The Broadway adaptation of “The Notebook” sells tissues at the concession stands — and audiences often need them.
Dorian Harewood and Maryann Plunkett, who star in the show as the older versions of Noah and Allie, confirm they can hear the sound of sniffles from the Broadway stage.
“We can hear it sometimes, and sometimes it’s very loud,” Harewood says. “But we hear tons of laughter throughout the show, too.”
Neither Harewood nor Plunkett had seen the pop culture phenomenon that was 2004’s “The Notebook” when they signed on for the Broadway musical. Plunkett was raising her young child, and Harewood simply missed the moment.
But they, like many before, fell in love with the romance between Allie and Noah by reading the story, now told through lyrics written by Ingrid Michaelson and a book by “This Is Us’s” Bekah Brunstetter.
Sparks’ novel turned movie (and now musical) follows a couple from opposite sides of the tracks and the winding path their romance takes over the course of decades.
After their whirlwind teenage romance is interrupted by Allie’s parents, she never hears from Noah again, and Allie does what she’s supposed to as an upper class Carolinian: She gets engaged to “the right guy.”
Noah, meanwhile, does what he promised Allie: He buys a house and gets on his feet. When they meet again, Allie has to decide if she’s going to give up a pre-approved life for a more authentic one, which requires a brave leap.
The Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling-led movie adaptation of “The Notebook” consistently finds itself on lists of films guaranteed to make you cry. The Broadway show — directed by Michael Greif and Schele Williams — similarly provokes nearly the full spectrum of human emotion.
“There are people who focus on crying. But it’s life. And yeah, you cry during life. But you also laugh. There’s laughter, discovery, fierceness, depth. It’s really funny,” Plunkett says. “It’s so beautiful that sometimes it does make water come out of my eyes.”
The musical does make notable changes that set it apart from its earlier forms.
For one, the characters are played by three sets of actors, denoting three stages in the couple’s relationship. Allie is always wearing blue; Noah is always in brown.
But the actors are not meant to look alike, and the two lead characters are played by actors across races: Jordan Tyson, Joy Woods and Plunkett are Allie; John Cardoza, Ryan Vasquez and Harewood are Noah.
“The casting is what makes it unique. I don’t think there’s ever been a casting situation like this. The emphasis is on inner energy and soul, the real essence of a human being. We may look different — we may be lighter, darker, taller, skinny or whatever — but we’re all one family. This challenges the audience to see that at the very beginning,” Harewood says.
Like the film, the story isn’t told chronologically. Instead, it jumps between how they fell in love and their older selves.
Throughout the show, older Noah reads the story of their romance to older Allie, who has dementia, from the titular notebook, meant to spark her memory. Plunkett and Harewood’s scenes are primarily set in a retirement home or in the hospital — and occasionally in subliminal spaces outside of linear time.
As a result, the actors don’t take part in the stage version of the iconic water scene, where Allie and Noah kiss in the rain. That task falls to “middle” Allie and Noah, Woods and Vasquez.
“We get the better deal. We get to watch it, and they have to get drenched and have the breeze hit them soaking wet,” Plunkett says.
While her role involves less literal water, Plunkett’s performance does involve wading into the emotional depths of someone in the later stages of dementia. Harewood’s character, meanwhile, is desperately trying to hold onto the love of his life.
Both Plunkett and Harewood earned Tony nominations for their performances.
Plunkett says she doesn’t shy away from the fear and disorientation her character feels. It wasn’t hard for her to find inspiration: Her own mother had dementia.
“Every night, I stand there in my private spot before going on, and I say, ‘Let me be worthy,’” she says.
“She was funny,” Plunkett adds of her mom. “She could be, what seemed on the outside, cruel, but was not. She was just trying to survive. If someone is drowning, they might smack someone in the face trying to help them.”
Plunkett and Harewood say they are also inspired by their own marriages, both of which exceed 30 years.
“It’s not easy. The losses that you know you have to face. You’re going, ‘We’re doing this. We’re doing it together,’” Plunkett says.
She says the power of “The Notebook” comes from inspiring audience members to think of their lives and the lives of their ancestors — just like Plunkett does.
“There’s an urgency of people wanting to communicate that, ‘My life matters.’ They’re not famous people. But it means something,” she says. “There are thousands of Noahs and Allies who live out their lives. Who live a good life, but not a life that anybody would have heard of before.”
As a result, “The Notebook” is not a love story so much as it is a manual on living, they say.
In the end, the past version of Allie decides to leave her “lovely, loving” fiancé and stay with Noah, starting their life together.
“That decision of saying, ‘I can go this way, or I can go that way. And at the end of my life, how will I look at how I lived my days?’ I think that is pretty damn great,” Plunkett says.
The show makes you “confront yourself.” It’s not a “sweet” love story, but a real one, she adds.
“It makes you feel,” Harewood says. “If you’re going to be in it, you can’t help but feel.”