'The Notebook' musical nails iconic Gosling-McAdams kiss, will trigger a 'good, hard cry'

NEW YORK – “The Notebook” might be the first show on Broadway to sell tissue boxes at the merch stand. And trust us, you’ll need them.

“Very much so,” jokes Ryan Vasquez, one of the stars of the heart-tugging new Broadway musical, which opens Thursday at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. “I’m a believer that a good, hard cry is good for you.”

Romantic and life-affirming, the show is ingeniously adapted from Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 bestseller with songs by Ingrid Michaelson. It tracks the decadeslong love story between Allie and Noah, who are torn apart by class, war and ailing health, but always find each other again. The musical brilliantly casts six different actors in the two lead roles, made famous by Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling in the 2004 big-screen phenomenon.

"It's a fresh, new take on something you've already fallen in love with," says cast member John Cardoza. "It's just more to love."

Broadway's 'The Notebook' takes a 'gentle approach' to love and loss

Adapted by writer Bekah Brunstetter (NBC’s “This Is Us”), Broadway’s “The Notebook” seamlessly weaves together three distinct timelines, beginning with Younger Allie (Jordan Tyson) and Younger Noah (Cardoza). The starry-eyed couple meets one summer and bonds over art and the ocean. But Allie’s wealthy parents disapprove of the penniless, free-spirited Noah, and take drastic measures to sever ties between them.

Signing onto the project, Cardoza was moved by the nuance that Michaelson and Brunstetter brought to the story.

“My mother had just passed maybe a year before at that time, and one of the first major moments I have in the show is Noah discussing the loss of his mother,” Cardoza recalls. “I just remember sitting there listening to these two incredible poets talking about the different ways that young people, in particular, handle grief. They just have such a gentle approach to the human experience of love.”

Tyson was similarly impressed with the ways that the show’s creators “let Allie be this powerful young woman, and not just melt into somebody else,” she says. “You watch her make some really hard decisions and get to know where her power comes from.”

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams' passionate, rain-soaked kiss comes to life

“The Notebook” movie was a touchstone for many millennials, who may have watched it while crying into tubs of ice cream over their first teenage crush. The show features some of the film’s most memorable lines (“It’s not that simple!”), as well as a subtle lyrical nod to Gosling’s iconic “If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.”

Then, of course, there’s the rain scene. The musical recreates Noah and Allie’s heated reunion with a real onstage downpour – a stunning feat of theatrical magic that draws gasps and applause from the audience.

Although it may look sexy, “I can’t really see when I’m lifting her up,” says Vasquez, who plays Middle Noah. “I’m just closing my eyes because I’m getting completely pelted by rain.”

“It’s very cold once the rain stops,” adds Joy Woods, who portrays Middle Allie. Backstage, it’s “all hands on deck” to get dried off. “We have almost choreography of taking off the wig, putting on new clothes and jewelry, and toweling off my face while somebody’s putting a new mic in. It’s a really well-oiled machine.”

McAdams comes to Broadway next month in the new play “Mary Jane,” and the cast hopes she pays a visit to “The Notebook” while she’s in New York. “I would be a very happy camper,” Woods says with a laugh. “She is queen and I would love to shake her hand and thank her for being the culture.”

Like the movie, the show is a heartbreaking portrayal of dementia

As fans of the book and movie will know, the poignant throughline of the show is Older Noah (Dorian Harewood) visiting Older Allie (Maryann Plunkett) in a nursing home. Suffering from dementia, she no longer remembers Noah or their love story, and he routinely reads from her old notebook to try and jog her memory.

One of the musical’s most poignant songs is “Iron in the Fridge,” as Older Noah duets with younger versions of himself about trying to “bring her back,” Harewood says. The show’s tear-jerking last 10 minutes, in particular, are “very challenging and very grueling. It's hard to explain, but it also renews me at the same time it’s draining me.”

Older Allie, too, gets a gorgeous number called “I Wanna Go Back,” in which she dances with her younger selves. “My mom lived with dementia and the phrase ‘I am still in here’ is so resonant,” Plunkett says. “There were moments where you’d see the 16-year-old (inside). It was like a flash, where you know there’s a coherence there for just a moment, and then it’s gone.”

Through this show, Plunkett feels she gets to pay tribute to her mom every night on stage. “She played trumpets in big bands when she was young. She just had music inside of her.” Toward the end of her life, “in her fear, she would lash out at times. But in a strange, sad way, there’s something marvelous about that really. She’s saying, ‘I’m still alive. I’m still fighting for myself.’”