Darren Criss Returns to ‘Maybe Happy Ending’ After Casting Controversy Sparks Backlash
Hi, I’m Riley Carter, and honestly, if you told me 2025 would bring a full-blown Broadway race controversy over robot casting, I’d have said you were watching too much Theater District Chronicles. But here we are.
Okay, but like… what even is going on with Darren Criss and the whole Maybe Happy Ending situation? The actor, who made history earlier this year as the first Asian American to win a Tony for Best Actor in a Musical, is officially returning to his role as Oliver this fall after a temporary recasting that sparked serious backlash. And yes, people definitely noticed.
The musical’s creators, Will Aronson and Hue Park, announced Criss’s return via Instagram with a cheeky caption: “This Model 3 is anything but retired.” The post confirmed Darren Criss will resume the lead role of Oliver starting November 5th, following a two-month leave he had apparently planned all along. In the interim, Andrew Barth Feldman filled in for nine weeks—except, well, Feldman isn’t of Asian descent, which rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
Broadway insiders say the switch was always meant to be temporary, but that didn’t stop the outcry. Playwright and actor BD Wong—who you might know from M. Butterfly—wrote an open letter criticizing the decision, which gained over 2,400 signatures. He called attention to the fact that the Asian theater community felt sidelined by the choice to replace an Asian male lead with a non-Asian actor, even briefly. “To put it simply: Asian Actors and the Asian Theatergoing Community are fiercely wrestling over a non-Asian actor replacing the Asian male lead,” Wong wrote. “Please Google this responsibly—it’s a real, eternal outcry about race and representation, not an irrational rant about robots.”
Aronson and Park responded to the backlash on social media, expressing sadness that their show became a source of confusion or pain. They reiterated their original vision: a story rooted in Korean culture that could still be adaptable across diverse casts in the future. “Our dream at the outset was that our allegorical robot show could one day miraculously become part of the American musical theater canon—a modern Fantasticks, able to be comfortably performed by anyone, anywhere—yet distinctly set in Korea,” they explained. Still, many questioned whether Criss’s return was always the plan—or just a reaction to the pressure.
“So like… was this the plan all along?” one fan asked online. Others chimed in with skepticism: “So are you going to fire [Andrew Barth Feldman] or not?” and “I see y’all finally read the room.” Some fans took it a step further: “Well, they learned their lesson.”
For context, Maybe Happy Ending premiered in Korea in 2016 before hitting Broadway last year. It follows two robots, Oliver (Criss) and Claire (Helen J. Shen), as they form a connection in Seoul in the year 2060. Criss’s historic Tony win came with a heartfelt speech where he expressed pride in being part of a notably diverse Broadway season. The show also won Best Musical at the 2025 Tony Awards, adding another layer of prestige to the production.
Still, the casting debate lingers. Was the initial recasting a misstep, or was it a logistical necessity that failed to consider optics? Either way, Darren Criss is back, the show goes on, and the conversation around representation in theater remains louder than ever.
Anyway, that’s the deal. Do with it what you will.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and New York Post
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