The excitement over The Heart — the first Off-Broadway musical produced by The Roundabout Theatre Company in over a decade — is sending pulses racing. Given the hype around the World Premiere at the La Jolla Playhouse about a possible future Broadway run, this well-respected LORT must have felt this was a big “get.” Their newly installed Artistic Director, Tony winner Christopher Ashley, had directed the original as well as the current production. The plot is adapted from Maylis de Kerangal’s celebrated 2014 novel Mend the Living. Covering a compressed 24-hours, it begins as the story of Simon Lamar, a19-year-old surfing enthusiast who is pronounced brain-dead after a car accident. Throughout the next taut 90-minutes we follow the journey of his still-beating heart including interactions with the hospital care team, tough discussion-making with his parents, and the workings of the transplant recipients list. While the piece is wonderfully executed by the cast and the creative team, there is an undercurrent of dissonance that makes this very obviously not for every taste.
The music composed by husband and wife team Anne and Ian Eisendrath weaves together the beat of a heart monitor and the rhythm of coastal waves with techno-pop tunes. Musical Director Wendy Bobbitt Cavett conducts the synth-heavy orchestra with precision. While this aurally captures the urgency, pace and exactness of the main motif, at times the generally upbeat tone felt disrespectful of the broader themes of loss and mourning. Kait Kerrigan’s book does little to turn the tide, being frustratingly short on developing emotionally connections either among characters or between them and the audience. This puts the burden on the viewer to dig up existing feelings about familial relationships and societal responsibility.
The look and feel of The Heart is breathtaking. The all-important sound scape by designer Gareth Owen burrows its way into your own body rhythms. Set designer Robert Brill, who often employs framing for visual emphasis, here uses bold squares of LEDs as containers. A narrow slab serves as surf board, dinner table, work desk, and operating table. Geometric video designs by Lucy Mackinnon evoke the intensity of the situation and provide medical information in pleasing form.
Everyone on stage is given multiple roles, filling out the scenes in emergency, the operating room, and in the club where Simon’s girlfriend Juliette Brooks (Max McKenna) D.J.s. Some of the supporting cast aren’t given much to work with. Jason Tam is particularly lost, somehow both too old and too young to realistically be Simon’s father Sean. The most complex and emotionally intelligent of the characters is Cordelia Owl, a nurse sung with clarity and conviction by a charismatic Bre Jackson. She easily earns the first round of spontaneous applause. Providing the few moments of levity is the multi-skilled Wren Rivera as Marthe. Heidi Blickenstaff revives her roll as the ailing Claire who, after spending three years on the transplant list, is resigned to death before receiving a call from her surgeon. Relative newcomer Nick T. Daly gives young Simon all the required excitability and expectation, especially in flashback childhood scenes. Watching him slowly take and then lose control of his body is magical.
If grooving to an episode of The Pitt and a life-for-a-life theme sound good to you, The Heart is filled with sufficient quality theatrics to make for exhilarating entertainment. Performances continue through December 6 at the Laura Pels at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, 111 West 46th Street. Arrive early and try the BPM theme cocktail in the lounge. Tickets start at $69 and can be purchased at https://www.roundabouttheatre.org/production/2026-2027-season/the-heart/. If you are easily affected by haze or fast moving images, consider the mezzanine which aligns with row G of the orchestra. You’ll get the visuals without the spins.
