Musicals often make me cry, bring me joy, or just move me by the story unfolding before my very eyes, so it isn’t surprising that I was moved by The Notebook. The musical manages to breathe new life into the Nicholas Sparks story we already know so well.
The novel and the 2004 film are two things that many viewers (especially millennials) know will make them sob. So, going into the musical, I was aware of what usually got me, emotionally, right out of the gate. But what I didn’t expect was to find new things in Allie and Noah’s story to strike a chord in me.
The musical, with music by Ingrid Michaelson, tells the beloved story of an older gentleman reading a story to an older woman about Allie and Noah and their love story. We get to see that story playing out and then we learn about the older couple, realizing that this is their love story and that Allie’s dementia made her forget. While the musical doesn’t really try to sell the twist, it does give us storylines that interconnect a bit more than the movie before it, but there are still moments that will have you sobbing.
For me, it was when Allie and Noah’s son came to visit and watched as his mother did not remember him, and then I couldn’t stop crying from there on out. A new look at this love story that has touched so many, there is a lot to love about The Notebook, but there are also things I wish had stayed part of their story.
Changes I wish didn’t happen
I read the book way back when in 2004, so the details of the 1996 book are a bit fuzzy. I did, however, rewatch the 2004 movie, and there were moments I wish that they’d brought in. With any musical that is adapted from a book that has a more popular film version, I do feel like the musical should take the expectations of people into account (cough cough American Psycho the Musical not having the iconic chainsaw moment).
For this version of The Notebook, I was fine losing the ferris wheel that is only in the movie. I was less fine with not having Noah and Allie dance to “I’ll Be Seeing You,” but I could understand why they wouldn’t bring that in to the musical. What I really wished they didn’t change was the line that is, in my opinion, the most romantic line of all time. When Allie and Noah are reunited years later, after Noah has built the house they dreamt of having together, it begins pouring down rain.
Middle Allie (Joy Woods) confronts Noah (Ryan Vasquez) about never writing her, and in the movie, Ryan Gosling’s Noah says, “I wrote you 365 letters. I wrote you every day for a year. It wasn’t over, it still isn’t over,” and the two kiss with passion and hope in the rain in a way that I can still feel in my bones. The musical’s take on this scene is less about the lost passion and more about these two realizing they were kept apart, and it’s a different kind of beautiful.
But I did miss that near-aggressive passion being released by both Allie and Noah.
Sobbing over Allie and Noah
It’s no surprise that I cried over Maryann Plunkett (Older Allie) and Dorian Harewood (Older Noah) or that I felt that childhood love between John Cardoza (Younger Noah) and Jordan Tyson (Younger Allie). Whatever faults The Notebook has, it still has that emotional pull in it that we all long for when we’re revisiting this story.
So when you head to the theater, be aware of the emotions that will take you over and the feelings that you’ll still have for Noah and Allie’s love story when it was all said and done because I … sobbed.
(featured image: Julieta Cervantes)
