THE NOTEBOOK is a new musical with music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson and a book by Bekah Brunstetter, based on the 1996 Nicholas Sparks novel and 2004 film of the same name. It is part of the Five Star Bank 2025–2026 Broadway Season, directed by Michael Greif and Schele Williams. The production runs Tuesday, October 7th, through Sunday, October 12th, 2025.
Shows are Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday matinee at 2:00 p.m., and Sunday at 1:00 and 6:30 p.m., located at Shea’s Buffalo Theatre, 646 Main Street. Tickets are available online at sheas.org or by calling 716-847-0850.
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 20 minutes with one 15-minute intermission
THUMBNAIL SKETCH
The Notebook musical tells the lifelong story of Allie and Noah—from their meeting as teens, spending a few summer weeks together in their passionate youth, and then through their separation due to class differences (her parents don’t approve of him), to meeting and reconnecting ten years later, and finally to their enduring love through Alzheimer’s disease in their old age.
The musical utilizes three sets of actors to portray them at different ages, and the show frames their story within a nursing home, where the older Noah reads their life story (The Notebook) from a journal to the older Allie, who struggles to remember everything—including their past, their children, and even Noah. The Notebook jumps between these three time periods as it weaves their story.
The musical explores the power of memory and the deep, enduring nature of their love across time and challenges.
THE PLAYERS, THE PLAY, AND THE PRODUCTION
I was excited to see this show since I missed it on Broadway last year. I have never read the novel or seen the hit movie that starred Ryan Gosling, Rachael McAdams, and the late greats James Gardner and Gena Rowlands as Noah and Allie respectively—and, in my opinion, you don’t have to have seen the movie or read the book to enjoy this truly beautiful, breathtaking new musical.
In the movie, apparently Noah and Allie are played at different ages by two pairs of actors; in the musical, there are three pairs of actors, and their stories are interwoven chronologically. Younger Noah (Kyle Mangold) and Younger Allie (Chloe Cheers) fall in love as teenagers but are separated by fate and meddling parents. Middle Noah (Ken Wulf Clark) and Middle Allie (Alysha Deslorieux) reunite a decade later after Allie sees a photo of Noah in the paper—he bought and fixed up the house he told her would be theirs someday.
We learn of them as Older Noah (Beau Gravitte) reads their story to Older Allie (Sharon Catherine Clark), who is lost in a haze of dementia. It was quite an effective storytelling device here. The actors don’t really resemble each other all that much, but that’s not confusing; co-directors Michael Greif and Schele Williams keep the narrative frames always clear. And whether you’ve already encountered The Notebook in some form or other, you already know this story.
The plot is the most basic kind of romantic fantasy—that of forbidden young lovers, the rich-girl-and-poor-boy division—with the twist of being told from the vantage point of age and infirmity. In Bekah Brunstetter’s adaptation of the book, this threadbare tale is further reduced to its archetypal essentials. Boy meets girl, and they fall in true love straightaway, without even the sparks of bickering Sparks gave them. Boy loses girl—but we know he’ll get her back because, unlike the film, the musical makes no effort to hide the fact that the older man reading to Allie is Noah.
Potential threats to their happiness, particularly Allie’s fiancé Lon (Jesse Corbin), are minimized, so there’s no real suspense or emotional stakes in their romance—just a steady march to a conclusion we already know. The way the creatives and cast tell the story is nothing short of mesmerizing, though.
Wisely, directors Michael Greif and Schele Williams make it difficult to separate the three generations, tying the Allies and Noahs together through color-coordinated costumes (Noah is mostly brown and Allie in mostly blue, by Paloma Young) and Katie Spelman’s dreamy choreography, which presents a wonderfully fluid vision of time.
The set (by David Zinn and Brett J. Banakis) facilitates these leaps across the timeline while constantly reminding us of the house Noah restored to make a home for Allie. Memories, happy and sad, emerge from the shadows of Ben Stanton’s lighting, with the echoes of years past reverberating through Nevin Steinberg’s finely balanced sound design.
Ingrid Michaelson’s score is a parade of confessional power ballads that are pretty in the moment. They may not be the most memorable showtunes, but they envelop you in a warm hug and swell of emotions while you are in the theatre experiencing the show. The songs show off both an actor’s emotional and vocal range, with the biggest numbers ending in a glory note. The music has an identity and feel, but they are all very similar.
All of it presents a beautiful picture of mortality, but also the universality of love. The six actors playing Noah and Allie range in age and ethnicity. This strikes at the heart of what I suspect undergirds the enduring popularity of The Notebook.
This could be anyone’s story, and the poetic end that comes for Noah and Allie represents the very happiest resolution. That’s enough to make anyone cry—it sure made me and my theatre companion, Jill, do so.
Musical theater is all about big emotions expressed through even bigger voices, and The Notebook has plenty of both. I rarely say this, but the casting of this show—and particularly the six leads—is absolutely perfect.
Let’s start with the two actors playing Young Noah (Kyle Mangold) and Middle Noah (Ken Wulf Clark). Both are exceptionally good performers—and they are both hunky dreamboats to boot. They have that manly, working-guy feel, with rough hands but a poetic soul. In addition to being hot as hell as the Noahs, they both have that sweet, encouraging, patient nature, and you feel their eternal devotion to Allie. Both actors sing alarmingly high notes very well; it appears almost effortless for them.
Mr. Mangold as Young Noah feels like a bright, shiny penny. He has this playfulness and vital urgency in his performance, and his chemistry with Ms. Cheers (Young Allie) is very palpable. Mangold is both gentle and naïve as Younger Noah.
Ken Wulf Clark has quite the stage presence—the second he appeared, I was like “Wow.” There is a quiet virility he has that suits this character, Middle Noah, very well. Here is a guy who is a veteran, living alone in a mansion he rebuilt with those rough hands. I can’t wait to see him in another show after this tour is over.
The Young Allie played by Chloe Cheers and the Middle Allie played by Alysha Deslorieux are equally as powerful and effective as their male counterparts. Ms. Cheers owns the stage when she is on it. I felt like I was witnessing a young star on her way up to being a Tony Award-winning Broadway diva. Her solo song, the hopeful If This Is Love, is a memorable highlight in the show. Another standout is a duet between both actors in the yearning and melancholy I Want to Go Back.
Cheers as Younger Allie plays the innocence and youthful pluckiness of her character very well. Her Allie is both vivacious and headstrong. My friend Jill commented that Chloe was captivating on stage, and I could not agree more.
Ms. Deslorieux as Middle Allie is drop-dead gorgeous, and she manages to inject some humor into her character’s neurosis. Her voice is clear and strong, and she brings down the house in her second-act solo My Days. She creates a more sophisticated, worldly Allie who has experienced some life.
Broadway veteran Beau Gravitte as the Older Noah attempting to deal with his wife’s illness is patient and understanding, as well as heartbreakingly loving. The divine Sharon Cathrine Brown, who made her Broadway debut at five years old, is a seasoned performer who makes Older Allie suitably frustrated and slightly crotchety as she knows she is losing her memory more every day. Ms. Brown as Older Allie is genuinely moving in her dignity and confusion. The emotional scene and number Home is particularly tear-inducing.
As Allie’s foreboding mother and the head nurse Lori, Ann Tolpegin brings gravitas to her roles, and the adorably charming and funny scene-stealer Connor Richardson adds welcome levity as a physical therapist named Johnny. The ensemble is first class—bravo to Jesse Corbin, Jerome Harmann-Hardman, Rayna Hickman, Makena Jackson, Caleb Mathura, Grace Ohwensadeyo, and Rundberg—whose beautiful voices and performances help elevate this show.
The musical version of The Notebook is engrossing and a truly satisfying evening of theatre. If you are a romantic, you will eat it up—and it certainly turned my cynical heart to Jello. Its sentiment quotient is kept low until the end, when audible sobbing can be heard in the theater. While the score offers no blockbusters in the old-fashioned vernacular of Broadway show tunes, it is melodic and easy to listen to, and the exceptional cast puts it over well.
The concept of having the two main characters played by three sets of actors works better than one might expect, as they are far enough apart in age. As Younger Noah says of Allie’s painting: “It’s sadness and it’s joy, right?” At its best, The Notebook finds a way to deliver both.
Whether devotees of the book or the movie will be satisfied with the stage show, only they can decide for themselves—but the audience I was in at Shea’s met the actors at curtain call with vociferous applause.