The Notebook Sings, but Does It Soar?

The musical version of “The Notebook” has arrived, and loyal fans of the 2004 film will likely swoon while sobbing into their tissues. Boxes of tissues are sold for $3.00 at the merch table. However, less romantic theatergoers might find the saccharine predictability of the story overpowering.

Where the beloved film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams showed us an arresting pair of lovers pulled helplessly into one another’s orbit, the musical version slogs through a clumsy tale of love, aging, and hospital beds. Within the first half hour, we know who these people are and how the show will end. In some ways, it becomes a carnival ride through a haunted house. The emotional cues are not subtle in Bekah Brunstetter and Ingrid Michaelson’s adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ popular book.

Noah and Allie, embodied by three sets of actors, younger, middle-aged, and senior, are shown at various stages of their lives. The show opens in a nursing home. Older Noah, Beau Gravitte, limps along trying to get the attention of Older Allie, Sharon Catherine Brown, who cannot remember him. Sadly, there is not a single song that lingers in memory from this production, save for the lyrics elder Noah sings about his enduring love for Allie. “Time, time, time time / It was never mine, mine, mine mine,” he croons. The romantics in the audience sigh, and somewhere behind me I hear a grumpy, resigned voice mutter, “Oh, here we go,” and I find myself nodding in agreement.

Under the direction of Michael Greif and Schele Williams, other versions of the couple enter the stage, providing snapshots of the memories older Allie has lost. Chloë Cheers and Kyle Mangold play the younger versions and have moments that capture the rush of young love. However, we do not really get a sense of who they are, only that they must love one another in a mad, limerent way that defies logic. Their love is all consuming, and they are pulled away from one another right after consummating it. The Vietnam War, the American class system, and disapproving third parties play their predictable roles in the narrative.

When Middle Allie, Alysha Deslorieux, and Noah, Ken Wulf Clark, reunite in the house he built as a shrine to their love, the instant buy-in is almost laughably brief, as they drop everything they have built in their adult lives to be together once more. The scenes are short, making it hard to believe that a summer fling could hold that much sway. Loyal fans of the film are rewarded here with an epic kiss in the rain.

Sweetly, there are moments when the three versions of each character sing to one another in support and love that elicit genuine emotion. The musical version of “The Notebook” has not lost its romantic soul, but without music to match or a deeper courtship, it is hard to fully buy into the story. If you loved the film, there is still much to admire in this production, which opened at the Orpheum on February 12 and runs through March 1.