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Why THE NOTEBOOK is closing on Broadway | The reasons why the stage musical will end this year
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Mickey Jo
I would offer you a tissue from the proverbial the Notebook tissue box. I mean, it's not proverbial, it's a real tissue box, but we are separated by a screen. And this, I guess, is now a relic. I will treasure you. Oh my God. Hey. Welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. My name is Mickey Jo. I am a theatre critic, content creator and pundit here on social media. And today I bring you the sad news that the musical adaptation of the Notebook, which opened earlier this year at the Schoenfeld Theatre on Broadway, will be closing. It will play its final performance in a few months time on December 15th. Now this is absolutely breaking news. I received this press release from the show's representatives, what was it, 18 minutes ago? And I'll be honest, I spent most of that time adjusting this hat. I have a very large head. And while this may not come as the biggest surprise to those who have been paying attention to the Broadway grosses, that is the weekly release reports of how much money each show is making that showed that the Notebook was not doing the most splendid business in town. It is still saddening whenever a show closes prematurely. And this was an open ended run. This was not a limited booking. This could have run as long as it was successful. Sadly, it isn't going to make it to the end of the year. So before I begin this video, I want to offer all of my thoughts to the cast, to the company, to the crew, to everyone working in or around the Notebook at the Schoenfeld Theatre. Who will be affected by this closing, who will be losing jobs. This is one of the sad realities of the theatrical ecosystem. It is going to mean that a new show is going to move into that theatre, creating new jobs. But it's always sad when something closes. Hopefully through all of this, there will be an exciting new production somewhere else and also a national tour to look forward to. But all in good time. Today I'm going to be talking through everything we know about this closing as well as the reasons behind it. If you are shocked by this news, I am going to explain why the Notebook is closing on Broadway just before I do. If you want to stay up to date with all theatrical news in the West End and on Broadway, make sure to subscribe to me right here on YouTube. Turn on those notifications so you don't miss my videos when they are released, especially when I am covering breaking news. You can also go find more of my theatrical opinions over on other social media platforms. I am on TikTok. I am on Instagram and I am on the app formerly known as Twitter. Finally, in tribute to the show, if you would like to share your experiences with the Notebook as a musical on Broadway, or if you got to see the pre Broadway version of the show, share those thoughts in the comments section down below. What did you love about this show? Who is going to be seeing it between now and its closing? Who's planning on going back? In the meantime, let's talk about this news. So this press release doesn't give us a wealth of information. It hits us with the headline right away. The Notebook, the Musical Announces final Broadway performance ahead of 2025 national tour. And that is the focus here, is that it's closing on Broadway, but it's going to be launching a national tour, which is great news for fans of this show who weren't necessarily able to make it to New York or who traveled to go see it in New York and would like to see it again a little closer to home or just somewhere else in the country. It is going to be closing Sunday, December 15th at the Schoenfeld Theatre, which is interesting already because normally when we see these kind of closures and I'm, you know, I'm of the assumpt, this is not going to be the only new show to have opened this season that will be closing around that time. Normally it happens in early January. The reason being that they want to do all of the best business of the year over the Christmas weeks, right? Like lots of people going to New York for the holidays. Lots of people going to the theater for something to do around Christmas, around the festive period, the end of December. Great time for theatres, great time for shows. The beginning of January, horrible time, horrible month. The whole month of January. No one has any money. No one's going outside. It's col, it's dark, it's not Christmas anymore. People aren't traveling. Like it's cheaper to go to New York because it's not as popular a destination in January. It might have blizzards. People aren't going to Broadway shows as much in January, so we usually see a lot of them closing in that first week, often back to back to back. Which is why I'm surprised that the Notebook is closing prior to all of that, that it's closing Sunday, December 15th. Can we read into this? Is this implying that they're having to go because another show wants that theatre? Generally, when we talk about the reasons for shows clos, especially on Broadway, it's one of two things. It is either motivated entirely by the producer's decision not to continue running at a loss or not to continue running with, like, marginal profits. And they want to close the show because it's not making any money or it's not making sufficient money or it's hemorrhaging money or it's losing a small amount of money. But the other factor can be the theatre itself, because the producers of the show, the people who are putting the Notebook on, do not own the theatre. And the owners of the theater may want a tenant in that theater that can be making them more money, that can be more profitable. This is what happened with Beetlejuice, which was evicted in favor of the revival of the Music man, allegedly. It's also what happened with the Phantom of the Opera, which, you know, was doing decent enough business. I don't think it was losing money. It had recouped years before. Obviously it was the longest running show on Broadway. But I believe what I heard was that the theater owners, the SHUBA organisation, were of the belief that they could be making more money at the Majestic Theatre. And gypsy with Audra McDonald will be going in there later this year around opening, officially around the same time that the Notebook is closing. So is it the case that the Notebook is having to close at the Schoenfeld mid December because something is getting ready to open now? I'd be surprised if something is opening in January. Usually we don't see really fast turnarounds on Broadway. Certainly not as fast as we have here in the West End. Gosh, they work at a pace. Gosh, they're like Disney World going from Halloween to Christmas over here. They get out, they get in on Broadway, as far as I can tell, there's usually slightly more of a window. And I don't know which shows would want to open right into late December. I could only imagine that would be an enormous hassle getting, like, work done in the theater during that time. And I don't imagine any shows would want to open in the midst of bleak. January, usually the peak kind of openings for the season would begin from late February onwards through March and then all throughout April. April, very, very busy, usually for show openings, because that is the last eligible month for the Tony Awards and they all want to be the most recent show to have opened fresh in the minds of the voters, as well as not having to wait too long until the Tonys, which will give them more of a box office boost if they are nominated and or win. And this is when the Notebook opened, if I remember correctly. The Notebook, I think, started previews in late February and then opened officially in March of this year. So perhaps it is just that this is a producer decision and they want to close it on the 15th of December. But like 10 more days would take them to the 25th, which would be Christmas. So I do find it a little puzzling. Now, often when a show closes, we get statements from the show and from the producers. We don't have that here. All we are told is the Notebook, the beloved new musical based on the best selling novel by Nicholas Sparks. It's based on the book, not the film will play its final Broadway performance at the Schoenfeld theatre on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. The show's first national tour launches at Playhouse Square in Cleveland, Ohio in September 2025, a whole year away, with additional cities to be announced at a later date. Stay tuned. If you are waiting to see the Notebook on its US national tour, now here's the eulogy. Following its critically acclaimed world premiere engagement at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the Notebook opened in New York on March 14, 2024. There you go. And as of December 15, it will have played 35 previews and 317 regular performances at the Schoenfeld Theatre. And you know, I am surprised. Back when everything was opening, I would not have expected the Notebook to be among the first casualties of that street. Of all the shows that are opening around it, if you don't know, there are many new shows that opened on that street, including Suffs, including Water for Elephants, including the Outsiders and Stereophonic, the latter two of which, from what we can tell, are doing terrific business and the other two of which are doing fine. And it's worth saying, statements from the producers, from the writers, from Ingrid Michelson, the composer, may be forthcoming subsequently to this press release. This is not necessarily exhaustive, but this particular correspondence does seem to be all about reminding people that the national tour is coming, but letting them know that the show is going to be closing. So let's talk diagnostics then. Ultimately, the answer to this why is the Notebook closing on Broadway? It wasn't selling enough tickets. Not enough people were buying tickets to go and see this show. What are the reasons for that? Well, it's always challenging opening amongst a bunch of other new musicals. The thing that is going to make a show stand out is its marketing campaign as well as the reviews. The reviews matter, I'd say even more in New York than they do here in London because the tickets are more expensive. So tourists arriving in New York specifically to see a show, they don't Necessarily not all of them head to New York with one in mind will be paying attention to what is like the best reviewed show. What won the Tony? What's the best musical in town? That's what they're looking for. That's what they might even be googling. That's what they might be asking at the tkts booth when they're trying to get half price tickets. And so reviews matter. And it was quite shocking when the Notebook originally opened on Broadway that the reviews were not as positive as the out of town word of mouth had indicated. A lot of my friends who had seen the show already were shocked by these reviews and they weren't hugely negative, but they were certainly not as positive as people had anticipated. One of the most important reviews on Broadway is the New York Times. So without looking through all of them, we are going to have a look at the New York Times review for the Notebook. This was by Jesse Green, who notoriously. Well, when he's not a fan of the show, you find out about it. He wrote the 2004 weepy comes to Broadway with songs by Ingrid Michaelson and a $5 box of tissues. That's you. He's talking about you. At what point did I decide this was sentient? Romantic musicals are as personal as romance itself. What makes you sigh and weep may leave the person next to you bored and stoney. At the Notebook, I was the person next to you. And honestly, like you may as well stop there because it's a fairly damning indictment. People go to the show to feel something, to be swept away in the romantic story and to cry. And he's telling you instantly that he was unmoved by this emotional show. He talks about the film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams and then writes the musical, unwilling, except at the margins, to alter a plot so beloved, or at least so familiar, tries to distinguish itself in other ways. It aims for a rougher hand hewn texture befitting Noah's career as a carpenter and the indie folk sound of its songwriter, Ingrid Michaelson. The directors Michael Greif and Shelley Williams have cast the couples regardless of race, a nice universalising touch, although one that at least initially left audiences a little puzzled. In any case, the de slicking was a mistake. It turns out that the Hollywood varnish was the only thing holding the picture together. In its place, the musical makes few convincing arguments for a separate existence. Certainly Michaelson's relentlessly mid tempo songs do not. They are pretty but flyaway, as insubstantial as blue smoke, except for a number in which teenager Ally and Noah first see each other undressed. Lyrics are vague and humorless, often budding with cliches the book is trying to prune. When songs provide so little information, barely differentiating the characters, let alone advancing the plot, a musical tends to sag. And when a musical has gone to some trouble to accommodate those songs, the movie if The Notebook runs two hours, the show hardly 20 minutes more. The trade offs are of the nose versus face variety. Only in its last stage does the Notebook achieve any real pathos, thanks to Plunkett's uncompromising naturalism and the lifetime of stage savvy she inevitably brings with her. Her locks down Ally, banging frantically on the doors of her memory, is an unexpectedly terrifying character to meet in an otherwise bland musical, and this sentiment was fairly emblematic of the rest of the reviews as well. And the words written here by Jesse Green would inevitably foreshadow the show's Tony Award nominations, where its lead performers, Dorian Harewood and Marianne Plunkett, would both be nominated for their performances. None among the supporting cast were sadly and neither conspicuously, was singer songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, who, having followed Sara Bareilles on the path to Broadway as a composer, was not nominated for her work on the score. Now you may be wondering what I think of all of this, and I've reviewed the Notebook already here on my channel. You can go and watch that video. I gave it a four star review and I do agree that there are structural issues and there are things that inhibit a fully engaged emotional connection with the audience. I'm not entirely sold on the casting approach, although I do think there is a tremendous amount of merit in it and I have gradually come around to appreciating it a little more. I don't think the staging necessarily works for me at every moment. I think structurally there are a couple of oddities within the thing. I think it has some really touching and powerful moments that that review didn't quite give enough justice. But when it comes to Ingrid Michaelson's score, I don't entirely disagree. I enjoy listening to it. I enjoy listening to it like I would an indie music album. That isn't to say I think it functions exceptionally in a dramatic context in a musical theatre world. And more than anything else that has to do with the lyrics. I think there's a tremendous amount of romance and hope and joy and despair in her melodies. I think the melodies are haunting and beautiful and uplifting and do all the right jobs. The lyrics I feel a little differently about because, you know, they do feel a little empty. They do feel a little generic. Some of them are a little basic, dare I say it? And sometimes that's how love feels. And we also have the voices of three different generations here who are articulating these different things. And more often than not, when they sing in the musical, it's at these moments of emotional overwhelm where they are just articulating something in its most basic sense. So, you know, it would be uncharacteristic and inauthentic for them to suddenly wax poetic. At the same time, the sheer down to earthness of them gets a little old as well. And my biggest issue with these lyrics is that sit neatly on the melody. If Stephen Sondheim was embarrassed by the cadence of theirs, Ah, place for us, because he thought that it was incorrect for a to fall on the highest note of the phrase, because that's not how you would say the thing, then I can't help but think he would roll his eyes at almost every single phrase of the Notebook. Even the semi viral song My Days, which is thrilling to listen to for reasons that we will go into shortly, doesn't really feature lyrics that fall naturally onto the melody when she's singing the likes of that. I followed my joy I followed my heart I lived this one wild life I ripped it apart I want to run away so what I think this is is a really brilliant first score from Ingrid Michaels and I would love for her to continue to write for musical theatre. I hope she hasn't been burned too much by this experience, by the lack of a Tony Award nomination, by these reviews and by the show's early closure. Because I think like, phenomenally talented and would love to see what she writes next. Just like Sara Bareilles is now developing another musical. So that answers much of the question around the show's reviews. It was not written about positively. This did not convince a bunch of people who otherwise wouldn't have gone to see it that they needed to, that it was like, of significant importance in terms of the art. It also didn't win over the tourists when there are a bunch of other options getting New York Times critics picks a few weeks apart, like Water for Elephants and Hell's Kitchen. Now let's talk about the marketing and some other wider factors adjacent to that. And timing is so important for these shows. And they really separated themselves from the film and they focused on the story and this being an adaptation of the book because they separated these characters into three different performers. No one is playing Ryan Gosling here, no one is playing Rachel McAdams in that sort of a film to stage sense. They wanted it to feel a little more authentic as a love story beyond putting a film on stage, I guess, which is interesting because Rachel McAdams was on Broadway at the same time earlier this year doing a play. She was in Mary Jane at the Friedman Theatre. And from what I remember, they didn't really do a substantial photo opportunity or collaboration like they mentioned. And she was, she was asked in a lot of press interviews about what she thought about the Notebook being open on Broadway at the same time. But I don't think they really utilized that timing. And unfortunately there were other timing factors that worked against them, namely Water for Elephants, also being on the same street, also being a romantic show with like striking visuals based on a book. And the biggest based on a book show was next door at the Jacobs Theatre. I'm talking about the Outsiders, which would go on to win the Tony Award for best musical based on a very well known book in the us. I want to add this as well. I was chatting last night with a friend who made an excellent point that producers only think about the other shows coming in that season and don't realize that they are ongoingly competing with everything else already open on Broadway. And if you're trying to sell this show as like the date night show, then you need to remember that Moulin Rouge is also still running on Broadway a street over. And there are various other things that had preceded this season continuing to run offering like date night vibes. I'd also be very intrigued to know how viable a Broadway show is for most people. For a date night in Manhattan, mostly we tend to see groups from out of town. We see wealthy older people, we see families, we see tourists, we see dedicated theater people. Of course, I don't know how many date nights are happening at Broadway shows, so I guess to their disappointment, the title of the Notebook wasn't enough to sell on Broadway. It's also worth saying based on a film doesn't guarantee Broadway success and it does much better in the West End. Look at Pretty Woman that had a short lived Broadway run and was comparatively way more successful in the West End. Same with Legally Blonde. Pretty Woman is still touring around the UK. Mrs. Doubtfire, the musical is another one. We seem to value familiarity more in London right now, and the London audiences feel even more commercially minded than the New York ones. If New York wants shows of quality, London seem to want shows that they already recognize more on London in just a bit. The other thing that can help these shows survive in a challenging Broadway climate. And it's worth saying it is still challenging in the years post Covid and it's always going to be challenging the theatre industry, it's always a very challenging one to navigate, especially on Broadway. Something else that can help your box office is a star. And the Notebook has a fantastic, brilliantly talented, well cast company. It does not feature huge name recognition stars, not really it platforms a great many talented rising stars, the likes of Joy Woods. She had a whole moment this summer with my days going viral on TikTok, everyone seeing clips of this performance and they were smart to film that professionally and put it out there and have her singing it on a rooftop and be like yes, look how great Joy woods is in this show. That is much of what anyone was talking about when they left the thing because it's one of the last few songs that you hear. It's this big 11 o'clock number that she sings and she's sensational. Regardless of whether this is a great song or a terrible song, she will convince you it's the best musical theater song you have ever heard because she is just a wonderfully good performer who also delivers show stopping vocals. And so there was an attempt here to make her into a star and for this to be a big part of the discovery of Joy woods, ultimately that wasn't quite enough and she wasn't recognized with a Tony Award nomination which would have needed to be a pretty vital part of that storyline. I use the word storyline because that's what marketing and PR really is. They are selling a story, an angle about the show to package and deliver to outlets to then feed back to audiences. It's what they tell me in a press release, it's what I then tell you in a video. I'm getting very meta with this this one today. But speaking of Joy woods, there have been many rumors about her next step on Broadway because she has been announced as part of the cast of New York City Centre's upcoming two week concert semi stage production of Ragtime happening at the end of October. She's going to be playing Sarah. I think that is stunning casting. She's going to be absolutely exceptional. But a separate rumor has arisen that she might be playing Louise in the Audra McDonald led revival of Gypsy that I mentioned earlier at the Majestic Theatre, except for the fact that Joy herself has debunked this on social media. However, Audra, when asked about Gypsy prior to all the contracts being signed, also debunked that a revival of the show was happening. So we can't really trust any of these people. They are not allowed to say anything until it's the right time, until the announcement actually happens. Just ask Andrew Rannells, who was announced to be starring in Tammy Faye before he had signed the contract and since departed the production. And there is every possibility There was an understanding that the show might begin to lose a little bit of steam after Joy woods left the production, but also with her not having won awards for that performance, I think that only really would have had an impact with theatre fans and so for tourists, for people walking past on the street, it wouldn't have made a difference to them. I also wonder, and I'd really welcome comments down below about this. Are people still interested in sad, poignant theatre Dear Evan Hansen discernibly struggled post Pandemic because it's it seemed as though audiences didn't want to go see something depressing. Next to Normal is sadly not doing fantastic business right now in the UK and we are seeing a huge reluctance in the show's marketing to really acknowledge the weight of its themes when it comes to depression and mental health. Is it still the case that audiences want to go see something that is ultimately buoyant and uplifting? And they know this not to be true with the Notebook. Not that it's surrounded by a bunch of joyous shows with Stereophonic and the Outsiders and Suff Some Water for Elephants. I think the happiest thing on that block is probably Hell's Kitchen. In any case, this is all just punditry and speculation. I am not actually close to the production. I had anticipated it would do better business. Honestly, with what I had heard prior to its official Broadway opening from the out of Town production from my friends, I thought this was going to be terrific. I thought this was going to be a huge Tony Awards contender and it was going to run for a really long time because I thought that this was honestly ahead of all of this, a pretty lacklustre Broadway season with not a lot of strong name shows coming in, and I thought this was the most commercially viable. I am really surprised that this is where we find ourselves, but it is hopefully not the end of the line for the Notebook. I mean, we know this to be the case. We know that it's going on a national tour. At the same time, I'm also anticipating that it will attempt to come to the West End, and there is a documented partnership between its Broadway producer Kevin McCollum and UK producer Jamie Wilson. The two of them have created this sort of a pipeline between the US and London, which is very smart by the way. And I'm wondering if we might be seeing the Notebook before too long at the Shaftesbury Theatre where Jamie Wilson has a 10 year lease. Currently. Mrs. Doubtfire the musical is still doing great business there. I wonder if that is going to tour around the UK where it would continue to do great business allowing the Notebook to come into a house that he has control of. None of this is based on anything I've been explicitly told. I am just speculating wildly and also hoping because I'd love to see the Notebook in London and I know of an awful lot of theatre people who would also love to see this show here. And again, this whole based on a film concept, it might do better here. I really wouldn't be surprised if it did. What I will say I don't think they need as expensive a set when it comes here. We don't need the whole top level. I love that he built the house for her. We don't need to see all of it. We can imagine we're at the theater. Keep the rain, lose the stairs. But for now I think that is everything I have to say about the closing of the Notebook. Again, my thoughts with the company, with the crew, with everyone who is going to be affected by this, as well as for the fans of the show who will be saddened by its closing. Let me know all of your thoughts in the comments section down below. If you have any insights into this that I have missed or you disagree with anything that I have said. If you're planning to go see the show again between now and December 15th, then tell us as well. In the meantime, I hope that you have enjoyed today's news update video. Like I said before, make sure you are subscribed with notifications turned on so you don't miss any more breaking Broadway or West End theatre news. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Micky Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a stagey day. Subscribe.