Helen J. Shen, the star of Broadway's "Maybe Happy Ending," is defending the show's recent decision to recast the lead male role with a white actor. Producers announced last week that Andrew Barth Feldman, a white actor, would replace Darren Criss, who is of Filipino descent, as the helperbot known as Oliver. Critics of the casting choice have argued that Oliver should continue to be portrayed by a member of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community given the musical's Seoul setting. More from Variety Tony Awards 2025 Preview: Broadway's Back on Top - and Breaking All the Rules - With 'Oh, Mary!,' 'Maybe Happy Ending' and More 'Maybe Happy Ending' Director Michael Arden on Broadway's Most Unlikely Hit and Adapting 'Lost Boys' Into a 'Sexy' and 'Scary' Musical Cole Escola and Darren Criss Embrace Chaos and Crying on Broadway Criss, who originated the role on Broadway and won a Tony for his performance, announced he is leaving the show on Aug. 31. Feldman ("Dear Evan Hansen," "No Hard Feelings") is scheduled to join "Maybe Happy Ending" on Sept. 2 for nine weeks alongside Shen, who originated the role of Claire on Broadway. Feldman and Shen are dating in real life. "I've been struggling to hold multiple truths within me that seem to contradict. I have and continue to be extremely proud to look the way I do and to co-lead this Broadway show. I know the hurt that people feel because growing up, I would have found a beacon of hope in seeing our show on TV on the Tony Awards. A part of me is mourning that along with the community," Shen said in a statement. "This has been an immensely challenging moment within my home with Andrew, and in this building filled with A/PI folks to say the least. I don't know what's forward, but to have this opportunity to play opposite my favorite actor in the world for 9 weeks, who happens to be PERFECT for the role is a huge moment of joy for me." "Maybe Happy Ending," a love story about two abandoned robots, opened on Broadway last fall and initially struggled to sell tickets until word-of-mouth and rave reviews changed the show's trajectory. It won six Tony Awards, including the top prize for best musical. Meanwhile Criss cemented history as the first actor or Asian American descent to nab the best lead actor in a musical prize. "Every perspective on this situation contains truth. I am excited to champion more A/PI works, the way the community has championed 'Maybe Happy Ending,'" Shen's statement continued. "I'm also excited to see work that has a completely different take than 'Maybe Happy Ending,' that can contradict itself, that can be many things, proving that diaspora is a tapestry, and not a monolith." View this post on Instagram A post shared by helen j shen ｜沈雨田 (@helenjshen) "Maybe Happy Ending" authors Hue Park and Will Aronson responded to the controversy in a separate statement, saying they were "extremely saddened that the show, a decade-long labor of love for us, could ever become a source of confusion, anger or pain." "We wrote a show about robots so we could engage more intimately with the most basic human questions of love and loss, creating the roles of Oliver and Claire to be avatars of these universal questions," they wrote on Instagram. "They were meant to be products created by a global company, and so never bore Korean names, even in the Korean version of the show. At the same time, we understand that for many in the AAPI community, the makeup of our opening night cast became a meaningful and rare point of visibility. We've heard how strongly people connected to that representation, even if it wasn't our original intent, and how this casting decision has re-opened old wounds." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Maybe Happy Ending (@maybehappyending) They acknowledge that leading roles for Asian performers have "long been painfully scarce" but expressed optimism about recent color-blind casting in "Dear Evan Hansen," "Hadestown," "Oh, Mary!" and "Cabaret." "Over the last several years, we have been heartened to see Asian performers playing Evan Hansen, Orpheus, Abe Lincoln, Sally Bowles, and others. Leading roles for Asian performers have long been painfully scarce, and these shows excitingly made gestures toward universality with expansive casting, and rightly gave opportunities to actors from identity categories who previously had few options," they continued. "With 'Maybe Happy Ending,' we wanted to write a show in which every role could be played by an Asian performer, but without the intention that the robot roles always would be." Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week What's Coming to Disney+ in August 2025 What's Coming to Netflix in August 2025 Sign up forVariety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram.