The Broadway Touring Company of THE NOTEBOOK: The Musical is an Emotional, Beautiful, Theatrical Experience.

Bonnie DeShong

Photo Credit – Roger Mastroianni

The film The Notebook is one of my favorite films of all time. Yes, I cry every time I see it.  I never read the book, but I wondered how the book and film would evolve to the stage and become a musical at that. After using half of a pack of tissues, I can say it works perfectly.

For those of you who have seen the film or read the book, The Notebook is a love story of a boy, Noah, and a girl, Allie, who meet when they’re teenagers, fall in love instantly, and stay in love even though they are physically apart for a while because of certain circumstances. And when older Allie starts to lose her memory due to Alzheimer’s, she starts writing their entire story in its very vivid and explicit detail in a notebook in hopes that if Noah, her now husband, reads it to her regularly, her memory will start to come back, and she won’t lose all of those precious moments.

Beau Gravitte sets the tone as Older Noah. The love in his eyes for Allie and his pain when she doesn’t know who he is radiates through the audience. Beau gives the audience a glimpse of what a man goes through when he sees the love of his life slip away. Older, Middle, and Younger Noah sing a song called “Iron in the Fridge” that has so much emotion, I used two Kleenex.

Sharon Catherine Brown plays Older Allie, and I have to give her major props for playing this role so believably that I forgot she did not have dementia. I was honored to be able to sit down with Sharon for a conversation before the show. I asked her how she was able to prepare for this type of role that expresses the understanding of unconditional love.  She told me that she was fortunate to have grown up with that. Her mother and father were her real-life Allie and Noah; they loved each other and continued, even though her dad has passed, to have a love that surpassed anything imaginable.  She went on to say, “That takes someone looking at the person who is their partner and saying, ‘I’ll love you through anything. And I love you with that. We are not perfect, but we’re perfect for each other. And you are my one and only one. It’s not a chick story. It’s a human story. It’s a love story for all of humanity. That person looking at you is going, “I see you, and I love you anyway.”   

I will take this time to let you know where Sharon inherited her love of theatre. She is the daughter of two former Broadway performers. Her mother, June Brown, was a Broadway performer. Her Grandmother was a danced in the chorus of a Broadway show. And her father is Johnny Brown, who is known for being Mr. Bookman on Good Times, and made his Broadway debut in Golden Boy. He was Sammy Davis Jr’s protégé, and he was in Carrying Me Back to Morningside Heights, directed by Sidney Poitier. So, she got it honestly, and she is fantastic in the role of Older Allie.

Makena Jackson and Kyle Mangold excel in the roles of the younger versions of the couple. Not only are their voices superb, but their acting skills were on point, portraying young love and trying to understand the dynamics of it, truly being real and not infatuation.

Middle Noah and Allie are played by Ken Wulf Clark, and Alysha Deslorieux is the adult love interest when complicated things seem to find a way to work out. Great voices.

Having known people who have and are living with Alzheimer’s and dementia, you would think that the play The Notebook is depressing, but it really isn’t. It does show the act of grieving the loss of something that will never return. Sharon expressed it as everyone in the audience has experienced that (grief) because they are always moving forward. When you have someone that you know, or either you know them as a friend or you know them because they’re your family member, and you remember everything about them, but they may not remember anything about you, that’s a grief. You don’t know whether that’s ever going to come back. And if it does, for how many minutes, for how many seconds? And what happens when it is finally just gone? Everyone loses something that doesn’t come back ever. It’s not always death. Everyone can relate to that thing that they’re going to miss.

In Act 1, Older Allie is trying to remember her past and is walking around the stage with her loved ones surrounding her, including the younger and middle Allie and all three versions of Noah. As she reaches out to the they turn away. She just can’t reach them. She is trying so hard but just can’t get there. The staging of this is so heartfelt. Yep, this was a three-tissue moment.

Finally, at the end, we finally get to hear Older Allie use her beautiful voice to sing with Older Noah the song “I Know.”

As I mentioned, there is plenty to laugh at during the play. I even used tissue during those moments.

THE NOTEBOOK The Musical is truly a 5 out of 5 winks of the EYE production. It is well written, produced, and performed.  

Until next time, keep your EYE to the sky!