The Notebook (Broadway)

♣♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

Old man Noah (Dorian Harewood) checks into a care center facility but instead of undergoing physical therapy for his knees, he spends most of his time reading the contents of a notebook to Allie (Maryann Plunkett), an elderly woman with Alzheimer's who struggles to remember anything about her past. What the notebook contains is a love story between two teenagers Noah (Benji Santiago) and Allie (Anna Zavelson) who fall in love at first sight one summer but are kept apart by her parents who have a more viable prospect of marriage for her, not to mention plans for her future that does not involve a lumberjack’s son. Flash forward a decade later, Allie (Aisha Jackson) is engaged to be married to a wealthy lawyer while Noah (Ryan Vasquez) ends up in the newspaper in a feature of a house he built from the ground up, the house that he promised he would build for her.

One of the controversies this musical got embroiled in is the casting of actors of different ethnicities for the same character. Young Noah is Latino. Middle aged Noah looks white. Old Noah is African-American. Young Allie looks Asian. Middle aged Allie is African-American. Old Allie is white. Since most of these actors end up on stage together and somehow even singing duets with one another which serves as a creative interpretation of conversations with one’s self, it is confusing at first, but you easily get the drift given they wear the same colors and are referred to by other characters by the same name.

We can argue that Broadway is the bastion of diversity when it comes to blind casting based on ethnicity, but perhaps some people just find the change of ethnicity as the character ages to be confusing, from a continuity perspective. After all, our species are not known to change race as we get old. Some people might be racist, but maybe some just got confused. In any case, you can always view this as a symbolic interpretation which shows that love stories and Alzheimer's narratives know no race and the actors’ skin color does not matter because in the end, this can be everyone’s story.

As for performances, everyone is an awesome singer, but we have to single out Santiago when it comes to vocals. Those soothing falsettos, damn. I sure hope this kid gets the Broadway career he deserves. After all, he surely has the talent to match. Zavelson and Jackson also get to show off their pipes sustaining high notes to end a solo or two. The rest also deliver what is needed for their scenes, but it was mainly those three who caught the attention and admiration of the audience.

I haven’t read the Nicholas Sparks novel but I do remember how his novels were popular source material for film adaptations two decades ago. When I first saw the movie, it was meh for me, even though I acknowledge how popular it was, especially Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams’ iconic kiss under the rain. Seeing it onstage now, I still acknowledge the romance angle. The Notebook is a potent love story after all. Cheesy, maybe, but it is a story that makes you want to fall in love. It is corny like that, but another aspect managed to arrest my attention with this revisiting of this tale two decades later. Getting old with Alzheimer's.

As human beings we are made up of memories that we hold onto as we get older. The likes of Alzheimer's and Dementia take those memories away from you. Memories that were once experiences. Experiences that constitute the narrative that is your life. In the end, these maladies don’t just snatch away figments of the past. Those memories are your life and your life is you. What can be more tragic than living the twilight of your life without any recollection of who you were. I guess this is what makes Noah’s plight even more touching. Reading their love story to her over and over again, clinging to desperation and hope that she might return.

Despite what critics might say, I loved The Notebook. It has humor and it has heart. Humor is sprinkled all throughout the musical mostly through funny one-liners and honest lyrics. Heart, we can say the ensemble amply provides, but even more so by Harewood and Plunkett, both scoring Tony nominations for their poignant portrayal. I laughed heartily and I was touched, especially by the ending. As corny as that might sound, I believe The Notebook accomplished what I go to the theater for. To feel. To ruminate. To remind me of the human condition and how fleeting life can be. Five stars!