The Notebook Reviews
Los Angeles Times- Somewhat Recommended
"...But the musical does manage to pull off one genuine transformation. The authors have structured the work as a triple helix, and some of the most powerful moments occur when all three incarnations of the characters are on stage at the same time."
Stage and Cinema- Not Recommended
"...There’s a musical version of The Notebook that might actually work. A decades-spanning romance built on longing, separation, and fading memory? That’s theater. What’s currently stinking up the Hollywood Pantages? That’s a $30 million hostage situation disguised as entertainment."
Stage Scene LA- Highly Recommended
"...Exquisitely staged and performed, the best-selling novel-turned-movie blockbuster-turned Broadway crowd-pleaser The Notebook The Musical, now visiting the Pantages, is the most unabashedly romantic musical since The Bridges Of Madison County, not coincidentally another Nicholas Sparks novel-turned-Hollywood blockbuster, and I loved every gloriously sung and heartstrings-tugging moment of it."
LA Theatrix- Highly Recommended
"...The musical conveys the story of Allie and Noah, two youthful lovers who first lose then find each other years later, told through a notebook recounting their passion that’s read aloud when the two are older. The musical resets the story so that the couple when they’re older exist in the present, and also makes the relationship seamlessly multiracial."
Stage Raw- Somewhat Recommended
"...There is clearly much ado about something when it comes to The Notebook, a musical now about one-fourth of the way through a national tour following a nearly year-long Broadway run in 2024. From the roar of the near-capacity crowd at the Hollywood Pantages when the show’s title was announced to the thunderous applause after many of its 21 songs, the production clearly arrives with a built-in army of devotees."
Ticket Holders LA- Highly Recommended
"...At times, all three couples appear onstage at the same time, physically weaving through one another’s worlds with almost balletic grace. The staging is truly remarkable and brilliantly theatrical, perfectly complimented by a mesmerizingly committed cast who collectively rise above any possible clumsiness pulling off the magic of reshaping the tale from cinematically straightforward to daringly non-linear."
Indulge Magazine- Highly Recommended
"...The production’s emotional center arrives, unsurprisingly, during the legendary rain scene. Positioned at the heart of the theater, it is staged with such breathless beauty that the audience collectively paused, suspended with the characters. It’s cinematic, yes, but it’s also very much a feat of stagecraft. Raw, romantic, and soaked in yearning, the moment becomes a baptism of love, memory, and loss."
Broadway World- Somewhat Recommended
"...Must-see? Not hardly! There’s some lovely interplay between practiced stage vets Sharon Catherine Brown and Beau Gravitte; a song titled “My Days” on which actress Alysha Deslorieux (playing the middle version of our heroine) unleashes her inner Idina Menzel, and some very pretty people of both genders chasing each other across the stage shot through with autumnal shafts of light supplied by lighting designer Ben Stanton. And there’s the now quite familiar story of THE NOTEBOOK which kinda sorta wants to be ROMEO AND JULIET all grown up and with one of these great lovers suffering dementia and the other facing a stroke."