He plays a "Helperbot" named Oliver whose owner sent him to a retirement home for obsolete robots. In the hallway of his apartment, Oliver meets Claire (Shen), a newer model robot whose battery life is diminishing.

Broadway’s “Maybe Happy Ending,” starring Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen, is a refreshingly original exploration of love and loneliness.

The retired Helperbots — merely trying to stay afloat in the final chapter of their lives — slowly realize their capacity for love and the result is a wondrous commentary on relationships and the passage of time, woven together by tender storytelling and inventive stagecraft.

Helen J. Shen, left, and Darren Criss in a scene from Broadway's "Maybe Happy Ending." The show opens with the fastidious android Oliver (Darren Criss), who patiently waits for his owner, James (Marcus Choi), to come retrieve him from a lofty apartment ...