Your favorite love story in is in town: The Notebook on tour

The power of love and devotion has been explored as a theme in many of our favorite stories and musicals; however, perhaps one of the most impactful and cherished of this contemporary time is The Notebook and the hopelessly romantic characters of Allie and Noah. Through some endearing ballads, you get a heartwarming retelling—which is three-time Tony Award-nominated and is now playing at the James M. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago from Wednesday, August 5 to Sunday, August 16.

We follow three versions of Allie and Noah: young, middle-aged, and older. Older Allie (Sharon Catherine Brown) is experiencing memory loss, and her husband, Old Noah (Beau Gravitte), is reading her the story of how they met and fell for one another, desperately trying to help her remember.

While Old Noah reads the chronological narrative of their love story, the two other pairs of actors playing past eras of their lives orbit around one another like constellations, serving as a glimpse into Old Allie’s failing memory; the fragmented moments jumping in and out of frame are attempts to remember who she was and how she fell in love.

Sharon Catherine Brown (Older Allie) and Beau Gravitte (Older Noah) Photo by Roger Mastroianni

In fact, the three couples share the stage as if time does not exist linearly—not the way we live and perceive it. Young Allie and Noah (Makena Jackson, Kyle Mangold) and Middle Allie and Noah (Ken Wulf Clark, Alysha Deslorieux) don’t exist as ghosts of the past. And Old Allie and Noah, in turn, do not exist as a premonition of the future. Instead, the different phases of life come and go as if they all occupy the same space at once, listening intently to one another—recognizing, remembering, and learning, all with an instinctual knowing of where they are meant to end up. (In this case, together, safe and sound in one another’s arms…. Spoiler, the romance ends happily ever after.)

This provides a stark departure from the movie, perhaps as a way to reinvent this classic love story. There is a new emphasis on the trials and tribulations of Old Allie and Noah in the memory care facility, highlighting the theme of everlasting devotion despite the grand mystery of what happens and who we are when we forget.

Young and Middle Noah and Allie are left to sing sweet nothings to one another under the soft glow of blue—a lighting choice surely reminiscent of the iconic “blue shutters” that Noah promised he would add to the house they were to build together.

The Notebook North American Tour Company Photo by Roger Mastroianni

It’s everything you expect from the original: A doe-eyed experience of young love and a triumphant journey between the two lovers to find one another once again. Bring your girlfriends, make it a romantic evening, or even have a mother-daughter night in the city. You'll leave misty-eyed and hopeful—just as The Notebook has always done for audiences. You can purchase tickets until Sunday, August 16, at the James M. Nederlander Theatre.

For more information, visit www.NotebookMusical.com and www.BroadwayInChicago.com.