Based on the 1996 novel by Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook centers on Allie, a girl from a wealthy Southern family with a carefully mapped-out future, and Noah, a local lumber worker with big dreams. Their love story, which unfolds over some 60 years, is recounted in the present day by a much older Noah to Allie, who is suffering from dementia. Decades later, the long shadow of the book—which quickly entered the New York Times best-seller list upon release—and the film presented unique challenges, and alluring opportunities, to the creators of its musical adaptation.
“It feels like one of those movies you’ve always seen…kind of like It’s a Wonderful Life,” says Brunstetter. Both she and Michaelson felt an obligation to stay true to the source material, which has a built-in, loyal fanbase, but also build something fresh. “This is not the movie on stage. Or even the book on stage. This is its own thing,” she continues.
Some key changes from the book and film to expect in the musical: instead of the 1940s, the story of the musical begins in the 1960s, with Noah going off to serve in Vietnam as opposed to World War II; there are three sets of actors playing Allie and Noah at different ages (versus two in the film version); and the cast features actors of different races playing the same character. Schele Williams, the show’s co-director along with Michael Greif, sees the casting approach as a way to expand The Notebook’s appeal. “As a Black woman, this is not a story I could ever imagine seeing myself in, onscreen or onstage,” she explains. “But in life I knew this story. So it is extraordinary to know that on the American stage, there is a belonging for someone like me inside a story like this.” Williams, who is also directing the much-anticipated revival of The Wiz this spring, says that co-directing is a constant dialogue, but easier since she and Greif (who also helms the recent Broadway transfer of Days of Wine and Roses, and will shepherd Alicia Keys’s Hell’s Kitchen into the Shubert Theater this March) are good friends.
Almost unheard of on Broadway, co-directing challenges the sometimes authoritarian dynamic of the director-ensemble relationship. “I hope it becomes the precedent,” says Ryan Vasquez, who plays Middle Noah, heralding the collaborative atmosphere of rehearsals. “Now we are a group of people having a conversation, not just soldiers being told where to stand.”