Twenty-Four Hours, The Heart Beats Off-Broadway at Roundabout

Most musicals are about a night. This one is about a day, and a single organ.

The Heart began performances on October 8 at Roundabout's Laura Pels Theatre, 111 West 46th Street, and opens officially on Thursday, October 29. It is a limited engagement through Sunday, December 6. BroadwayWorld published first-look photos by Joan Marcus on October 13.

One Heart, Two Families

The show is adapted from Maylis de Kerangal's 2014 novel Réparer les vivants. Roundabout sets it up in two lines. A young surfer's life is cut short. A stranger suddenly has a second chance. What follows is 24 hours in which one heart moves between two families and a medical team.

That is a lot of weight for a musical to carry. Kait Kerrigan wrote the book and additional lyrics. Anne Eisendrath and Ian Eisendrath wrote the music and lyrics, and Ian also supervises the music. Christopher Ashley directs and Mandy Moore choreographs.

Heidi Blickenstaff plays Claire and Joaquina Kalukango, a Tony winner for Paradise Square, plays Marianne Lamar. Drew Gehling is Dr. Breva, Jason Tam is Sean Lamar, Nick T. Daly is Simon Lamar and Max McKenna is Juliette Brooks. Lincoln Clauss, Bre Jackson and Wren Rivera complete the company.

A Score Built for the Club

The sound is the story behind the story. In a March report, The Broadway Journal quoted Anne Eisendrath on the idea behind it. "What you hear in your earbuds every day when you're walking down the street is this heavily produced music," she said. The Journal described the score as dominated by electronic dance music and noted that Ian Eisendrath was executive music producer of the Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters.

Juan Ariza and Elin Sandberg handle orchestrations and music production. Gareth Owen designs the sound and Lucy Mackinnon the video. Robert Brill designs the set, Sarafina Bush the costumes and Amanda Zieve the lighting. Roundabout's content notes warn of haze, fog, flashing lights and loud electronic music.

It is an unusual set of tools for a show about hospital corridors. A transplant is a race against a clock, and a pulse is a beat you can program. If it works, the dance floor and the operating theater will be the same room.

How It Got Here

The Heart premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, where Ashley was artistic director, before he took over Roundabout this year. The Journal quoted Pam Kragen of the San Diego Union-Tribune on that production.

It "unfolds like a singing docudrama." Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune

The Journal also reported in March that if the run on West 46th Street goes well, Broadway is the next stop, with producers Sue Frost, Randy Adams and Stephen Reynolds raising $14 million to $16 million and a weekly break-even of about $760,000. Frost and Adams were producers of Come From Away, which Ashley directed. A Roundabout spokeswoman declined to comment at the time, so treat the Broadway talk as talk until the producers say it themselves.

Roundabout controls three Broadway houses, Studio 54, the Stephen Sondheim and the Todd Haimes. Its past transfers have mostly been new plays, such as The Humans and Liberation. For a look at another big-voiced musical heading for Broadway, see our report on Dolly Parton's company on 44th Street.

What to Know Before You Go

The show runs 90 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are sold through Roundabout's site, which lists no prices on the show page, so check there before you go. Roundabout's content advisory covers death, loss, chronic illness and medical procedures.

A heart does not wait for a good night. It beats. The Heart asks the city to sit in the dark and count along.