Georeactor Blog

A musical which I saw on Broadway back in January won Best Musical and 5 other Tony Awards. I've enjoyed following the subreddit, and social media and PR, its awards run and upcoming tour. I've been nerding out about MHE's evolution (the NAMT workshop in 2016, Korean version of that song, and recent recording), and a New Yorker video on storyboarding / set design, but it might be more relevant to talk about its protagonists, retired helperbots living in Seoul.

First, I realize we can't expect this depiction of AI to be hyper realistic. Works of sci-fi are supposed to reflect our society and not literally how to design AI agents. Maybe retired robots pushed out by their families and nearing technical end-of-life represent the elderly; maybe their awkwardness, special interests, and innocence is saying something about neurodiversity. You would run into issues making it a 1:1 replacement for any one group though.

Oliver is an older version Helperbot, so he is rigidly programmed (he compulsively asks "can I help you?"; if someone says Thank You, he must say You're Welcome). He is afraid to interact with anyone, including other Helperbots, and is fiercely loyal to his last owner James. Oliver picked up a deep obsession with jazz records from him. This follows some tropes of robots having hardcoded responses, of coding taking control over a separate 'personality', and being bonded/imprinted to one owner. It does feel "special interest" coded, especially when it's annoying to others.
Despite his robotic movements and routines, Oliver care for a plant, and we're told that he goes outside to collect cans for change to travel one day. It's illegal for robots to make money or travel around without supervision - so their retirement housing is indefinitely prepaid by their old owners? I do think it's interesting that these robots aren't coming for our jobs, but primarily helping and caring.

Claire is a newer Helperbot, and compared to Oliver she has a warmer personality and can understand human nuance. Productions vary on how robotic to make her makeup and gestures. Her first song is about losing battery life, knowing she will ultimately be tethered to a wall charger and then die is "the way that it has to be". Yet in a Reddit IAMA the director said

Someone told me [the play] was an exercise in and exploration of grief, and I thought that was surprising.

After running into Oliver, their personalities clash in a fun way, and soon they are on a road trip, which Claire understands to be her last.

Some other robot features - Claire is able to share multimedia information to Oliver and retrieve his memories by touch. Only she can drive. Robots have an admin password which limits them until liberated by their owners. Humans do not call them out on sight, so they must pass as human, and have non-mass-produced faces? It's implied that being submerged in water would kill them, and they have chips and replaceable joints, so their hardware is something we would understand as a robot, just very convincing.
Someone could maybe argue that the humans know and no longer care that they're robots. I remember one review where someone's relative had limited English and didn't pick up at first that the two leads were robots, which could explain a scene early on where they make phone noises.

INTERMISSION: industry drama

Oliver is played by Darren Criss, who acted in the TV show Glee and popular Broadway shows. It's the first Broadway role for Helen J. Shen, who plays Claire. The show's following includes a lot of established Criss fans, while the social media, management, and Criss have done a good job featuring the cast as a team. In January they had the Tony Awards Committee make Shen eligible for Actress in a Leading Role. In February she did a behind-the-scenes vlog series, and in April she chatted with another new-to-Broadway lead Jasmine Amy Rogers. Ultimately Criss won Best Actor, but Shen was not nominated. The Chicago Tribune writes:

By making the robots as vulnerable as us, they forged a charming romantic comedy performed by Helen J. Shen (robbed of an acting nomination) and Darren Criss (who dove deep into robotland).

Rogers got a nomination, but didn't win. There also is still an unclear story around why Boop did not get a performance on the Tonys broadcast.
I'll also add here I learned about understudies.org, a calendar which can help fans who want to see specific actors.

SPOILERS for Maybe Happy Ending follow

On their road trip and ferry to Jeju, the robots have some fun hijinks, recharge at a love motel, and learn a bit about each other. Along with the familiar trope of robots discovering their own humanity in romantic feelings, there are some explorations of how well can robots understand human relationships, do robots experience loss when they leave their owner, whether a human and robot could have platonic or romantic feelings for each other.
A scene where the robots watch Terminator 2 made it feel connected it to our real world. Instead of the violence or time travel, they envy that a T-1000 can touch anything and morph into it. Maybe that's an interest in becoming alive? They don't otherwise seem to envy humans.

On Jeju Island, Oliver learns that his former owner James has died, and his son tells him to leave. According to a summary of the Korean version, the family laughs at him because they have a newer HelperBot now. In the US version, James had to give up Oliver before moving in with his son (retirement theme). The son returns at the end of the play to deliver a gift and explain his resentment, because James shaped Oliver as his ideal jazz-loving son. Either version, I do see this as James betraying and sidelining Oliver because he's not human.

Claire remembers her own betrayal, where her owner's husband expressed interest in her because she's programmed to be kind and nonjudgmental. Claire cannot handle this, and her owner kicks her out later as part of the fallout. She loses all faith in humans. I thought this was a reasonable take on falling in love with an AI as a shortcut to dealing with real relationships.
I don't understand the remainder of the read of this situation. Relistening to What I Learned From People, her owner falling in love with anyone equals the end of their relationship. When Claire is let go, she readily accepts being replaced by a more advanced helperbot, but she's hurt when she gets the explanation, her admin password, the retirement apartment, and a spare car (?) all at once.
Then the revelation that James did miss Oliver and saved a gift for him is supposed to refute Claire's cynicism of humans.

The two robots then enjoy watching fireflies, which I have learned is a real tourist attraction on Jeju. The robots suggest the fireflies have a secret to eternal charge, and address one as 'little robot', which seems to perplex viewers (including YouTuber 'Waiting in the Wings' during MHE's performance at the Tony Awards). If I'm remembering my thoughts in the theater, I wondered if nature has been fully wiped out and fireflies were robot replacements, then settled on robots not understanding nature, but sitting here today the better read is that their firefly jar represents them adopting a little robot baby.

After returning home and comedically mimicking human relationships for some time, the two realize that they will die at different times, and it might be better to forget. Fortunately erasing memories will be easy. Claire already has her admin password, and Oliver gets his while resolving things with James's son. This hints that giving or receiving the password is about letting go of a relationship, allowing each other to move on.
Oliver decides not to reset, so he can fall in love with Claire again. You can find Reddit discussions about whether Claire reset herself or not, if the actors switch it up, or if it's left for interpretation. The director told Reddit:

I think she DOES erase. This is very much up for debate among some people. But part of me thinks it's more tragic that way.

Early in the musical I wondered if HelperBots understand time - like what if 200 years have gone by? Robots must have few references to time, if they can seamlessly erase the timespan of their relationship? Fortunately they don't go this deep. They do mention that their WiFi chips no longer work, so maybe that's how they once reset their clocks.
After they agreed to reset their memories, I wondered if the robots are trapped in a loop. I haven't watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but I am aware. The reaction of James's family suggests this was the first time that Oliver reached Jeju. If he did reset his memory, he might be compelled to return (and notice he lost his saved recycling money, right?). I'm not fully OK with the idea that Claire, who only wanted to see fireflies on Jeju before she died, would agree to forget her firefly experience and wake up now closer to death. It also isn't so cute for Oliver to go back on erasing his memories and deceive Claire, however well-intentioned he is. So I'm going to believe that they both kept their memories and enjoy role-playing humans.