No, it still isn’t over for The Notebook — because its Broadway debut is inching closer.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this. The @notebookmusical is going to Broadway! We begin previews Feb 6 and open March 14 at the Shoenfeld [Theatre],” Ingrid Michaelson, who penned the music and lyrics for the production, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, August 3. “Just typing that makes my heart race. Musical theater has always been in my bones. But to be able to create a musical with @funstetter as my copilot, @carmiedean as my musical guide and #MichaelGreif and @schelewilliams directing has been an adventure I never knew I could have.”
She continued: “And many more amazing humans! I hope to see you at the theater. I’ll be the one clapping the loudest, laughing the loudest and probably crying the loudest.”
Michaelson, 43, also included the first images from the show, which featured an illustrated man and woman, painted in watercolors, embracing in an almost-kiss. The singer’s Instagram upload also featured several behind-the-scenes snaps as she joined her fellow writers and the directors, Michael Greif and Schele Williams, inside the Great White Way theater for the first time. A cast for The Notebook has yet to be announced.
Michaelson, who is currently dating Broadway veteran Will Chase, announced in January 2019 that she was working on a script for a musical based on the 2004 movie. (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams’ film was adapted from Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling novel.)
“I’m writing a musical … and the musical is The Notebook,” Michaelson revealed while cohosting Today with Hoda Kotb. “I haven’t been able to say it in so long … and the book is being written by Bekah Brunstetter, who is a writer at This Is Us.”
The musician continued at the time: “I’ve been writing for about a year and a half, so it’s been a long process for me but it’s been slowly building. … It’s so different when you’re writing for a character, when you’re writing for these other people, than when you’re writing about yourself and your emotions. So, it’s been really interesting and really different for me to write from these perspectives.”
Michaelson continued documenting her writing process via social media before the production’s tryout run in Chicago last year. She debuted footage — directed by Tony nominee Chase, 52 — of one of the songs from the musical, “If This Is Love,” in July 2022.
“I’ve waited every day to feel the way I feel / Knots in my stomach, the kind that never heal,” Michaelson sang in the clip, seemingly performing as leading lady Allie Hamilton. “Butterflies that fly in my and never seem to go away / Sick to my stomach when I think about his face, but in a good way, in a way I can’t replace.”
