Maybe Happy Ending achieved an unlikely Broadway rebound.
During previews last fall, the beguiling one-act musical about love and loss in the digital age failed to crack $300,000 a week at the box office. It likely lost money every week for its first 10 weeks at the Belasco Theatre, based on an early production document estimating that it needed published weekly box office grosses of about $820,000 to break even. Few shows recover from a deficit that daunting.
But tonight, the show years in the making and very much of the moment won the Tony Award for best musical. It recently posted its best-ever weekly gross of $1.1 million. “It was a remarkable turnaround,” lead producer Jeffrey Richards told reporters after the ceremony at Radio City Music Hall. “Our word of mouth was so good, it began to create a ‘want-to-see’ factor for the show.”
The night’s other victors: Sunset Blvd, produced and directed by Jamie Lloyd, which won three Tonys, including for best revival of a musical and lead actress Nicole Scherzinger; the smash comedy Oh, Mary!, for lead actor Cole Escola (also its playwright) and director Sam Pinkleton; and four for Buena Vista Social Club, including featured actress Natalie Venetia Belcon.
Francis Jue won for best featured actor in a play, Yellow Face, presented by Roundabout Theatre Co.; and Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, presented by Manhattan Theatre Club, was named top play revival.
Two veterans of commercial theater prevailed. Richards of Maybe Happy Ending has almost 150 Broadway credits as a producer and press agent. David Stone, whose blockbuster musical Wicked famously lost to upstart Avenue Q in 2004, won his fourth Tony since 2019, with Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose. It was Jacobs-Jenkins’ (Appropriate) second consecutive Tony.
“It’s a validation,” Stone said in the Tony press room. While the Tonys are a marketing tool, he said, “it’s great to do work that is recognized.”
Gypsy, starring Audra McDonald, came away empty-handed, as did Boop! The musical. Boop! needed a boost given its anemic grosses.
A highlight of the evening was a medley performed by the original cast of Hamilton — timely promotion ahead of Leslie Odom, Jr.’s return to the show in September.
Maybe Happy Ending received Tonys for lead actor Darren Criss as an obsolete robot on a road trip, Michael Arden’s direction, Will Aronson and Hue Park’s book and score and Dane Laffrey and George Reeve’s scenic design.
The musical premiered in Seoul in 2016. New York Times critic Jesse Green called it “Broadway-ready” after seeing a developmental production at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in early 2020. The pandemic interrupted its momentum.
Richards told Broadway Journal that it was capitalized for $16 million on Broadway. “It was a challenging raise for myself and Hunter,” Richards wrote in an email over the weekend, referring to his Maybe Happy Ending producing partner Hunter Arnold . “We had no title recognition, it had been five years since the production had opened in Atlanta at the Alliance and so there was virtually no buzz, and this was not an easy show to describe.”
After opening, the production took out a loan of about $2 million — a gambit that in this case paid off. Producers flooded the internet with songs from the addictive score. And there was nary a television talk show on which Criss and co-star Helen J. Shen didn’t perform.
Criss’ victory is potentially a mixed blessing. While the win could goose grosses for the rest of his run — recently extended to Aug. 31 — it arguably undermines the idea that the show itself is the star, not Criss. Nikki M. James won for featured actress for 2011’s The Book of Mormon, but lead actors Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells didn’t, which probably helped sustain the box office when they exited in 2012.
With its sophisticated projections and moving windows onto the action, Maybe Happy Ending is an expensive four-character musical. Recouping the roughly $18 million price tag could be slow-going. Nonetheless, after a perilous start, producers are hoping they have a foundation for a long run.
