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The reviews are coming in for the New York premiere of The Heart, which officially opens tonight, October 29, 2026, at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. Directed by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley, the new musical is playing a limited engagement through December 6, 2026.
Based on Maylis de Kerangal’s novel Réparer les vivants, The Heart features a book and additional lyrics by Kait Kerrigan, music, lyrics and arrangements by Anne Eisendrath and Ian Eisendrath, choreography by Mandy Moore and music supervision by Ian Eisendrath.
The musical follows the aftermath of a young surfer’s sudden death and the life-changing opportunity it creates for a stranger. Over the course of 24 hours, two families and a medical team are brought together by the journey of a single beating heart.
The cast features Heidi Blickenstaff, Lincoln Clauss, Nick T. Daly, Drew Gehling, Bre Jackson, Tony Award winner Joaquina Kalukango, Max McKenna, Wren Rivera and Jason Tam.
What are critics saying about The Heart? Read the reviews below!
Elisabeth Vincentelli, The New York Times: *CRITIC’S PICK* “The Heart,” which opened Thursday at the Laura Pels Theater, is something of a miracle: a full-steam-ahead, funny, gut-wrenching show about death and life held aloft by a superb ensemble that includes Joaquina Kalukango and Heidi Blickenstaff. Crucially, the show’s bold musical choices make Christopher Ashley’s Roundabout Theater Company production feel bracingly fresh.
Michael Sommers, New York Stage Review: 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.
Caroline Cao, New York Theatre Guide: The Heart isn’t all seamless incisions. Side effects include mawkishness when the show dips into an inspirational-PSA tone. The electrifying music can overexert itself, and spurts of Gareth Owen’s sound design drown out voices. And Mandy Moore’s lively choreography swings big but lands as imprecise and curiously withdrawn from effectively theatricalizing a transplant surgery. And yet, so much of the musical thunders with intoxicating rhythms that can’t be missed.
Thom Geier, Culture Sauce: Director Christopher Ashley brings a clinical polish to the production, which boasts a sleek set by Robert Brill that exploits Amanda Zieve’s lighting and Lucy Mackinnon’s video projections to seamlessly shift from hospital monitors to a dance club to a gamer’s Twitch screen to the ocean where Simon rides a digital sound wave atop an elevated platform that doubles as a surgical table. Curiously, Mandy Moore’s choreography consists mostly of coordinated walking with sharp turns or basic club moves performed in bloblike clumps. The Heart has the look and feel of a show that drives forward with narrative momentum, but there’s a hollowness to the material that could benefit from a consult with a skilled cardiologist. For all the propulsive energy and antiseptic precision, what’s lacking, sad to say, is heart.
Average Rating: 82.5%
