They’re selling a little box of tissues branded with the logo of “The Notebook: The Musical” at  Broadway’sGerald Schoenfeld Theater, where it’s opening tonight – perhaps the producers’ self-deprecating joke; or a sign of their self-awareness.

“The romantics would call this a love story, the cynics would call it a tragedy,” Nicholas Sparks writes near the beginning of his 1996 bestselling novel, which tells the story of Noah and Allie, who over many years must overcome many obstacles to their love. I think even cynics would call it a love story, even if they meant it dismissively.

There is no denying that the book, the subsequent hit 2004 movie, and now the  Broadway musical adaptation seem designed to make you cry – both tears of (as one of the show’s song titles puts it) “Sadness and Joy.”  But I am not cynical enough to dismiss any of these versions – not even the novel, where even Noah’s dog gets injured, and certainly not the movie, thanks mostly to the all-around terrific performances, especially the two young romantic leads, who got career boosts that never abated — Ryan Gosling wowed at the Oscars earlier this week, and Rachel McAdams will make her Broadway debut next month.

 “The Notebook: The Musical” will probably not be the same kind of star-making vehicle, but it is uniformly well-cast, with several memorable performances. The story is cleverly adapted by librettist Bekah Brunstetter, who seems almost as much guided by the TV series “This Is Us” (where she worked as a writer and producer) as by Sparks’ novel. And singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, in her Broadway songwriting debut, delivers almost two dozen  largely folk and country-inflected melodies, most of them lovely, if blandly so; only a few stand out. Little in this musical may soar, but, given the potential of the material for over-the-top melodrama, the relatively low-key approach is part of the show’s appeal.

Although the story is mostly the familiar one, the creative team has made some notable changes. It now starts in 1967 rather than two decades earlier – Noah serves in the Vietnam War rather than World War II —  and it now unfolds in three alternating timelines (much like “This Is Us.”) with three pairs of performers as Noah and Allie  – Young Noah and Allie, in their teens (Jordan Tyson and John Cardoza) in 1967; Middle Noah and Allie in their twenties  (Joy Woods and Ryan Vasquez) in 1977; Old Noah and Allie in their seventies (Maryann Plunkett and Dorian Harewood) in the present day.

Plunkett and Harewood anchor the story, both because of their outstanding performances, which give an emotional heft to the characters, and because they serve as the storytellers.  Older Noah and Older Allie reside in a nursing home, although Noah is only there to be with Allie, who has dementia. Every day, he reads a love story from a notebook. It is their love story, although Allie is too far gone to realize this. As Noah narrates the story, the other two couples play it out, and Allie reacts to it as if hearing it for the first time.

Noah  starts reading about – and then we see — the first meeting between teenage Allie, visiting (a non-specific locale) for the summer, and teenage Noah, a local who works in the lumberyard, much to the disapproval of her wealthy parents. In a subsequent scene, it’s clear she has been sneaking out to see him. They’re crazy for one another.

Finally, she resolves to stop sneaking around, bring him home to have dinner with her parents.

But then we’re abruptly brought back to the present day, where Older Allie is impatient with the progress of the story and wants to skip to the end. Older Noah strikes a compromise, and he shuffles through the notebook — 

“Let’s see… heartbreak, graduation, many many Tuesdays, Thanksgivings, a war…” 
“Well, I don’t have all day,” Older Allie protests.

–until he gets to the exact middle, when Middle Noah appears, and sings one of the three most tuneful songs in the show. It’s years later, he’s finished renovating the old house he’s always had his eyes on, and he’s still pining for the long-absent Allie:

Oh, where have you gone?
I built these walls
To bring you home
But all they bring me is more alone

We then see where Allie has gone: She’s celebrating her impending wedding with her fiancé Lon (Chase Del Rey)

Then she spots the newspaper account of Noah’s renovated house

“Guess he didn’t die in the war after all.’

But those of us who’ve read the book or seen the movie know why he disappeared, even though he promised after that first summer he would write her every day (which I won’t spoil for the rest of you.)

 The scenes then unfold along these three alternate timelines, filling in what Old Noah skipped over — we go back to Young Allie and Young Noah having that first dinner with her parents – and moving forward along three tracks.

Having these three parallel timelines allow some songs to do double or triple duty. Both Jordan Tyson and Joy Woods sing  “If This Is Love” – as Young Allie is about to defy her parents after the disastrous dinner and sneak away to meet up with Young Noah at the old abandoned house where they have been meeting, while Middle Allie is about to sneak away from her fiancé to pay a visit to Middle Noah at that very house, now renovated.

If This Is Love

Here it is sung by Michaelson

Other times, it’s all three Allies, or all three Noahs, or all six of them, singing in sweet harmony.

The storytelling may sound complicated, but it is clear onstage, with only some momentary confusion. Theatergoers are likely to wonder: Are Noah and Allie in an interracial relationship? There’s no indication in the script of this, and it’s easy to conclude that this is color-blind casting, since the characters change their races as they age – which is to say: Younger and Middle Allie are played by Black actresses, while Older Allie is white; Younger and Middle Noah are played by white actors, while Older Noah is Black.

David Zinn and Brett J. Banakis’s three-tiered set can be momentarily confusing as well, especially the vertical lights hanging over the stage. Are these metaphors for the synapses of Allie’s brain, or for memory in general? Given the centrality of the abandoned-turned-renovated house to the story, it seems a missed opportunity not to make it more prominent visually. 

But all is forgiven, because of the rain. And it’s not the only water — there’s a water-filled creek downstage that Young Allie and Young Noah stand in while they smooch. But Middle Allie and Noah prefer smooching in the rain. Has there ever been more romantic rain on Broadway?

Much of the dialogue in “The Notebook” is brightly written (although it doesn’t completely avoid clunkers or cliches), there is humor aplenty in this sweet but also terribly sad tale. But this wouldn’t be “The Notebook” without that romantic rain, and some steamy scenes.

 

Joy Woods, who is given some of the best songs and makes the most of them, gets to combine the wistful, the playful and the lascivious  in “Forever,” when Allie sings to herself while watching Noah eat pie during their first, awkward meeting after ten years:

In that shirt, in those pants 
I wanna rip ‘em off with my teeth 
God he smells good
Just like wood in the rain
and I’m feeling that pain, 
I’m feeling that old pain only
he can give, he can give right here 

Verdict: Intelligent weepie rarely soars, but is well-cast, cleverly structured, pleasantly scored

The Notebook
Gerald Schoenfeld Theater
Running time: Two hours and 20 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission.Tickets: $104-$298. Digital lottery $44; General rush $49
Music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson
Directed by Michael Greif and Schele Williams
Scenic design by David Zinn and Brett J. Banakis, costume design by Paloma Young, lighting design by Ben Stanton, sound design by Nevin Steinberg, hair and wig design by Mia Neal, and projection design by Lucy Mackinnon
Music supervisor  Carmel Dean, musical arrangements Dean and Michaelson, orchestrations Dean and John Clancy, music director Geoffrey Ko. 
Cast: Maryann Plunkett as Older Allie, Dorian Harewood as Older Noah, Joy Woods as Middle Allie, Ryan Vasquez as Middle Noah, Jordan Tyson as Younger Allie, John Cardoza as Younger Noah, Andréa Burns as Mother/Nurse Lori. Yassmin Alers, Alex Benoit, Chase Del Rey, Hillary Fisher, Jerome Harmann-Hardeman, Dorcas Leung, Happy McPartlin, Juliette Ojeda, Kim Onah, Carson Stewart, Charles E. Wallace and Charlie Webb.
Photographs by Julieta Cervantes