REVIEW: THE NOTEBOOK, THE MUSICAL—Segerstrom Center for the Arts
- TheShowReport
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
The Notebook, in all its embodiments, is a fundamentally intoxicating tale, in which this production leans into with feverous success.
COSTA MESA—JANUARY 27TH, 2026
She’s a rich girl on summer vacation. He’s a poor local boy. She thinks he’s cute and he thinks she’s pretty. They fall instantly in love but her parents whisk the girl back home before things go much further. Each thinks the other has forgotten the other and years go by.
But just before her wedding to nice-guy lawyer Lon (Jesse Corbin) she decides to return to the place where it all began after seeing a newspaper article about a house he has spent years fixing up — and, as it turns out, pining for her all the while.
In essence, these two have really little in common at first, except for platitudinous exchanges and flirty gestures. He admires one of her paintings. She likes his guitar strumming. When she later accuses him of not knowing who she really is, we know what she means, though the same could be said of her about him.
Considered by many to be the pinnacle of romantic stories, Allie and Noah — a young heiress and a lumber mill worker — fall in love and, despite all obstacles thrown at them over the ensuing decade, finally get together and live happily ever after … almost. Years later, Allie is residing in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s, mostly in a cloud of confusion and unable to recall much of her past. Noah visits every day, reading to her from a notebook that tells their story. He hopes this will jog her memory to recall their life together.
But having seen (I’m guessing more than once) the 2004 movie on which THE NOTEBOOK is based, and possibly having read the 1996 novel by Nicholas Sparks, I’m sure you knew perfectly well what was coming. The movie, a super-slick Hollywood affair, did everything it could to keep the eye warm. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, as the young couple, could not have been glowier.
The movie soundtrack relied on precision-crafted standards like “I’ll Be Seeing You” to yank at your tear ducts. And the production design was more like a montage of greeting cards come to life, celebrating valentine passion, anniversary tenderness and golden sympathy, while releasing flocks of trained geese into a technicolor sunset to symbolize lifelong pair bonding.
And now, skipping ahead two decades from the movie to this latest stage adaptation at Segerstrom Center for the Arts, book writer Bekah Brunstetter (who trafficked in the same audience-pleasing sentimentality as writer and producer on NBC’s “This Is Us”) and Director Michael Greif (who gave us “Rent,” “Next to Normal” and “Dear Evan Hansen”) wastes no time hiding the fact that the old man and the old woman are later-gen versions of the younger versions sharing the stage.
Anyone still confused by the concept should pay close attention to Katie Spelman’s superb choreography, with its simultaneous gestures for each generation. For instance, when, early on, the old man touches his neck, so do Middle man and Younger man. Not exactly subtle, but it does the trick.
The couple first meet as teenagers in a mid-Atlantic coastal town where the moneyed Allie (Chloé Cheers) falls hard (and vice versa) for working-class townie Noah (Kyle Mangold). Despite the snooty pooh-poohing of Allie’s parents (Anne Tolpegin & Jerome Harmann-Hardeman), the kids while away a few carefree and starry-eyed weeks before the old folks cut the family vacation short and jettisons their besotted daughter from whence she came.
Those mid-tempo ballads sung directly to the audience should make it obvious, but if you missed the point: Ally and Noah love each other. Really, really love each other. An early duet between the Younger Allie and Younger Noah, which clinches the deal with its sweet pledge of young love — “Carry You Home” — is melodically lovely and lyrically clever, bathed in a lighthearted spirit.
The action picks up again about 10 years after the summertime separation (though the time periods swirl around and through one another in performance, with all three generations frequently sharing the stage). Here, timelessness seems to be the point. Noah (Ken Wulf Clark) spends the first couple of years away at war — Brunstetter has time-jumped the conflict from World War II in the book and movie to Vietnam for the stage, perhaps to avoid any overly musty period details. Neither Paloma Young’s costume design nor the co-direction of Michael Greif and Schele Williams make undue fuss over decade signifiers.
That means the show has updated the novel’s time period from the 1940s to the 1970s and then extends it into the present. But if there weren’t references about Vietnam, you would be at a loss to recognize the era of the story, or to pinpoint the story’s locale, which the program notes as simply “a coastal town in the mid-Atlantic.” David Zinn and Brett J. Banakis’ set echoes that vague sense of place.
That feeling of everywhere/nowhere is reflected in the freshman score by indie singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, whose tunes were featured in TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” They’re pleasant, tender and lilting with sentimentality and introspective lyrics drenched in wistful longings and wish fulfillment.
The most visually striking moment in the show is when rain begins to fall in a full downpour on stage, the scale of it surprising many and earning an audible reaction throughout the theater. But it’s Alysha Deslorieux who rises to the occasion as she wrestles with the character of Middle Allie and shines spectacularly. Subtle gestures like a nod of the head feel gigantic. Her body seems to vibrate during her 11 o'clock number, “My Days,” and the song feels monumental. Her emotion floods into the crowd and submerges the audience in her light.
Finally, as the production fully cements itself as a pop-culture hallmark of a modern, emotionally charged affaire du cœur, THE NOTEBOOK shows the sustained power of love with expert artistic expression from Sharon Catherine Brown and Beau Gravitte, who bring quiet compassion and authenticity as the oldest Noah and Allie. Both are extremely adept in their portrayals, but Ms. Brown is especially poignant as she struggles for her memories with confusion, curiosity and fear while slowly revealing glimpses of the person she used to be. All in all, a very satisfying, although heartrending, journey of love.
SEGERSTROM CENTER FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS: THE NOTEBOOK, THE MUSICAL; Music and lyrics by INGRID MICHAELSON; Book by BEKAH BRUNSTETTER; Based on the novel by NICHOLAS SPARKS; Directed by MICHAEL GREIF & SCHELE WILLIAMS; Choreography by KATIE SPELMAN; Orchestrations by JOHN CLANCY & CARMEL DEAN; Co-Vocal Arrangements by INGRID MICHAELSON & CARMEL DEAN; Conductor & Music Director TINA FAYE; Vocal Coach ROBERTA DUCHAK; Scenic Designer DAVID ZINN & BRETT J. BANAKIS/HUDSON SCENIC STUDIOS; Costume Designer PALOMA YOUNG; Lighting Designer BEN STANTON; Sound Designer NEVIN STEINBERG; Production Sound NICK BORISJUK; Hair & Wig Designer MIA NEAL; Intimacy Director CLAIRE WARDEN; Video Designer LUCY MACKINNON; Production Stage Managers JUSTIN MYHRE, MELISSA RICHTER & EGYPT DIXON.
CAST: Older Noah: BEAU GRAVITTE; Middle Noah: KEN WULF CLARK; Younger Noah: KYLE MANGOLD; Older Allie: SHARON CATHERINE BROWN; Middle Allie: ALYSHA DESLORIEUX; Younger Allie: CHLOË CHEERS; Mother/Nurse Lori: ANNE TOLPEGIN; Johnny: CONNOR RICHARDSON; Lon/others: JESSE CORBIN; Father/Son/others: JEROME HARMANN-HARDEMAN; Nurse Joanna/others: RAYNA HICKMAN; Sarah/Granddaughter/others: MAKENA JACKSON; Fin/Grandson/others: CALEB MATHURA (at this performance, the role of Fin/Grandson was played by JOE VERGA; Georgie/Concierge/others: GRACE OHWENSADEYO RUNDBERG.
Swings: NICK BROGAN, AARON RAMEY, SHARI WASHINGTON RHONE, SAMANTHA RIOS, EMILY SOMÉ, JOE VERGA
THE NOTEBOOK, THE MUSICAL plays January 27 - February 8, 2026 in Segerstrom Hall, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30PM, Saturdays at 2PM & Sundays at 1PM. Runtime: 2 hours and 14 minutes. For Tickets, visit https://www.scfta.org/ Taste of the Arts VIP Dinner Package on February 5th includes a pre-show Dinner at Vaca at 5:30 PM and orchestra seating at 7:30 PM.
CHRIS DANIELS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT REVIEWER
THE SHOW REPORT
Photo Credits ROGER MASTROIANNI
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