Videos: Darren Criss Talks MAYBE HAPPY ENDING, Performs Holiday Tunes on CBS SUNDAY MORNING

Darren Criss recently visited CBS Sunday Morning to discuss the new Broadway show, Maybe Happy Ending. During the segment, he also chatted with correspondent Kelefa Sanneh about his road to Broadway, his blessings and losses, and his philosophy that "Life is a cabaret." 

Criss' claim to fame was in the TV show Glee, in which he played the role of Blaine Anderson. Before that, though, he was known for his work as a writer and performer in A Very Potter Musical. "I owe my tenure on [Glee] to the sub-cultural fan base army that we had gathered from the Potter stuff," Criss said during the interview.

On Maybe Happy Ending, Criss explained that the musical takes a hard look at love and why we do it, despite its hardships. "The things that move me, in life and in [Maybe Happy Ending], are not the darkness of the loss, but the Herculean grace that it takes to be resilient in the inevitable truth of that."

During the segment, the Glee star also performed a selection of holiday tunes, including Happy Holidays/The Holiday Season, alongside the Young People's Chorus of New York City. 

He also took the stage for a performance of the Hugh Martin-Ralph Blane standard, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Again with the Young People's Chorus of New York City, Criss performed his own song, Christmas Dance.

Maybe Happy Ending stars Darren Criss and Helen J Shen with music by Will Aronson, lyrics by Hue Park, book by both Aronson and Park, and direction by Tony Award-winner Michael Arden. The cast also includes Steven Huynh, Hannah Kevitt, Daniel May, and Christopher James Tamayo.

Inside a one-room apartment on the outskirts of Seoul, Oliver (Criss) lives a happily quiet life listening to jazz records and caring for his favorite plant. But what else is there to do when you’re a HelperBot 3, a robot that has long been retired and considered obsolete? When his fellow HelperBot neighbor Claire (Shen) asks to borrow his charger, what starts as an awkward encounter leads to a unique friendship, a surprising adventure, and maybe even...love? Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award, Maybe Happy Ending is the offbeat and captivating story of two outcasts near the end of their warranty who discover that even robots can be swept off their feet. Helmed by visionary director and Tony Award winner Michael Arden (Parade, Once on This Island), with a dazzling scenic design by Dane Laffrey (A Christmas Carol) and book, music, and lyrics by the internationally acclaimed duo Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending is a fresh, original musical about the small things that make any life worth living.

Maybe Happy Ending was written in both Korean and English-language versions. The Korean-language version opened in December of 2016 at DaeMyung Culture Factory in Seoul and subsequently won six Korean Musical Awards including Best Musical. The English-language version was awarded the 2017 Richard Rodgers Production Award and had its U.S. premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in the 2019-2020 season under the direction of Michael Arden.