NEW YORK — The romantic tearjerker “The Notebook” comes to Broadway as a somewhat awkward musical this spring, after finding success as a book and a movie. Its goal now is to make live audiences openly cry by using a lot of cheesy sentimentality without the presence of Ryan Gosling.
The grand musical that premiered Thursday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre is centered on a timeless love story but features subtle songs by Ingrid Michaelson, giving off a relaxed vibe instead of intense passion. The book by Bekah Brunstetter loses momentum before it ends and adds too much melodrama.
This adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel recounts the love story of poor boy Noah Calhoun and rich girl Allie Hamilton, told as the elderly narrator reads the story to his elderly wife with Alzheimer’s, who are later revealed as the young couple of the story, whose passion was hindered by meddling parents.
For the stage production, three sets of diverse Noahs and Allies have been cast for different scenes — there’s even diversity on Broadway — so at times there are six people on stage portraying the main couple, somewhat diffusing the impact. Fortunately, the boys wear brown and the girls wear blue, resembling a kindergarten style. It’s not a good sign when a Broadway musical relies on color cues to distinguish the cast.
Directors Michael Greif and Schele Williams, as well as choreographer Katie Spelman, seem to complicate the visuals by rushing everyone in a hurried whirl, suggesting that love compels you to move fast.
The older couple (Maryann Plunkett and Dorian Harewood) rarely leave the stage, strangely sticking around to watch their younger selves, with elderly Noah supposedly reading from his notebook to trigger his wife’s memory. This effect has also been used in the Neil Diamond musical and it’s just eerie, distracting from the main action and complicating the scenes.
The film’s chronological timeline has been disrupted, which is a good concept, allowing time to be manipulated and scenes to blend, suitable for a musical about Alzheimer’s. However, this opportunity has been wasted and instead we have songs like “Iron in the Fridge” or the cringey lyrics “Is it time for dinner?/Is it time for forever?”
The writer avoids copying the charming visual moments from the Gosling-Rachel McAdams film — hanging off a Ferris Wheel, lying down in a street or boating with geese. But introducing another health problem, creating a tiresome physical therapist for comic relief and a poor metaphor about sea turtles — “they return to the same nesting spot where they were born” — reveals some desperation.
The famous rain scene from the movie has made its way to the stage — the couple even do that well-known embrace multiple times. Unfortunately, there’s plenty more musical to go after that — including some death, leading to many audience members in tears at a recent preview. Perhaps they were just dismayed at how over-the-top it all was.
Michaelson does perform some songs well like “Leave the Light On,” “If This Is Love” and the comically delightful “Forever” — but around 20 songs are forgettable. A standout song is “My Days,” sung by the talented Joy Woods, but it feels out of place in the musical.
The diverse cast has influenced the change in setting from the 1930s and ’40s to the ’60s and ’70s (indicated by the wrap dresses similar to those by Diane von Furstenberg) and from South Carolina to “a coastal town in the mid-Atlantic,” making it less specific.
Perhaps that’s why the set design by David Zinn and Brett J. Banakis is unusual. It’s the first combination of a hospital and boating dock seen on Broadway in a long time, and hopefully the last. There’s an actual pool of water, occasional pilons or boat hulls, alongside a neon Exit sign and a cold hospital decor.
These unusual additions overshadow a beautiful portrayal of the transformation of Noah’s old house and his efforts to win Allie back. It is first hinted at in abstract form — a window here, a porch there — until it becomes a reality when she finally calls it home. Like a sea turtle.
Lighting designer Ben Stanton has placed vertical neon tubes in an attempt to blend fluorescent office lights and stars, but it is not successful. The addition of the sound of a ticking clock adds to the overwhelming nature of the show. The messy end of Act 1 is followed by an unwelcome start to Act 2 with a comatose patient, so there’s no rush back from the bar.