This week, Broadway in Cincinnati’s The Notebook, opened at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. The stage adaptation of this well-known movie is everything an audience could dream of.
The Story
The Broadway musical adaptation of The Notebook breathes new life into this timeless love story. This new production features three versions of Allie and Noah, the couple that lead this generational love story. This allows audiences to follow the growth of the story while experiencing each stage of their life as it unfolds.
Younger Allie and Younger Noah teach us that young love isn’t always a summer fling, it can be the foundation of something that endures. Middle Allie and Middle Noah show audiences that they can always find their way back home. While Old Allie and Old Noah show that even with marriages, family and children, love will always be the glue that we cling to, the one thing that can bring us back to our true selves.
The Young Couple
Younger Allie (Chloe Cheers) and Younger Noah (Kyle Mangold) meet as young teens and experience love at first sight. While many consider this infatuation or a summer fling, it is soon evident that their connection is so much more. People search their entire lives for someone who truly understands them, a person you can show your whole self to, no hidden parts. While some must spend most of their life looking for this love, it is a blessing–and a curse–that Allie and Noah have found it at such a young age.
The immediate chemistry between Cheers and Mangold emanates across the stage. The emotion these two performers are able to convey with their eyes is astounding. Each longing glance shared between the young lovers has audiences writhing at the edge of their seats to know how this story will unfold. Whether you have experience with many loves or are still waiting to find that special someone, The Notebook provides hope to all that love will find them.
Vocals are Stunning
While the acting is what sets this production apart, the vocals truly send it through the roof. In the number I Wanna Go Back, we see the acting and vocals complimenting each other perfectly. Younger Allie (Chloe Cheers) and Middle Allie (Alysha Deslorieux) provide incredible vocals and powerful harmonies that help to show the connection between all parts of the timeline of their story.
The truly standout performance of this entire production lies in the astonishing acting techniques of Sharon Catherine Brown as Older Allie. Never have you witnessed a production where a performer has been so fully engrossed in their character. Brown commands the stage with her tremendous storytelling abilities. From her mannerisms to the emotions she conveys with only her eyes, the audience is immersed in the world that now lives trapped somewhere within her mind. Not a dry eye was left in the house during I Wanna Go Back and rightfully so. These three powerful women render audiences speechless with their uncanny ability to connect and communicate such complicated emotions. Even if you have never known the feeling of love, you will unequivocally after this performance.
The Middle Couple
Following back in the trajectory of the two young lovers, their age and perceived naivety leads to the couple drifting apart due to their parents. As years race by, Middle Noah (Ken Wulf Clark) never loses hope that his Middle Allie (Alysha Deslorieux) will return home. After returning from the war, he purchases “their home” and spends years restoring this “haunted house” into a house he deems worthy of Allie. A house that can bring her home.
Whether it is fate or sheer luck, “their home” catches Allie’s eye and sends her colliding right back into Noah’s arms. But nothing is ever that easy. Allie is engaged to be married that very week. Yet somehow the powerful forces that kept them apart in the past now give them the chance to choose each other again: parents.
Deslorieux and Wulf Clark somehow manage to capture that breathtaking, overpowering love that they experienced as teenagers but add a newfound depth that can only come from the highs and lows they have experienced as life continued around them. The way they are both able to still capture the naivety and joy of their younger selves is exhilarating. The pinnacle of this joy is shown in the iconic rain scene that we all know from the movie. This production spares no cost at recreating such a well-loved scene. The sky seems to open up on stage and fully rains down on the previously scorned lovers. Delight fills the entire theater as audiences witness all walls breaking down and pure joy spreading across the stage.
The Older Couple
As any great love story would show, love conquers all. Middle Allie and Middle Noah find each other again and create the grand life together that they always dreamed of. With parents gone, fate had to create its own obstacles. Older Allie (Sharon Catherine Brown), riddled with dementia, begins to forget her love. However, Older Noah (Beau Gravitte) knows this is a love he can’t let go. This production shows Older Noah reading the story of their great love to Older Allie every day, armed only with the hope that hearing their own story will bring her back to him once more.
Gravitte leads the stage with Brown and mirrors her acting abilities. We see longing, desperation and hope seep through each calculated move he makes. Gravitte provides many moments of comic relief with his quick-witted replies that give audiences glimpses of the younger versions of himself that still thrive behind the confines of an older body. Other moments of relief from the emotional tolls this roller coaster of a love story can have on audiences are provided by newcomer Connor Richardson as Johnny, the PT. Richardson provides an unexpected yet much loved character that senses the importance of a love story like Allie and Noah’s. He provides a helping hand to help them each find their way back home.
Iconic Movie Moments
Many iconic movie moments are kept alive within this stage adaptation. One of the most memorable being the “what do you want” scene. This production gives a new spin to this pivotal moment in the lover’s story and turns it instead into song. It’s Not Easy forces the lovers to make a choice, follow the paths the universe wants to give them, or create their own enjoyment of the moments as they come.
This leads into easily one of the most iconic contemporary musical theatre songs of the decade, My Days. While we see a glimpse of Deslorieux’s vocal chops in previous numbers, she absolutely blows the roof off of the joint in this show stopping number. Deslorieux manages to captivate the entire theater with her voice in a singular solo number featuring her alone on the stage, no set, no background noise, just a spotlight and her voice. Audiences could not stop themselves from cheering and clapping throughout the number. It simply could not wait until the end.
Design Elements of The Notebook
This production includes a wonderfully conceptualized set and lights. With only outlines or each space they occupied through their story, the set is brought to life with hanging lights from the ceiling. These lights seemed to symbolize the memories swirling within Older Allie’s (Sharon Catherine Brown) mind. In moments of strife, the lights shine brighter, in moments when she is lost, some lights go out altogether. In moments of clarity, we see a shift in color from a soft warm amber to a cool and mesmerizing blue. These lights provided a clever way to see further into the mind of Older Allie and further understand her feelings throughout this tumultuous time in her life.
Overall
The Notebook breathes new life into a timeless love story. With performances that hurl audiences deep into the world of lovers, it is impossible not to fall in love. People of all walks of life can enter the theater expecting to laugh, cry, and leave with a sense of hope. Hope that no matter what twists and turns through which life takes you, you will always be able to find your way back home.
Tickets to The Notebook
The Notebook, will play at the Aronoff Center from October 14 – 26, 2025:
- Tuesdays – Fridays at 7:30 PM
- Saturdays at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM
- Sundays at 1:00 PM and 6:30 PM.
Purchase tickets at CincinnatiArts.org, by phone at 513.621.ARTS or in person at the Aronoff Center Box Office downtown. Tickets start at $48.
