Susan Granger’s review of “The Notebook” (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre)
Some movie-to-stage transitions work, some don’t. Unfortunately, Broadway’s boring musical adaptation of “The Notebook” falls into the latter category.
Based on Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling 1996 novel, it’s a romantic chronicle that begins in a nursing home where elderly Noah (Dorian Harewood) is reading from his journal to his wife Allie (Maryann Plunkett), who has Alzheimer’s. He’s hoping that passages will remind her of their past and bring her back to him – one more time.
That cues flashbacks to when they met as carefree teenagers (John Cardoza, Jordan Tyson) in the 1970s; she was a rich girl on vacation in a mid-Atlantic coastal town, while he was a local, sworking-class boy. She liked to paint; he strummed a guitar. When summer ended, everyone assumed they’d forget each other but they didn’t.
Their paths crossed again as young adults (Ryan Vasquez, Joy Woods) when Allie is engaged to lawyer Lon (Chase Del Ray), but decides to return to the place where she met Noah after reading a newspaper clipping about an antebellum farmhouse he’s spent years renovating; of course, he’d never forgotten her.
The book by Bekah Brunstetter (“This Is Us”) only sketches their characters in the most superficial way and the mid-tempo ballads by singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson (“The Way I Am”) are ultimately forgettable.
So it’s up to the actors to enmesh the audience in the manipulative content; they try but only partially succeed, perhaps due to the casually accepted, yet inconsistent cross-racial casting; Maryann Plunkett and Dorian Harewood achieve the strongest, most compassionate connection.
Co-directed by Michael Greif (“Dear Evan Hansen,” “Next to Normal”) and Schele Williams (“The Wiz”) with sets by David Zin and Brett J Banakis, its non-linear timeline is choreographed by Katie Spelman, lit by Ben Stanton and costumed by Paloma Young.
Needless to add, this musical adaptation lacks the emotional impact of the 2004 tear-jerker, starring Rachel McAdams & Ryan Gosling/Gena Rowlands & James Garner, despite the sale of $5 tissues in the lobby.