‘Maybe Happy Ending’ Brings Helen J. Shen to the Broadway Stage

by · WWD

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On Monday night, “Maybe Happy Ending” star Helen J. Shen celebrated two notable Broadway debuts: the musical’s, and her own. And both she and the musical are just getting started on theater’s main stage.

“Being able to share a new story, completely original to an audience, has been so exciting because there will be times that the audience is completely pin-drop silent,” says Shen of bringing the musical to Broadway for the first time. “And as an actor, I’m like, Oh, did we lose them? Do they hate it? What’s going on? And it’s just that they’re listening so intently, because they have no idea what’s going to come next.”

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“Maybe Happy Ending,” written by Will Aronson and Hue Park, was originally staged in Korea in 2016, followed shortly by an English-language workshop and Atlanta production in 2020. Shen was working on two off-Broadway shows, “Teeth” and “The Lonely Few,” when she was cast in the Broadway production opposite Darren Criss in May.

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“[The musical] has had lives before, so [it’s been rewarding] to have autonomy to think about how my take on the character would be different from what’s been done before,” says Shen. “There’s always been room for us to build and connect and find our natural chemistry, as opposed to shoehorn what we think it should be.” 

A look backstage with Helen Shen for the opening night of “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway.Lexie Moreland/WWD

Shen and Criss star as “Helperbots” — sort of like if Siri was tucked into a human body — whose owners have cast them off for various reasons. The retired robots exist within solo apartment cubicles, their technology becoming obsolete until they are no longer able to charge up. Shen’s later-model robot, facing a diminished battery life, knocks on her neighbor’s door asking to borrow his charger, kicking off a complicated friendship. 

The intersection of technology and modern human life plays out within a complex set design, which Shen compares to watching a movie in a theater space. “It looks like an iris of a camera,” says the actress of the sliding panels that replace the role of stage curtains, and crop sections of the stage for the audience. The show also features holographic-effect video; the complicated set components contributed to previews being delayed by about a month.

The actress, who grew up in New Jersey, fell in love with musical theater during her teenage years, after spending her childhood studying piano at a high level. She went on to study theater at the University of Michigan — Criss is also an alum — and graduated in 2022. 

“This is the first time that I’ve done this big stage door and been able to connect with people in a very real way. I’m seeing so many more Asian faces at the stage door, and it’s really exciting because it brings me back to a stage door that I did not so long ago — well, when I was like 12,” says Shen.  “I went to see ‘Billy Elliot,’ and I saw an Asian Billy Elliot. I had a big crush on him. And I remember stage-dooring and standing there and waiting, and feeling like this was personal to me, just because I felt like I could see myself,” she adds. “And now to be able to do that and hold that dream for people is really exciting.” 

A look backstage with Helen Shen for the opening night of “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway.Lexie Moreland/WWD

On Monday afternoon, the actress was in her dressing room at the Belasco Theatre getting ready for her first Broadway opening night. She had a noteworthy dress waiting in the wings just for the occasion: a gown that her mother had purchased soon after moving to the U.S. from China.

“It was a moment where she decided to purchase a dress that made her feel beautiful,” says Shen of the golden-hued dress. “To see this dress in her closet that she saved, and then to put it on and it fits me like a glove, is really emotional for me. It’s a physical embodiment of feeling beautiful and feeling confident. It goes beyond the surface of ‘I want to have a fit on opening night’ or ‘I want to look good.’ It’s marking that a moment is important.”  

While “Maybe Happy Ending” is a rom-com with robots, the lingering message of the musical transcends the stage. Shen hopes to continue connecting with audiences long after opening night.

“In the context of the world, it’s easier, at least surface level, to isolate ourselves and separate ourselves,” says Shen.

“I think what audiences will take away, and what I like to take away every night, is that there are always little moments in life that make life worth living — and it’s connection, it’s the appreciation of nature, it’s the cosmic being of it all,” she adds. “We’re not so far from AI and robots being really significant in our lives, and I think that is something that we have to think about with technology getting more and more prevalent in our lives: How do we make sure that connection and people are a priority when that happens?”

Live theater is a great place to start.