THE NOTEBOOK, THE MUSICAL

I’ll get to my review of the Broadway musical version of The Notebook in a minute, but first I must tell you about the absolutely fabulous time that my friend Roz and I had at Costa Mesa’s wonderful Segerstrom Center for the Arts, (and surrounding area,) earlier this week. So to everyone in Los Angeles who thinks that that region of SoCal is a bit far to go to enjoy cultural activities, I’m here to tell you otherwise. And to Orange County peeps who think you must come up here for quality entertainment, you need to think again because you have this three-theatre campus right in your own backyard!

I had missed The Notebook, The Musical when it was playing in Hollywood a few weeks ago, so when I realized that the National Tour was moving to Segerstrom Hall, Roz and I happily declared, “Day trip!” But getting there, (a straight shot on the 405,) was actually a breeze. I didn’t even have to pack all the wardrobe, purses, and outerwear that I did, like I was going to the Arctic for a week! That was crazy. (But have you met me???)

We went down there early to explore the amazing South Coast Plaza supreme shopping structure. I had read that it’s the “Rodeo Drive of Orange County,” but I could not imagine the luxury we would find…in a mall! I’ve honestly never seen anything like that before! And I’m a big mall aficionado. (When Mr. X was doing a play in Alberta, Canada several years back, I tagged along and spent three hours a night at the West Edmonton Mall, and still never got it all done…in two months! True story.)

And then we did something I rarely do—have a bite to eat at a Happy Hour! I’ve never seen Roz enjoy a meal as much. It was so relaxing, as was this entire adventure.

South Coast Plaza is directly across from the Segerstrom Center, and there’s a bridge you can walk over between the two, but we chose to just drive across and equally-easily park right at the Center, which we discovered consists of a trio of theaters. It’s all so attractive and inviting.

Segerstrom Hall itself is a beautiful theatre, as I found-out during my initial visit there a little over a year ago, to see ABT’s stunning The Nutcracker. (I believe they present that ballet every year; here’s the link to my review, so that you can remember to see it this December: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/dance-american-ballet-theatres-the-nutcracker.) And most of the audience members were dressed really nicely, which you know I love.

The most amazing aspect of the whole evening to us was that the place was packed on what my mother would refer to as “a plain little Tuesday night!” That’s a testament to the Segerstrom and its patrons.

Now, as to The Notebook, The Musical itself, we’re glad we saw it. As a native New Yorker, I’m always extremely thankful to get to see legit Broadway productions out here, and I wholly appreciate the few venues who afford us those opportunities. I like to see all shows for myself, whether or not I wind-up being a fan.

So, in this case, neither Roz nor I loved The Notebook, The Musical, with her deeming it to be “flat.” We had both, of course, seen the 2004 movie that the show is based on, which starred Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, and Gena Rowlands, and were touched by it. But, in an attempt to make this musical bigger than the lowkey sweet love story in the book and film, the writers lost a lot of the pathos that marked it.

I suggest you look up the plot before you see this show, but I’m happy to help-out the few of you who are not familiar with The Notebook. The basic narrative is that an old man reads a love story to an old woman with dementia in a nursing home. And we see the tale of the young couple unfold as he reads. The movie has a surprise near the end, which is what makes it special, but since so many people have seen it, or read the novel on which it’s based, that surprise almost-end wouldn’t work in a stage piece. (It’s that the woman the old man is reading to is actually his dementia-stricken wife, and the journey is their own; she wrote it when she started losing her memory.) And at the very end, they both die holding hands, which is the way we all wish to go, isn’t it? (Except for the lunatics who murder their spouses, of course. I think I watch too much Dateline!) I now know that the deaths happen in the musical, as well, but I didn’t notice it that night amongst the entire cast coming on stage to sing the finale. But my nescience of that situation really didn’t matter to the big picture.

I do have to make note of something that did bother me a bit, but, surprisingly, I got over it pretty quickly this time, which I’ve since learned some others, (especially online,) have not. It’s what’s referred to as “colorblind casting.” Being a proponent of civil rights since I was a little girl, I so appreciate that all deserving actors, regardless of race, age, sexual identity, height, weight, whatever, get more roles these days than ever before. But it’s just very confusing for the audience when shows are cast that way because, when it involves main characters, as it does in The Notebook, we don’t know whether or not that’s part of the story. In this case, the couple, Noah and Allie, are portrayed as an interracial duo. So it looks like that’s an important part of the plot, when it’s not at all. The musical takes place in the 1960s and ’70s, and let me tell you, as one half of an interracial couple some years after that, even in our liberal cities of New York and Los Angeles, my boyfriend and I were shunned all over the place. Interracial dating was mostly unaccepted back then, and, in the ’60s and ‘70s, it definitely would not have been in the South, where the musical appears to be set. (The setting is at least South-adjacent because the program doesn’t specify exact location of the action—it simply states “A coastal town in the Mid-Atlantic.”) So the races of the people involved, (including the girl’s interracial parents, who would have gotten together in the 1940s!,) would have been a major issue in their love story. And that’s where the confusion could come in for people seeing it. (I’ve read that the situation was even more baffling on Broadway—both younger Allies were black while the Older Allie was white! And it was reversed for the guys—the younger Noahs were white with the Older Noah being black. I had to research that info for myself, several times, actually, to make sure it was true.)

On a related side note, I once reviewed a play where the main character was a teen-age girl, whose age was mentioned several times in the show. But she was being played by a woman who was close to sixty! It made the whole show pretty puzzling; we could not concentrate on anything else we were seeing. It turned-out that the actress was also producing it so she could play the role herself. But it was just an awful execution of the script.

The casting aside, there are some positives to The Notebook, The Musical. Roz really appreciated what she deemed to be “creative lighting” because there are tall skinny “sticks” of light coming down from above.  She said, “The lighting was a fascinating character for me.”  (I, on the other hand, thought that it was way too dark, in general, which a lot of lighting designers seem to think they have to do to fit the mood of the theme. But it’s a show, not real life—I want to be able to see it!)

We both took note of how easily the set moved from one scene to the next.

And seeing three iterations of the couple, (Young, Middle, and Older,) as opposed to the film’s duo of them, is interesting. It makes the passage of time clear to the entire audience, since they don’t have to rely on subtle changes to characters’ appearances to figure-out which decade they’re observing in each scene. And seeing all three males or females doing a song or scene together as one entity is sort-of powerful.

The brightest spot in the cast for me is Connor Richardson as a very funny physical therapist at the healthcare facility. My fellow audience members and I really perked-up every time he came on.

The entire cast sings well. I most enjoyed Ken Wulf Clark’s, (as the Middle Noah,) lovely Broadway-esque voice.

But the songs themselves leave a lot to be desired. They all sound the same, with not one memorable ditty in the bunch.

One weird issue is that the program lists a choreographer, but there’s no dancing in the show! At one point, the girl teaches the guy one basic step, (akin to one, two, cha cha cha,) but no expert is needed for that. I don’t get that credit at all.

I have three final thoughts on Segerstrom Hall itself. First up is that I love that the show started on time there! Trust me, that’s far from the norm in theatres these days.

Next is one tiny word of advice: Dress in layers, including one heavy one, because it’s pretty cold in there; I had some air blowing right on me. I even put on a mask, not because of germs, but to warm-up my face!

My last thought is my favorite—there is one thing I have never seen done anywhere else, which totally impressed me. And that is that, both in the restrooms, and more importantly, on stands on the way out of Segerstrom Hall, are…tissue boxes! Just in case any audience members cry at what is considered a tearjerker. What a thoughtful touch!  It’s just another reason I plan to be a regular there from now on.

The Notebook, The Musical running February 8, 2026
Segerstrom Center for the Arts—Segerstrom Hall
600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
714-556-2787 www.scfta.org