Notre Dame student-written musical 'My Heart Says Go' takes on new life at Civic

SOUTH BEND — Most musical theater smash hits don't get their start in South Bend, but University of Notre Dame musical theater professor and director Matt Hawkins says that's about to change with "My Heart Says Go."

"My Heart Says Go" is a pop-inspired musical that follows the story of Indigo, a first-generation college student who defies her father by dropping out of medical school to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter.

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After nearly five years in the works, the newly revised "My Heart Says Go" makes its world debut at South Bend Civic Theatre from April 14 to 23. A pay-what-you-can preview performance also takes place April 13.

"On this journey, Indigo meets a new friend named Clara, and she has her own kind of really intense struggles with her mom," said Hawkins, the show's director. "Then, by the end, Indigo and Indigo's father find a new respect and understanding of one another, and then, Clara actually experiences a pretty intense tragedy at home that allows her to see the importance of family and human connection."

If this plot sounds familiar, that's probably because the first version of the musical ― which, back then, was titled "Stupid Humans" ― premiered on Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center stage in 2019.

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The original musical was written by then-Notre Dame student Jorge "Jay" Rivera-Herrans, who based much of the story on personal experiences. After entering Notre Dame planning to major in pre-med, Rivera-Herrans switched his major to film, television and theater as a freshman, without telling his parents. This decision, he told The Tribune in 2019, was initially met with pushback from his family, teachers and the doctors he had shadowed in high school.

After his 2020 graduation from Notre Dame, Rivera-Herrans received the first Career Launch Fellowship from the theatrical consulting group Show Shepherd, which works with writers, independent producers and theater companies to develop new work. Since the online release of its first "saga" on Christmas Day 2022, his "Epic: The Musical," a musical retelling of Homer's "The Odyssey," has become a viral sensation on social media.

Following the debut of "Stupid Humans," Hawkins ― who made the show's creation possible through his musical theater New Works Lab program at Notre Dame ― received a faculty research grant from the university to continue developing the musical. As the pandemic began, he and Rivera-Herrans workshopped changes and improvements with theater professionals from Apples and Oranges Studios and Chicago's Goodman Theatre.

"I got a lot of professional artists together for a two-week intensive online during COVID, and we basically did lots of rewrites with the script. … We rewrote the whole thing," Hawkins said. "Since then, we've revamped a lot of the music as well."

The musical's transformation also involved dropping the original title, "Stupid Humans," which, Hawkins said "had kind of a negative connotation." The new title, he said, represents the show's theme of "following your heart."

"'My hearts says go' is a lyric in the show's 'I Want' song," he said. "Indigo was helping assist a heart surgery in the beginning, and it's about, 'Well, I'm operating on someone's heart, and I don't even know what my heart says.'"

Making a musical

The music and the script for the original version of "Stupid Humans" were written by Rivera-Herrans when he was a junior in Hawkins' musical theater New Works Lab class in Notre Dame's film, television and theater department. Contrastingly, the script for "My Heart Says Go" was written by Hawkins, while the music was written by Rivera-Herrans. Hawkins said this is a "huge change" from the 2019 Notre Dame performance.

"For people who saw the first version, the heart, the youthful energy, the hopes and dreams, the passion — all of that is still there," Hawkins said. "What we've basically done is we have made a little bit more room for the adults, for the parents. There are a lot of parent-child relationships in the show. I think we've made room for the parents to also have their own emotional arcs."

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When it was performed at Notre Dame, Hawkins said, he was excited by the potential of "Stupid Humans" but felt its narrative and character arcs "just didn't fit." In "My Heart Says Go," he said, audiences get to know all of the characters better than they did in the Notre Dame version of the show.

"I had a lot of faith in the music. I thought the music can almost stand on its own," Hawkins recalled. "And since there's a lot of viability and energy around the music, I thought there was something to the story; I just didn't think that we were done yet. So revamping it just makes the story deeper. It's just like when you're writing a term paper; you really don't want to just write your first draft and turn it in."

For Rivera-Herrans, it was initially hard to cut things from the original version of the show.

"It's hard not to become attached to something you spend years working on," he wrote in an email to The Tribune. "Now, it doesn't really faze me as I recognize the main goal should always be making the piece as good as possible, and that often requires cutting things and trying again."

Rivera-Herrans said he feels the new version of the show is "more focused and streamlined," and its tone is "more consistent."

"After the 2019 production, I was extremely happy with the musical. However, after some time passed, and we took a closer look, we found opportunities in the script to further flesh out and develop some of the storylines and characters," he wrote. "I am proud of every version of the show."

A South Bend story

Civic Executive Director Aaron Nichols first learned of "My Heart Says Go" when Rivera-Herrans starred as Usnavi in Civic's 2018 production of "In the Heights."

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"When we heard about his new musical at Notre Dame, we supported him and celebrated his success, not knowing that in a few years, we would be part of the evolution of that show," Nichols said.

As a community theater, Nichols said, he feels Civic has a responsibility to tell and celebrate South Bend stories. Because Rivera-Herrans completed his undergraduate degree at Notre Dame, Nichols considers "My Heart Says Go" to be a South Bend story and Rivera-Herrans to be "one of our own."

"It's a story of never giving up on your dreams, and I think it's a beautiful story for this moment," Nichols said. "It seems like a dark time for dreaming, so I think having this kind of celebration of really going out on a limb and risking and believing, not only in yourself but in your voice, is a really important thing to be discussing at this juncture in our history."

The cast of "My Heart Says Go" ― which Nichols described as "a really beautiful hybrid" of Notre Dame students and South Bend community members ― also has significance as a South Bend story.

"Those are the kind of things I am so happy about," he said, "because it is kind of breaking down silos between our academic community and our downtown or South Bend community. … You have people in undergrad at an elite university working with blue-collar workers in our community, and to have those life experiences knocking against each other, I think is a really great way to build empathy, to build compassion and understanding both ways."

Making Broadway more accessible

Like the show's casting, Hawkins strives to make performances of "My Heart Says Go" accessible to all community members.

He said those in the theater industry have long viewed getting a show on Broadway as the "end all, be all" for achieving success in the industry. However, Hawkins feels that doing this makes theater less accessible to most Americans.

"If someone really wants to go see a show in New York, you have to have the financial ability to pay for that plane or train ticket to get there, you have to pay for the ticket itself to see the show, you have to stay there, you have to eat food there," he said. "I mean, it's really, really expensive, so that takes away accessibility."

So, instead, Hawkins decided to divert the time, energy and resources he could have spent trying to get the show on Broadway to produce a studio recording album of the show's soundtrack, featuring Broadway talent. The album features names like Javier Muñoz, who took over for Lin Manuel Miranda as the title role in "Hamilton" on Broadway, and actress Jessie Mueller, who won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" and was nominated in the same category for "Waitress" and the Broadway revival of "Carousel."

"It was so cool," Rivera-Herrans wrote. "Everyone is so talented and professional, and it was an honor get to work with them! I feel great about the cast recording; all of the performers brought their A-game, and I'm excited for the world to hear it."

The album will come out shortly after "My Heart Says Go" debuts at Civic. Hawkins said the plan is to push the album on social media to garner interest in the show, especially from amateur theater groups.

"Then, any high school or community theater ― who has no money basically, because all of our arts funding is getting cut ― can say, 'What is this musical that hasn't really been done?'" Hawkins said. "And then we as Notre Dame can say, 'Oh, you can do it. Like you can do it for really cheap.'"

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After the album gets people's attention, Hawkins hopes people "fall in love with the music" and want to see the show.

"But instead of just seeing it, they can do it themselves," he said. "And (Notre Dame) will provide the script, the music and even some design and choreography help if they want because, remember, a lot of theater teachers at high schools are just like the history teacher who's also the theater teacher."

Email Tribune staff writer Claire Reid at cereid@gannett.com.

Onstage

• What: "My Heart Says Go"

• Where: South Bend Civic Theatre, 403 N Main St., South Bend

• When: 7:30 p.m. April 14-15 and 20-22 and at 2 p.m. April 16 and 23

• Cost: $35-$27

• For more information: Call 574-234-1112 or visit sbct.org.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame student-written musical premieres at South Bend Civic