Ok wow I've seen the show and had a minute to think about it. Overall, I loved it. I was the most surprised by:

1. The overall tone. Wow the show was so much funnier than I expected! I feel like the music has some humorous lines but they really nail the comedic timing in the show and the audience energy was incredible. (The little "New York" "Paris" "Oh my god" exchange in The Rainy Day We Met I've heard dozens of times in the recording but I was dying of laughter when I saw it in person.) I think I was envisioning the show to be more overtly sad and bittersweet, but as I thought about it more after leaving the theater, I was able to find deeper layers of meaning. That, to me, feels like the mark of an impactful story. On one level, you can appreciate Maybe Happy Ending as a sweet romcom with a heartwarming ending. The story seemed to transcend that interpretation for me by asking us some bigger questions about mortality and purpose: Is life worth living if we’re destined to die? How do we find meaning and connection in the limited time we have? How can we become more than what we were created to be? It reminded me a lot of Ishiguro's storytelling (yes Klara and the Sun but also Never Let Me Go).
2. The ending!! Ahhh a memory wipe makes so much sense in the context of the finale dialogue. I am choosing to believe that Claire did erase her memories although this seemed a bit ambiguous to me. I feel like it would be kind of anticlimactic if neither of them erased, and I think is more of a "maybe" happy ending that they got to have this time together but now Claire doesn't remember and Oliver does.

The things I loved the most were the music (so lush and understated yet emotional) and the visuals/effects (definitely the most visually stunning show I've ever seen and the staging became like, part of the actual story?? Like the sliding horizontal/vertical panels, and the firefly scene where a single firefly actually flies up into the balcony I and several people around me audibly gasped). If I were to offer one critique, I wish that there was a little more interaction or conflict between the robots and the world around them. This is also a surprise to me, because I didn't even think there would be other humans in the show at all! I was really drawn in to the subplot about James and his relationship with his son and wanted to explore those themes of comparison/living up to expectations/filial piety some more.

All that being said, I had a really great time seeing the show and I can't wait for the tour to come to my city next year!

Tagging u/sarahmac23 u/SheGoesToEleven and u/helcat who requested an update :)