Off-Broadway Musical 'The Heart': Pulsing With ....Yep

The show: “The Heart” at the off-Broadway Roundabout Theater Company’s Laura Pels Theater.

What makes it special?: It’s an original new musical, directed by Christopher Ashley, the new artistic director at Roundabout, following his 18 year-run at La Jolla Playhouse, where this musical made its world premiere last year. The musical is based on Maylis de Kerangal’s 2014 novel, “Réparer les Vivants” but set in Southern California.

What’s it about?: Simply put, it’s the journey of a heart transplant.

It begins with a fresh-faced and joyful Simon (Nick T. Daly, elegantly capturing his character’s spirit and soul). He is a surfing-loving, 19-year-old who gets in a car crash, then rushed to a hospital where he falls into a coma. Despite efforts of the medical team, he is declared brain dead, though remaining on life support, kept alive only by medical machines.

We meet Simon’s mother (Joaquina Kalukango — Tony Award-winner for “Paradise Alley” — and a wonder here, too), and her divorced husband Sean (Jason Tam, equally touching); Simon’s girlfriend, Juliette (Max McKenna) who is a dj (a nice touch, connecting to the pulse of the work); the nurse Cordelia (Bre Jackson, who kills it in a solo number “Right Now”); and Thomas (Lincoln Clauss), the organ procurement coordinator whose speciality is gently guiding the parents to donate their son’s viable organs.

We also meet game girl Marthe (Wren Rivera) of the National Organ Donation Registry, who is the person who chooses the recipient from a nationalized waiting list. Then the recipient herself, 50-year-old Claire (Heidi Blickenstaff, terrific), who after years of being on the list, deciding at her birthday party to end the wait, step away and accept her impending death. There’s also Dr. Breva, the cocky surgeon (Drew Gehling of “Waitress,” who effortlessly brings a much needed, albeit gentle, humor to the production.)

Sounds all rather er…clinical: Well, it is in a way because most of it takes place in an abstract hospital setting (cooly designed by Robert Brill and receiving a tech boost from Lucy Mackinnon’s video design. Her depiction of the title figure is especially powerful)

It’s the very human and — yes, heartfelt — story that I found so moving. Playwright Kait Kerrigan (“The Great Gatsby”) and married couple Anne Eisendrath and Ian Eisendrath (“KPop Demon Hunters”) create a work that is all of a piece and powerfully engaging.

The tight script, music and lyrics all lift the story’s characters above archetypes: Martha is an obsessive gamer and she treats her search for a donor with that same intensity; the parents have their conflicts and both grieve in their own separate and specific ways. (The father’s wave metaphor works very nicely). But Thomas is given personal character traits that I found just a bit odd and didn’t quite mesh as smoothly with his professional life (though Clauss’ counter tenor is impressive).

Claire isn't your typical character either. She is hardly a young recipient and her sardonic sensibility is refreshingly unsentimental, as she gives herself a wine-soaked sendoff (which she later fears might jeopardize her chances on being a recipient.)

I also liked the many choices the creators made: on how Simon’s presence remains throughout the show; on how the show ends, not with a schmaltz but with grace. One might have added more back story but the economical choice, edits and energy is what give the show its power.

The ensemble cast, playing multiple roles, make these distinct character impressions with relatively minimal stage time. Yet in the end you feel they are more fully drawn that one might have expected.

In a way this and the recent new musical “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (which I found greatly lacking) is about the important of time. “The Heart” takes place over 24 hours and this compressed time period gives the show an urgency that reflects its pulsating energy, electronic score and movement. ( I found some of Mandy Moore’s lovely but some of the urgent pacing choreography was a bit much. I understand that the material doesn’t exactly call for dance numbers and the pulse of the show is in its specific beats, still the relentless marching reminded me of a ROTC drill.)

But Christopher Ashley’s energetic-yet-smarty restrained staging works beautifully. It glides, flows and even surfs. It reminded me of his effective Tony Award-winning work in “Come From Away.”

Who will like it?: The medical community. Donors. Recipients. Fans of heartfelt drama.

Who won’t?: Those adverse to hospitals (though no blood is shed).

For the kids?: Teens will appreciate the pulsating score, slick staging and and it’s story of a family in crisis. Younger ones should be briefed first on the subject matter which could be disturbing.

Looking into the future?: The show should have a strong future on many other stages. Broadway bound? That’s a stretch but it depends on how strong trhe word of mouth is during this off-Broadway run.

Info: The musical runs 90 minutes without an intermission. The show runs though Dec. 13 at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, on 111 West 46th St. .