'Maybe Happy Ending' wins big at the 2025 Tony Awards

The surprise darling of the 2024-25 Broadway season, the robotic rom-com musical took home the most prizes of the night, with six including Best Musical.

Definitely Maybe! The musical Maybe Happy Ending was the toast of the 78th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8. The delightful rom-com (rob-com?) about robots discovering love took home six honors, the most for this year's celebration of Broadway’s best and brightest. Wins included Best Musical, Best Leading Actor for Darren Criss, and Best Director for Michael Arden.

“I've been trying not to cry for the whole evening. This is beyond my wildest dreams,” Hue Park said to reporters after his win. Alongside Will Aronson, Park picked up awards for the show’s book and score in the pre-show Tonys segment that aired on Pluto TV. Dane Laffrey and George Reeve also won during that portion of the night for the show’s scenic design.

Criss and Helen J. Shen star as HelperBots Oliver and Claire, who unexpectedly connect, go on a cross-country adventure, and get a bittersweet new lease on life after being deemed obsolete. (Maybe Happy Ending also features Dez Duron as a jazz crooner and Marcus Choi as Oliver’s former owner, James.) After winning Best Musical, co-lead producer Hunter Arnold shared what drew him to the musical — and made it an easy yes.

“It was just this gorgeous jewel box of a heartwarming show, and so universal,” he said. “It’s so hopeful, and, ironically, so incredibly human. So it was a very easy decision to [...] put this thing in Michael's hands and make him bring it to life.”

Maybe Happy Ending began in South Korea in 2016, followed by an Atlanta production in January 2020. Fellow lead producer Jeffrey Richards said the play was to bring the show to Broadway then, but the pandemic got in the way.

Just as Oliver and Claire fall for each other, theatregoers have become enamored with Maybe Happy Ending. Richards shared that audience reaction has been key to the success of the musical at the Belasco Theatre, which also received near-universal critical acclaim upon its November opening.

“What happened was our word-of-mouth was so good that it began to create a want-to-see factor for the show,” he said.

Aronson celebrated the fans who’ve spread the word: “We call them our fireflies,” he said affectionately. (The name is a nod to a key moment in the show.) “They really came out to support the show and managed to keep the show open.”

For Arden, who won the 2023 Best Direction Tony for his revival of Parade, Maybe Happy Ending reaffirmed his secret to success, one that invigorates his work: “Cultivating relationships, finding your tribe of people and supporting them,” he said.

“Lifting [others] up is the best way to lift yourself up.”

Get Maybe Happy Ending tickets now.

Gillian Russo contributed reporting to this story.

Top image credit: Maybe Happy Ending cast members Dez Duron, Helen J. Shen, Darren Criss, and Marcus Choi at the Tony Awards. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
In-article image credit: Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway. (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)