Finding the right creative partner

Composer Will Aronson, left, and lyricist Hue Park / Courtesy of Lee Soo-jin

Aronson, Park duo win success in Korea, eye Broadway

By Kwon Mee-yoo

The theater industry goes into its slow season as the big winter holiday season passes by, but the heat over "Maybe Happy Ending," a small show about two robots that fall in love with each other staged at Daemyung Culture Factory in Daehangno, northeastern Seoul, shows no signs of cooling down.

The heartwarming show revolves around two old-fashioned "helper-bots" Oliver and Claire, living in a robots-only apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, who have been replaced by newer models. They live an isolated life, stuck in their home, but they set out on a trip to Jeju Island together with different goals ― for Oliver, it was to find his former master James, while Claire wanted to see fireflies.

The show is a new work from composer Will Aronson and lyricist Hue Park, the duo behind the hit Korean musical "Bungee Jump." This time, they teamed up to write the script together ― Aronson composed the music and Park put words to it.

"We worked really hard. I feel like I couldn't do harder than this. I was really nervous before the curtain went up. In a sense the show is so us, has our sensibility. We kept telling each other that we shouldn't take (the response) personally, but we couldn't stop it. All the characters ― Oliver, Claire and even James ― share lots of our personalities, we were really afraid of people thinking these characters as not cool or too weird," Park said.

It all began with Damon Albarn's song "Everyday Robots," Aronson recalled. "We were working on a different show with a larger cast, but Hue suggested writing a musical about robots, not futuristic but romantic. He also said one of the robots should play the jazz trombone," Aronson said. The playing the instrument part was deleted from Oliver while developing the character, but his taste in jazz remained throughout.

"The initial idea we came up with was more sci-fi, futuristic and avant-garde. It became a love story of two robots as we developed and trimmed down the idea," Park said.

"Even if we write about robots, our natural inclination is to write about people. In the end, for us, telling a story about robots was a great way to actually talk about other things we care about.

"Many of people can relate the story to some phase of their life. There are times when we are alone in our room and happy and one day you start discovering a larger world. When you become aware of love, suddenly you are capable of more sadness because you can have loss. For us, it was a fresher way to show something we experience with people," Aronson added.

There is little exposition about the helper-bots or the near future time period of the show, as it is not a show about robots but people and relationships.

Aiming for Broadway

The show was commissioned and sponsored by the Wooran Foundation and developed in both Korean and English from the beginning, reflecting the bilingual nature of the creators.

The two come from very different backgrounds, but they seem to finish each other's sentences. Park said their background might influence what they write together, but that doesn't really affect the collaboration.

"If you trust each other a lot, then it's really good if you are different. But, because that kind of trust is rare, often you want to work with someone who is like you. If someone is like you, you both will be able to judge in the exact same way," Aronson said. "If you are working with someone different than you, you might have different appeals. That can be great when the trust is there. It can take the collaboration to an exciting new direction. We have not only different cultural backgrounds but also different artistic sensibilities, but they overlap enough to trust each other."

Park said, "Will is hardworking, has great work ethics and is one of the most talented people I've ever met. I always feel luck to collaborate with such a driven person. Even though we have known each other for years, I'm a foreigner (in New York) and it is encouraging to have an open-minded, not-so-calculated partner who is able to come up with new ideas."

Aronson said he feels safe in artistic experiments with Park. "First, you want to work with someone who brings so much artistic value to the project and Hue is a great artist _ his sensibility and craft skills with lyrics are very rare. He also has great taste and I feel very comfortable trying anything, like doing really crazy things because he will put a stop if I go too far. It means I can take risks.”

While preparing for the Korean production, Aronson and Park also worked on the English version of the show in the U.S., by conducting workshops in New York and inviting theater producers. Luckily, the show appealed to Americans as well and they signed with a prominent Broadway producer to develop the show for a bigger stage.

The English version has a different working title, "What I Learned from People," due to the differences in nuance. What is interesting is the duo insisted on using names of specific places such as Seoul and Jeju Island, which could sound unfamiliar in the U.S.

"We set up as the same in both productions from the beginning. It was crucial to keep the show unique," Park said. Oliver spends all his time in his room, learning about the world through radio and the internet. It's something all modern people can relate to and somewhat similar to Japan's Hikikomori culture, so we don't want to change the setting in the English version."

Still there is a long way before the show properly hits Broadway ― or Off-Broadway ― but the match-made duo are ready to pursue the biggest dream for a playwright.

“I know this is not the biggest show in Korea now, but still a couple hundred of people come to see the show every night and respond to the sensibility of the show. I think it's incredible and I'm grateful for that. And we are excited to go through the same process in America,” Park said.

The musical runs until March 5. For more information, visit ticket.interpark.com or call 02-766-7667.