocks across metropolitan Seoul, where worn Helperbots — robots once designed to assist humans — go through their routines alone. Their owners have disappeared, and with the models now discontinued, even basic replacement parts have become hard to find.

In the midst of this monotonous, repetitive life, Oliver, a male Helperbot-3 model, one day receives an unexpected visit from Claire, a female Helperbot-5 model living next door. Her charger has broken and she asks for help. The two Helperbots start to bond like humans and even come to experience the emotion called love. Yet in the end, they choose to part ways, and the musical closes on an open, unresolved note.

In Korea’s musical scene, shows often run for two to three months before returning the next season for an encore. Maybe Happy Ending distinguished itself with six encore seasons over the past decade. Audiences’ devotion and attachment to the musical and their repeated viewings were encapsulated in the refrain “I’m going back home.”

The repeat performances sold out year after year. Even the COVID-19 pandemic couldn’t stop the annual pilgrimage to see the show. New York’s Broadway and London’s West End, home to the world’s most prestigious stages, shut down during the pandemic, but Korea managed to keep its theater doors ajar, thanks to effective health and safety measures. International media outlets described Korea as the only place where The Phantom of the Opera “survived,” with its 2019 international tour opening in Seoul.

At the height of the pandemic, theatergoers in Korea watched performances in semi-isolation. With safety protocols keeping every second seat empty, they followed the story with a quiet intensity, their eyes seeming to offer encouragement. At curtain call, some actors were so moved they broke down and cried.

Premiering in 2020, Marie Curie reimagines the life of the famous Polish scientist through a blend of fact and fiction. In 2024, it became the first Korean musical to be staged as a full Englishlanguage production at the Charing Cross Theatre, one of London’s Off West End venues.
Courtesy of LIVE Inc.

Clear differences appear between the Korean and Broadway versions of Maybe Happy Ending, as components were tweaked and even eliminated to suit the respective audiences. Not surprisingly, the most noticeable difference was the language.

Translation of the Korean book and lyrics into English for the U.S. version led to both major and minor variations. “In Spite of It All,” one of the musical’s songs especially loved by Korean fans, was omitted in the Broadway production. Notes from the Maybe Happy Ending creative team indicate that the Korean and English script versions were crafted to align with cultural and emotional differences. Many feel this approach allowed each version to connect more meaningfully with their respective audiences.

The size of the venues also differed markedly. In Korea, the show was staged in an intimate theater of around three hundred seats, while on Broadway, it moved to the Belasco Theatre with over one thousand seats. Because of this shift, Broadway audiences encountered a different kind of charm — not the cozy familiarity of a small theater but the sweeping scale and energy of a large Broadway venue.

Despite the changes, the two versions of Maybe Happy Ending also share several important elements. For example, the plants in the production serve not only as stage props but also as symbolic reflection of the two Helperbots’ emotions and relationship. To preserve that nuance, the creative team decided to keep the Korean name Hwabun in the Broadway production rather than translate it to “potted plant.” The fireflies that the robots encounter during their trip to Jeju Island were likewise retained, their glowing presence representing the fleeting yet beautiful moments the Helperbots share and the memories they cherish.

One particularly striking aspect of the American production is the way it has generated repeat ticket buyers, a pattern not always seen on Broadway. These repeat visitors happily dub themselves “fireflies” swarming to the theater.

Produced by Theater Yeonwoo, The Goddess Is Watching is an original musical about soldiers stranded on a fictional island during the Korean War. First selected for development in 2011 through CJ Cultural Foundation’s Creative Minds program, it premiered in 2013 and later won the Best Script Award at the Korea Musical Awards.
Courtesy of Theater Yeonwoo

Riding the success of Maybe Happy Ending, efforts to create a second and even third “happy ending” are now taking shape. Next year, a Polish production of Marie Curie is set to premiere in the home country of the famous scientist who discovered radium and won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband, Pierre. The musical by Seeun Choun and Jongyoon Choi, first staged in Korea in 2020, weaves imagination into the trailblazer’s life story. Meanwhile, Lee Hae-je and Jang So-yeong’s reinterpretation of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot was licensed for production in Slovakia.

In September this year, Swag Age: Shout Out, Joseon! held a showcase performance at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London’s West End that captured the attention of theater insiders. The award-winning musical, which chronicles a rebel group’s fight against corrupt officials, premiered in 2019 and enjoyed several repeat runs in Korea before making its international debut. Building on this momentum, another ambitious project, The Goddess Is Watching, is preparing to enter the English-speaking market. Set during the Korean War, the musical explores the unexpected interactions between soldiers from opposite sides stranded together on a remote island, offering a story that is both intimate and universally resonant.

Will Korean musicals secure an enduring place on the global stage? If the formula for success can be replicated, as in K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean cinema, Maybe Happy Ending may have just been the beginning.

Set in the Joseon era, Swag Age: Shout Out, Joseon! has maintained unwavering popularity since its 2019 premiere, driven by its standout direction and inventive storyline. Set in a fictionalized Joseon Dynasty, the musical reinterprets the traditional Korean poetic form sijo as rap, which is used in the common people’s struggle against an authoritarian elite. Critics also praised its striking choreography and dynamic musical numbers, which fuse traditional Korean rhythms with rap and hip-hop beats.
Courtesy of PL Entertainment