On Broadway: ‘The Notebook’ plucks the heart strings, while ‘Suffs’ gives no reason to stand and cheer
CURRENT BROADWAY We all need the occasional tear-jerker love story, with a line like “I love you more than I ever thought I could.”
Forging a successful transfer to the Great White Way from Nicholas Sparks’s bestselling novel to the weepy movie is The Notebook. Simply said, the stage adaptation is the Broadway musical at its very finest.
The original book by the first-time novelist has sold more than 100 million copies, and the film featuring two powerhouse sets of actors — Gena Rowlands/James Garner and Rachel McAdams/Ryan Gosling — was a box office hit and remains a classic of the romance genre. Broadway authors Ingrid Michaelson and Bekah Brunstetter couldn’t be gifted with a more proven structure following the romance of rich-girl/poor-boy forbidden young lovers. And the story is ingeniously told.
There are now three couplings in the three-time Tony-nominated production: Older Allie/Noah, Middle Allie/Noah, and Younger Allie/Noah, allowing each pair to shine through Michaelson’s stirring music and lyrics. Middle Allie’s ballad (I wanna live a life / Where I’m allowed to say / That I’m proud of the way that I spent) “My Days” is rapidly becoming a go-to audition selection, and rightfully so. It’s strikingly beautiful, sung with infectious no-holds-barred enthusiasm by Joy Woods, a rising star after Six and Little Shop of Horrors.
Rounding out the three splendid women actors are Jordan Tyson as Young Allie and Maryann Plunkett as the dementia-challenged Older Allie. Plunkett made her Broadway debut in 1987’s Agnes of God and was a Tony winner for Me and My Girl. Tony-nominated for The Notebook, it’s said she lost out on this year’s honor because she only sings one song. There’s authenticity in her role in her faded memory while also showing glimpses of the charming wife and mother she used to be.
Though time passes out of sequence, directors Schele Williams and the renown Michael Grief (a four-time Tony nominee for Rent, Next to Normal, Grey Gardens and Dear Evan Hansen) clearly delineate the three separate couples in the interwoven flashbacks, which could be confusing in lesser hands. Older Noah reads their story to the struggling Older Allie, all while each character might remain in view.
Audience members connect to the unfolding story as we listen to the stalwart Dorian Harewood as Older Noah reads from a diary. That’s the twist: The story’s perspective is from the perspective of age, looking back at a vivid romance.
And yes, there’s a downpour — as Allie and Noah embrace at a critical juncture in their relationship. Not since the biblical Noah has rain played a more significant role to a related story.
► Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
CURRENT BROADWAY, ALSO Unless you’re Lin-Manuel Miranda, there’s a genuine challenge to stage a not-boring musical on U.S. history without devolving to authoring a text book door-stopper. Facing that challenge is Suffs, relating the women’s suffrage movement.
Like Hamilton, the ambition of Suffs is to educate as much as it is to entertain, with a heavy emphasis on schooling the unschooled.
Suffs shares its off-Broadway beginning with Miranda’s stellar achievement at the Public Theatre. While many brief runs in small theaters fall onto the never-heard-from-again list, it’s a head-thumper that this borderline mediocre show was funded with a reported $19 million to transfer to the big leagues of Broadway. The funds included hiring Hillary Rodham Clinton as a spokesperson.
Without resorting to a well-worn adage of spreading Tony love so a show can more easily tour, it’s equally quizzically that the choppy script was awarded the year’s Best Book and the thoroughly unmemorable music achieved the Best Score statuette. And amid more worthy contenders: Hell’s Kitchen, The Notebook, The Outsiders — and my vote, Days of Wine and Roses, a groundbreaking musical by the gifted Adam Guettel and Craig Lucas, the team who wowed with The Light in the Piazza.
Today’s trans community is challenged by delusional oddballs — most vociferously by the bleached-blonde, bad-built, butch-body, harebrained MTG. But these 1920s first-wave feminists were marching against half of the U.S. population: men. (The nearly all-women cast includes a few non-binary actors.)
The Suffs story centers on the final push to pass the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote in 1920. The musical has that singular vision and aims to be a smart, inspiring retelling.
Shaina Taub wrote the book, music, and lyrics, and also starred as Alice Paul. It can be forgiven that the musical forgoes accuracy were it a more successful musical theater achievement.
The show is gifted with two powerhouse performers: Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt, a proper leader of suffrage movement, and Nikki M. James is the civil-rights leader Ida B. Wells. With their talent to create compelling characters, Colella and James increase our empathy for the individuals they play.
While understanding its mission to light a fire and encourage further activism to right society’s ills, the show falls short of being riveting. Suffs does not get my vote.
► Broadway’s Music Box Theatre
