Allie and Noah, both from different worlds, share a lifetime of love despite the forces that threaten to pull them apart. With a book that has sold millions of copies worldwide and a film that's one of the highest-grossing romantic dramas of all-time, the musical adaptation of Nicholas Sparks's The Notebook comes to Broadway following a critically acclaimed world premiere engagement at Chicago Shakespeare Theater in the fall of 2022.
This is one of those musicals that some viewers will love vociferously while others, inevitably, espouse a decidedly contradictory view. There is enough quality entertainment on hand, especially from the performers, to provide viewers with a thoroughly watchable two-and-a-half hours. In normal Broadway seasons, when full-scale original musicals can be counted on a hand’s worth of fingers, these attributes might be enough to place The Notebook in the Tony winner’s circle, or at least in contention. But based on the 2023-24 musicals which have opened thus far and those which have already been seen in pre-Broadway mountings, one might predict that The Notebook will fall far above the worst but not in league with the best.
Dementia is a horrifically flattening illness. But it is difficult to sustain the show’s over two hour runtime on the question of reconciliation. The musical’s use of interracial casting is also frustrating. Younger and middle Allie are both Black, while older Allie is white. The Noahs are cast in a similar fashion. The issues with casting isn’t a problem of believability, but consistency. It’s strange why the racial unity in casting is interrupted, especially with no discernible dramatic choice. Sympathizers will waive off the choice as negligible, a side effect of race-blind casting. But race isn’t a minor detail, especially with swaths of the play taking place right before and after the Vietnam war – well into the civil rights era. 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.
Rush Tickets:
Price: $49
Where: Schoenfeld Theatre (236 W. 45th Street, NYC) box office at 10AM ET Monday through Saturday and 12PM ET on Sunday. Rush ends 30 minutes before curtain.
Limit: Two per customer.
Restrictions: Locations and number of tickets based on availability; pairs may be split up and seats may be partial view.
Digital Lottery
Price: $44
Where: https://rush.telecharge.com/
When: Entries for The Notebook digital lottery start at 12am, the day prior to the performance. Winners are drawn that same day at 10am and 3pm and have five hours to claim and purchase tickets online.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Subject to availability.
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