Review: La Jolla Playhouse’s new musical a ‘Heart’-felt docudrama

In the early minutes of La Jolla Playhouse’s world premiere musical “The Heart,” a giant 3-D model of a human heart slowly revolves on a large video screen behind the stage.

It’s an appropriate close-up, since the vital organ is the true star of the fast-paced 80-minute show, co-written by composer/lyricists Ian and Anne Eisendrath and bookwriter-lyricist Kait Kerrigan.

Inspired by a French medical fiction novel, the unorthodox musical unfolds like a singing docudrama about all of the lives touched during one heart’s 24-hour journey from dying donor to transplant recipient.

At times tender and tear-inducing and at others cold and clinical, “The Heart” is a story about life, death, sacrifice, generosity and, ultimately, hope.

“The Heart” is set in San Diego (listen and watch for references to La Jolla’s Tourmaline Beach, area Kaiser and Scripps hospitals and locals’ favorite fruit, the avocado), where 19-year-old Simon is rendered brain-dead after a solo car crash while driving home from an early-morning surfing session.

As Simon’s disembodied spirit lingers near his body, which is temporarily kept alive by machines at the hospital, his parents argue over organ donation and the staff carry out their valiant work of saving lives. But thankfully, this isn’t a story about medical superheroes.

Bookwriter Kerrigan has crafted realistic characters who are selflessly dedicated to their work (well-described in the song “A Life for a Life,” led by Paul Alexander Nolan as cocky heart surgeon Dr. Breva). But these characters are also flawed by traits like vanity, lack of bedside manner, icy demeanor and messy personal lives. And the fatalistic recipient of Simon’s heart? She’s no angel.

Playhouse artistic chief Christopher Ashley directed “The Heart,” which has similarities in style to the Playhouse-born “Come From Away,” for which he won a 2017 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. They’re both one-act musicals with a small cast playing multiple roles and telling a realistic story with minimal staging elements.

“Come From Away” soared on the simplicity of its communal storytelling, but “The Heart” only looks simple. It’s deceptively complex.

Choreographer Mandy Moore moves the actors constantly around the stage like pieces on a chessboard in a high-speed match. Video designer Lucy Mackinnon’s onscreen graphics realistically depict medical records and an organ bank database. And Robert Brill’s sleek hospital scenic design, supplemented with icy-cool lighting design by Amanda Zieve, expresses both place and mood.

The Eisendraths’ 16-song musical score, featuring music direction and conducting by Wendy Bobbitt Cavett, was inspired by the pulse-pounding vibe of electronic dance music, but there are plenty of traditional pop and musical theater songs, as well.

One of the best songs is “Right Now,” sung by nurse Cordelia Owl (powerfully sung by Bre Jackson), the only hospital staffer who treats the brain-dead Simon like a living person. Another is “Dawn Patrol,” a lovely surfing reverie between Simon (sweet-voiced Zachary Noah Piser) and his father Sean (a devastated Jason Tam).

“Quicksand” is a clever and delicate musical dance between the hospital’s persuasive transplant coordinator Thomas (the golden-voiced Lincoln Clauss) and Simon’s resistant parents, Sean and Marianne (a heart-tugging Kenita Miller).

And the defeatist number “Nobody Gets Out Alive,” sung by Claire, the San Diego mom who will receive Simon’s heart, is a funny, uptempo belter song. Claire is played by Broadway vet Heidi Blickenstaff, whose final speech in the show is a true tearjerker.

“The Heart” could still use some work. It’s notable that the song that deservedly earns the audience’s biggest response (“Right Now”) is sung by a side character seen in only a few scenes. Simon feels like a cipher character mostly devoid of emotion, even when he was alive. And the character of Simon’s club DJ girlfriend Juliette (played by Max McKenna) feels underwritten and forgettable.

Does “The Heart” have heart? Yes it does, but with some tweaks it could be an even stronger and more moving piece of musical theater.

‘The Heart’

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Sept. 28

Where: La Jolla Playhouse’s Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, UC San Diego, La Jolla

Tickets: $30-$119

Phone: 858-550-1010

Online: lajollaplayhouse.org