A stage show about organ transplants may not appeal to everyone. That’s their loss. The Heart is a bold new musical with a life-or-death story aimed for adult audiences. Swiftly crafted in an ultra-modern The Heart melds a human tragedy with a daily triumph of medical science and reveals how a transplant process happens over 24 hours. Opening Thursday at the Laura Pels Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company’s compelling production of this dramatic musical is a must-see for anyone who loves contemporary musicals, enjoys medical procedurals on TV, and/or appreciates the often-grueling existence led by hospital employees. The show also will be quite an eye-opener for anyone who never has given thought to such serious matters.
Driven by the pulsating rhythms of electronic dance music, the dynamic score and its arrangements, created by the married team of Anne Eisendrath and Ian Eisendrath, frequently reference waves, as in brain and heart waves appearing on emergency room monitors as well as the Pacific waves a 19-year-old California surfer enjoys before a car crash sends him brain dead but otherwise unscathed to a San Diego hospital. Because the young man is not an organ donor, his divorced parents are encouraged to make the critical decision regarding his body parts.
Sharply scripted by Kait Kerrigan, who contributed additional lyrics, the fast-moving story details in 90 intermission-free minutes how an organ transplant affects so many different lives, from shaken relatives to the medical teams to the personnel of the national donor network to the stranger who receives the precious gift of a longer life. The book and the urgent, nearly ceaseless score are tightly meshed and fluently staged to climax as a heart is removed from one person and restarted in someone else. Along the way, the book and expressive score sensitively convey a wide range of feelings voiced by variously conflicted loved ones and the harried professionals.
Expertly directed by Christopher Ashley at his inventive best, the production combines a bright, complex video design by Lucy Mackinnon within a neutral space designed by Robert Brill to suggest different places aside from hospitals. Amanda Zieve’s dramatic lighting design instills moods or dazzles as needed. The sound design by Gareth Owen provides aural necessities plus especially crisp, clear reinforcement for voices. The wardrobe designed by Sarafina Bush enables a terrific, evidently tireless, nine-member ensemble to somehow switch among so many characters it appears at times as if 30 people are in the company. Mandy Moore’s choreography helps achieve this illusion of multitudes in motion. Its purposefully robotic patterns likewise enhance the fluency of Ashley’s staging.
Although the show usually moves rapidly, the authors and Ashley build strategic pauses into its structure to allow sincere emotions to breathe. Sometimes they provide relief from the intensity of the overarching narrative, as in a jolting few seconds of a medieval-themed animation game played by technicians on a break. Several songs and their performances, among them “I Will Never Let You Go” and “Nobody Gets Out Alive,” might be milked as showstoppers, but the artists have been staged to pass beyond mood-breaking applause.
Every actor plays a number of nameless folk while assuming the role of one or even two significant figures. Heidi Blickenstaff coolly depicts a stern ER administrator but, more tellingly, later expresses the mixed surprise and terror of a middle-aged writer who is surprised to receive the transplanted heart. Jason Tam and Joaquina Kalukango are poignant in different ways as the estranged parents whose unlucky surfer boy ironically wins a lively performance by Nick T. Daly in flashbacks. As a compassionate nurse singing to her inert patient, Bre Jackson gives a gorgeous voice to the standout “Right Now.” Drew Gehling, Lincoln Clauss, Max McKenna, and Wren Rivera bring considerable energy and distinction to the vital characters they portray.
Performed and staged with Broadway-level excellence, The Heart is a remarkable musical drama well worth seeing. It would not be at all surprising should this exciting production move to a larger theater sometime in the future at higher ticket prices.
The Heart opened October 29, 2026, at the Laura Pels Theatre and runs through December 6. Tickets and information: roundabouttheatre.org
