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 go apart 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 already know and even hold close to heart. 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 playwright Bekah Brunstetter and a contemporary score by singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, it relived that iconic scene complete with rain pouring down on the stage.
The Notebook: The Musical, running until Sept. 20 at Samsung Performing Arts Theater, makes Allie and Noah’s love story worth experiencing all over again—not because the production 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. Instead of drawing lines between these chapters, the production—directed by Fil-Am director Nicholas Polonio—lets their younger and older versions bleed into one another, making the passage of time seem smooth all the way through.
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 pages contain 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 seamlessly from there, with every song pushing it forward while 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.
Some of The Notebook’s most familiar elements are revived in the scenes of Morissette and Mossman as the pair's middle-aged versions. These include 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 with 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 physical 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 Legaspi's Allie and Vera's Noah. After a series of heartbreaking moments when Allie forgets him and pushes him away despite his unwavering love, the pair delivers the musical's most touching scene when she finally remembers him and realizes that the love story he has been reading to her all along is their own. Here, the seasoned stagecraft of the two veteran actors speaks for itself.
From there, holding back the tears only becomes harder. By the time the cast performs Coda, the weight of Noah and Allie's romance fully settles in. “I wanna go home / I will carry you home,” they sing in their 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 souvenir stand during the musical’s run. It’s the same here in its Manila production, with each available for P299 at the Forever Shoppe on the fifth floor. Buy one, or maybe even 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.
