"Will has been a very close friend of mine for 17 years, even before we became collaborators. We share many similarities in our values and emotional outlook on life."
Cheonhyu Park, the 42-year-old author of the original musical "Maybe Happy Ending," which won six Tony Awards, emphasized in a written interview with Asia Economy that Will Aronson, with whom he creates works, is a friend before he is a colleague. At the age of 25, when he belatedly went to study in the United States, he met a lifelong companion.
Many musicals are produced with a clear division between playwright and composer, such as the team of Sylvester Levay (composer) and Michael Kunze (playwright), who collaborated on musicals like "Rebecca," "Elisabeth," "Mozart!," and "Marie Antoinette." However, Cheonhyu Park explained that he and his partner Will Aronson work together on both writing and composing. Based on shared values, their collaboration is even more organic.
"In Korea, Will is referred to as a composer, but he has always written with me. In the United States, we are both called writers. Whether it is notes or words, we have always been people who write. We create stories together, determine the emotional tone and texture of the music, and collaborate by sharing more stories with each other than anyone else every day."
Their first collaborative work was "Bungee Jumping of Their Own," which premiered in July 2012, and the second was "Maybe Happy Ending," which premiered in December 2016. "Bungee Jumping of Their Own" was based on a film of the same name. In contrast, Cheonhyu Park explained that "Maybe Happy Ending" holds great significance as their first original musical created through an organic process.
"It was both very enjoyable and quite daunting to create a world and characters entirely from scratch, with no original source material. I am not sure what made it so beloved. From when we first started writing in 2014 until the Broadway opening last fall, we kept refining the work, always striving to improve its quality even a little bit."
The reason "Maybe Happy Ending" resonated both in Korea and the United States was that, while its subject matter was unique and eye-catching, its themes focused on universal empathy. Although the protagonists are androids, the emotions they display are as profound as those of humans.
Cheonhyu Park said, "For Korean audiences, I wanted to present a world that felt familiar yet strangely unfamiliar; for overseas audiences, a world that felt foreign yet oddly relatable." He also expressed his desire to continue writing stories set in Korea, which is most familiar to him. He emphasized, "After coming to New York, I have thought much more deeply about my identity as a Korean. I want to create stories about the world and emotions that are most familiar to me."
"Maybe Happy Ending" is scheduled to open its sixth season at the Doosan Art Center Yeon-gang Hall on October 30. The performances are scheduled to run until January 26 of next year. Park said that there will be quite a few changes compared to the previous fifth season.
"As the theater changes to a slightly larger stage, there will be necessary changes to the visual elements. This performance marks the 10th anniversary since the pilot performance in 2015, and as we look back on our journey so far, the show will be naturally refined to suit the new venue. I am also cautiously hopeful that some of the actors who have performed with us in the past may return to the stage for this season. I will do my best to make this 10th anniversary performance a happy one not only for Will and me, but also for everyone who has been part of this journey and for the audiences who have empathized with and supported us over the past 10 years."
There have already been significant changes made during the Broadway run. This is fundamentally because the scale of the theater is different. Until the fifth season, the domestic performances were held at Yes24 Stage 1 and 2, which are small theaters with a capacity of 300 to 400 seats. In contrast, the Belasco Theatre on Broadway seats 1,015.
"Because the Korean and Broadway productions differ in scale, there have been major changes in direction and staging. In the Korean production, there is almost no set change, whereas in the Broadway production, there are many set changes and effects. The number of actors and orchestra instruments has increased slightly compared to the Korean production, and scenes that were only implied in Korea were added and shown directly on Broadway."
Since the Doosan Art Center Yeon-gang Hall, where the sixth season will be held in Korea, has a capacity of 600 seats, further adjustments are expected to be made to suit the venue.
The team of Cheonhyu Park and Will Aronson have presented their third and fourth collaborative works over the past two years: "Il Tenore" in 2023 and "Ghost Bakery" last year.
Regarding future plans, Park said, "I plan to work on restaging our new works, 'Il Tenore' and 'Ghost Bakery.'" He added, "There is also a TV drama project that has not yet been announced." He said, "Just like my directorial debut last year with the play 'The Sound Inside,' I also want to continue translating and directing meaningful works that are not well known in Korea, so that I can present them to Korean audiences."
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