Darren Criss on Broadway Fandom, AI Love

W
hether he’s standing  under the glare of a spotlight on a Broadway stage, or perched in front of an open window at a bustling Nolita coffeeshop, one fact stays the same: Darren Criss practically vibrates with energy. And that observation isn’t just because Criss currently stars in the new Broadway musical Maybe Happy Ending, where in a world filled with robots, energy is everything.

Criss plays Oliver, a life-like “Helper-Bot” living out his lifespan in a small apartment in Seoul, Korea. For all his robotic tendencies, stiff limbs, and jointed movements, Oliver is clear from his very first song that he cherishes his simple, unwavering routine: chatting with his potted plant Hwaboon, listening to old jazz records, and waiting for mail from his owner James. But when Claire (Helen J. Shen), the Helper-Bot across the hall, crashes into his life because of her broken charger, the two’s budding friendship and matching dream to visit South Korea’s famed JeJu island catapults them onto a journey about the importance of memories and the complex nature of love. 

Written by Hue Park and composed by Will Aronson, Maybe Happy Ending is a charming addition to a Broadway scene usually dominated by revivals and shows based on established intellectual property — with Criss’ performance giving Oliver passion and heartbreaking depth that feels like it should be impossible for a battery-powered assistant. But what shows the musical’s strength and staying power is its extremely dedicated online fandom, also known as Fireflies, who have used word of mouth posts on TikTok, Reddit, and Tumblr to drive up ticket sales and take the musical from scrappy newcomer to a Tony contender. And whether it’s kismet or something more magical, there’s something incredibly significant about a musical thriving from its online fandom being led by an actor whose career is defined by them. Criss tells Rolling Stone he doesn’t take lightly how much fans feel attached to the Broadway musical. After all, he was a fan first. 

“You don’t go to school for this,” Criss says, black-painted fingernails curled in front of a shot of espresso. “Nothing can prepare you for the oddness and the beauty of [fandom]. It’s a mutating organism. I get it. And whenever anyone wants to be a part, I’m very grateful, because I know what is driving that engine.” 

When Criss exits the stage door left of the Belasco theater after a performance of Maybe Happy Ending, it’s always unclear which version of the 38-year-old people are cheering for. The average person might recognize the actor for his time on the Ryan Murphy teen-comedy Glee, where he played a cappella group leader Blaine Anderson, love interest of Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer). There’s also Murphy’s 2018 FX limited series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, for which Criss took home a Primetime Emmy for his portrayal of killer Andrew Cunanan. He’s also been on Broadway for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Chess, Hedwig and The Angry Inch, and American Buffalo. But what the layman might not be aware of is Criss’ digital start via the now-famous YouTube musical theater group Team Starkid. He played boy wonder Harry Potter in Starkid’s theater parody A Very Potter Musical, which was filmed during he and his friends’ final semester at the University of Michigan. The show went viral on YouTube in 2009 — kickstarting Team Starkid’s presence online as a generation-defining digital theater company. 

Before A Very Potter Musical was quintessential YouTube history, it was the school’s annual basement musical theater show for “shits and giggles.” His senior year, Criss played Potter and wrote several songs two days before the show. Because they performed in a classroom that was set up with performance cameras and mics, the group convinced lead writers Nick and Matt Lang to cut the footage together, which ended up on a DVD the group gathered to watch together. After graduation, the friends decamped to different cities, but people kept asking to be sent the DVD. So Criss uploaded it to YouTube to save money on postage. “It was literally just a means to share with our friends, unaware that anybody outside of our dumb group of friends would be interested in this very niche thing,” he says. “But I just remember waking up and getting a notification that we were the number one subscribed channel in 50 countries.” 

While Criss describes the experience of going viral during such an early stage of the internet as  “uniquely terrifying,” he also notes that his jumpstart into the online world with Starkid has made him realize just how rare it is that collaborations with friends not only succeed but are well received. Maybe Happy Ending’s director Michael Arden is married to Criss’ college classmate, Andy Mientus, who was an associate director of the show’s first run in Atlanta. Criss’ co-star Shen is also a recent graduate of the University of Michigan and Criss describes her as both an actress with “supernova potential,” and a dear friend. 

“The thing that scared us about [Starkid] at first was the thing that ended up being a huge asset to us, which was this sort of scrappy, me and my friends quality to it,’” Criss says. “It’s a moment of great pride and joy for me, because it was what you dream about, which is like, ‘Oh, if I could just make stuff with my friends.’ With a lifetime of creating stuff, I know the feeling of being into [a project] when other people aren’t, or vice versa. But I’ve loved this show since we started making it, and the fact that other people responded to it is really validating.” 

Even if there was a good way to spoil the magic of the show — there isn’t — it would be a disservice to try here. But Criss, a father of two, calls Maybe Happy Ending “the greatest possible thing that could be happening to me and my family creatively, spiritually, emotionally and mentally,” because the schedule allows him to have time with his wife and kids. “These are very valuable years I will not get back,” he says. “And I’m keenly aware of that, so I get very emo about this very beautiful moment in my life.” But it’s not just a return to Broadway for the actor, it’s a return to the very theater where he starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2016, but with a friend making her Broadway debut. 

“The fact that Helen and I are now just sharing this moment, and that marquee, there’s a real poetry to it,” he says. “I get to behold this staggering Broadway debut. I think this is gonna be one of those moments that we talk about many years from now. ‘Oh, I saw Sutton [Foster] in this,’ or ‘I saw Audra [McDonald] in this.’ I saw Helen in this eight times a week. And I had the best seat in the house.” 

Fandom aside, Maybe Happy Ending also has a clear draw with the prescient questions it raises about artificial intelligence and the idea of planned obsolescence in an actively growing tech field. Yes, that doesn’t sound particularly conducive to a no-intermission musical helmed by a talented predominantly Asian-American cast and a jazzy, romantic score. But that’s the sheer surprise of Maybe Happy Ending, which manages to tackle giant thoughts of romance, trash, and a human devotion to tech, all within an hour and 40 minutes. 

“I got asked a question today, like, ‘How soon do you think [robot helpers] are gonna happen?’ And I was like ‘It happens now,’ We have emotional relationships with our technology,” Criss says. “You lose your phone in a fucking cab, you go insane. Your phone is an extension of yourself, for better or for worse. I always tell people like when they’re trying to get their head around the pitch for the show, ‘Well, how many old iPhones do you have in a drawer?’ How many old pieces of technology do you keep for reasons beyond rational belief systems? We ascribe parts of ourselves into these things that are part of our story, and we can’t let them go.” 

Broadway fandoms aren’t something that can simply be manufactured to help with a show’s appeal. Theater is a notoriously inaccessible medium, with filmed versions either expensive or entirely unavailable. It’s an art that is experienced best in person. But that proximity can also bring a bit of a taboo about digital fans, where their fervor and intensity can put off actors or creatives. Criss notes that while this can seem weird to some, he always encourages people to double down on the love for their interests. After all, he says his intense love of musicians and movies is what got him to this stage in the first place. 

“People say ‘Don’t chase your heroes.’ No,” Criss says . “Wait outside of buses for them. Go to a store and get your sneakers signed by them. Keep track of what they’re doing. And then cultivate your mind and your skill set to get to a level where your abilities put [you] in a room with them. That’s the way the inspiration wheel works.”