We take a look at what is being said about the new musical based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel.
Variety: ” Vasquez and Woods are in fine voice and bring a bit of humor and charm to their reunion scene. Cardoza and Tyson, however, are stuck with the heavy lifting as the teen couple who have to begin the epic romance — but have little in script or song to launch it across the decades.”
The Guardian: *** “The Notebook musical hasn’t lost its romantic magic, by any means. But without the equally touching music and a fleshing out of its core courtship, it’s a story that remains underwritten.”
New York Post: “Because as elegantly staged as “The Notebook” is by co-directors Michael Greif and Schele Williams, and despite boasting an appealing cast, the show amounts to a series of un-involving pencil sketches rather than a layered portrait of a decades-long love.”
Time Out: *** “And yet: As much as I rolled my eyes at The Notebook, I can’t deny that they sometimes welled up. In this version, it’s the older Noah and Allie—whom Brunstetter draws with the most care, free from the fetters of plot, and around whom Michaelson writes her most touching music—who get to you. Plunkett’s truthfulness pierces through the sentimentality, and there’s something elemental in the combination of love and loss that this pair embodies. As Younger Noah says of Allie’s painting: “It’s sadness and it’s joy, right?” At its best, The Notebook finds a way to deliver both, if only in shorthand.”
Deadline: “The wonderful Plunkett nails the confusion and panic of dementia from the get-go, meaning she has little place to go. Woods, as Middle Ally, breaks through the musical sameness with the production’s unequivocal showstopper (“My Days”), though her musical theater brassiness seems to have no counterpart in either the character’s younger and older versions.”
New York Theater.me: “Plunkett and Harewood anchor the story, both because of their outstanding performances, which give an emotional heft to the characters, and because they serve as the storytellers. Older Noah and Older Allie reside in a nursing home, although Noah is only there to be with Allie, who has dementia. Every day, he reads a love story from a notebook. It is their love story, although Allie is too far gone to realize this. As Noah narrates the story, the other two couples play it out, and Allie reacts to it as if hearing it for the first time.”
Vulture.com: “In trying to simultaneously acknowledge and ignore the truth of their actors’ bodies, the show’s team has created a pesky dissonance. Perhaps this is why Brunstetter’s book, on the whole, steers clear of specificity.”
The Independent: “Such jarring touches overshadow a lovely attempt to show the evolution of Noah’s renovated old house, his goal to winning Allie back. It is first referenced in abstract pieces — a window here, a porch there — until it comes together as real when she finally calls it home. Like a sea turtle.”
WhatsOnStage: “All of it presents a beautiful picture of mortality, but also the universality of love. The six actors playing Noah and Allie are of varying ages and ethnicities (in a time of colour-conscious casting, The Notebook bravely dares to be colour-blind). This strikes at the heart of what I suspect undergirds the enduring popularity of The Notebook. This could be anyone’s story, and the poetic end that comes for Noah and Allie represents the very happiest resolution. That’s enough to make anyone cry.”
Slant Magazine: “Then again, The Notebook is, in all its incarnations, a fundamentally lusty tale, and that’s something this production leans into with often sizzling success. Both younger couples sing separately about their physical desire (“God, he looks good/In that shirt, in those pants/I wanna rip ‘em off with my teeth,” offers Middle Allie in a less-subtle moment), and even Plunkett’s Older Allie finds great titillation in hearing the saga of her sex life. The classic rain scene, glamorously lit by Ben Stanton, also mirrors the film’s dripping sensuality.”
Entertainment Weekly: “The end result is a non-stop emotional rollercoaster full of butterfly-inducing highs and heartbreaking lows. (Seriously, there’s a reason why this musical sells its own branded box of tissues.)”
Broadway News.com: “similar to Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling novel and the subsequent film iteration, this crisp musical adaptation of “The Notebook” proves that the central couple’s high is, ultimately, worth it, as Noah and Allie embark on a decades-long adventure of adoration.”
To book tickets and find out more about the show visit: https://notebookmusical.com/