REVIEW: 'The Notebook: The Musical' takes viewers back to Allie and Noah's love story with an all-Filipino cast
In The Notebook, fate seemed to work against Allie and Noah at first. They meet as teenagers in the summer of 1940, fall deeply in love despite coming from different worlds, and eventually part ways without contact. Years later, they find their way back to each other and realize that the love they shared never really disappeared.
With the 2004 film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 bestselling novel of the same name, it’s become a story that many are already familiar with. The couple’s romantic, rain-drenched reunion turned into a moment so huge that it inspired countless recreations and references over the years. When it ran on Broadway in 2024—with a book by Bekah Brunstetter and a contemporary score by Ingrid Michaelson—it relived that iconic scene complete with rain pouring down onstage.
The Notebook: The Musical, featuring an all-Filipino cast and running until Sept. 20 at Samsung Performing Arts Theater, makes Allie and Noah’s love story worth experiencing all over again, not because the musical tells their romance from scratch but because it understands what audiences are there to see: the same timeless love story, this time brought to life with Filipino warmth, talent, and emotionality.
Presented by Theatre Group Asia, the Manila staging revisits Allie and Noah’s story across three stages of their lives, with Sheena Belarmino, Morissette, and Celeste Legaspi alternating as Allie, and Benedix Ramos, Laurence Mossman, and Rody Vera taking turns in playing Noah. Rather than treating these chapters as completely separate, the production—directed by Fil-Am director Nicholas Polonio—lets their younger and older versions bleed into one another.
The story begins with Vera’s older Noah reading from his notebook to Legaspi’s older Allie, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The notebook contains their love story, written by Allie before her memory started fading. Noah continues reading to her in the nursing home, holding on to the hope that it might somehow make her remember and bring her back to him.
The musical moves smoothly from there, with every song pushing it forward and giving the characters time and space to move between their past and present.
Belarmino and Ramos bring a youthful touch to the couple as they perfectly portray the innocence and intensity of teenage love through songs like If This is Love and Kiss Me.
In the scenes of Morissette and Mossman as their middle-aged versions, some of The Notebook’s most familiar elements are revived, including the white house with the blue shutters that Noah restored for Allie and, of course, their passionate kiss in the rain, which they preserve faithfully as they confront the longing that lingered between them for years following a playful duet of Forever. These are reinforced further with production design by Miguel Urbino and lighting design by Cha See.
There were, however, a few hiccups here and there on opening night: In one scene, the curtain caught on the house as it came down, while the windows also had to be adjusted for a few seconds during the play. These were brief technical moments that were hard not to notice even in the middle of an otherwise polished staging.
One of the show’s standout performers, Morissette, commands the stage with her breathtaking take on My Days, made even more striking when a live orchestra, backdropped by a sea of lights, is later revealed behind her. She remains vocally powerful and emotionally generous throughout the 2-hour-and-30-minute program—she even had the gala night crowd on their feet during the curtain call.
Beyond its vulnerable and heart-tugging moments, The Notebook: The Musical also makes room for lighter times. Omar Uddin, who plays older Noah's therapist Johnny, provides a welcome breath of fresh air. Their scenes add humor to an otherwise emotionally heavy story, while Carla Guevara Laforteza’s portrayal of Allie’s mother gives the show another entertaining source of tension as the one who stands between Allie and Noah.
The show’s emotional peak, however, belongs to Celeste’s Allie and Rody’s Noah. After a series of heartbreaking moments when Allie pushes him away and forgets him despite Noah’s unwavering love, the pair delivers its most touching moment when she finally remembers him and realizes that the love story he has been reading to her all along is their own.
From there, holding back the tears only becomes harder. By the time the veteran actors perform Coda with the rest of the cast, the weight of their story settles in fully. “I wanna go home / I will carry you home,” they sing in the final number, bringing their decades-long love story to a close.
Broadway definitely knew what it was doing when it sold boxes of tissues at the merch stand during the musical’s run. It’s the same here in its Manila production, with each priced at P299. Buy one, or two. It won’t be any kinder to your tear ducts.
PhilSTAR L!fe was given a free ticket to the Manila production of The Notebook: The Musical, which will run until Sept. 20 at Samsung Performing Arts Theater. Tickets are available via TicketWorld.
