‘Notebook’ brings iconic cinematic kiss to the Ordway stage

The most iconic moments in contemporary romantic films include Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet bracing on the deck of the “Titanic,” Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth smooching in the snow in “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” and Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling kissing in a downpour in “The Notebook.”

But only the last story has been successfully brought to the stage as a Broadway musical, and that production lands Tuesday, rain and all, at St. Paul’s Ordway Center.

Turning popular films into stage shows sets up hard-to-match comparisons. After all, in cinema, one can rely on a bunch of tricks to create big screen magic. That “Notebook” kissing scene, for example, was filmed with pumped-in lake water.

Technology has improved markedly in the theater, helping to conjure, if not entirely re-create, indelible cinematic moments. Water, aural clues such as wind and thunderclaps and projections help to set the scene in “Notebook.”

But for the actors in the show, including the Broadway pros who play Middle Noah and Middle Allie, relying on craft and the special things that one can do in theater helps to lessen the pressure of film expectations.

“If we didn’t have the rain scene, people would be rioting in the streets,” said Ken Wulf Clark, who plays Middle Noah. “At the same time, it’s like any other scene. You just play the given circumstances fully and it’s naturally exciting, especially opposite a great scene partner like Alysha.”

That would be Alysha Deslorieux, who plays Middle Allie and who believes that the fact that the actors and audience members are in the same room breathing the same air gives the experience its own special quality.

“Notebook,” which tracks two lovers of different classes as they go from youth to late adulthood where they battle the ravages of Alzheimer’s and dementia, was storied from its inception. Novelist Nicholas Sparks, who wrote the narrative based on the 60-year-marriage of his then-wife’s grandparents, famously got a million dollar advance on what was his 1996 debut novel.

“It’s essentially a story about a guy who loves a girl no matter what,” Sparks said. “Parents don’t like them as a couple. They get engaged but can’t be together. And he loves her when she doesn’t remember who he is.”

After “Notebook” was turned into the 2004 film, producer Kevin McCollum, who built his reputation on shows such as “Rent,” “In the Heights,” “Avenue Q,” and “Six,” obtained the theatrical rights to the show. The idea was brought to him by actor-turned-producer Kurt Deutsch.

McCollum describes that early 2017 episode in which he began to put the creative team together as cinematic kismet. The first person he tapped was singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson whose partner was in “Something Rotten,” one of his Broadway shows. Michaelson had never written for the theater before.

“A cat can stand in one place, do a complete flip and land right on its feet,” McCollum said. “The levitation that Ingrid made was just like that.”

“Musicals are not about plot, they’re about stakes,” McCollum said, recalling how he challenged her to find a high point in the story and compose a song around that. “The meeting was a 4 o’clock. I left at 5:30. Before 7, my phone dinged and there was an MP3 file from Ingrid. I pressed it and it was the song ‘I Know,’ the penultimate number that’s basically verbatim in the show today. I called her and said, ‘Wow.’”

McCollum then paired Michaelson with book writer Bekah Brunstetter, who was writing for “This Is Us.” She, too, knew about Alzheimer’s intimately from her family. She wanted the story to use music in a way that wasn’t too on the nose.

“In memory care, music is used as therapy,” Brunstetter said. “People will remember a song even if they do not know who or where they are.”

The musical has three sets of actors playing Noah and Allie, with the middle versions being most combative.

“They fight a lot but they’re fighting for their love,” Deslorieux said.

“It’s part of human nature to want that kind of unconditional love,” added Sparks, whose latest project, “Remain,” is an upcoming film based on the novel he co-wrote with M. Night Shyamalan. “We hear that god loves us unconditionally but that can feel abstract.”

Ultimately, Sparks said, “Notebook” as a musical adds a fresh dimension to his work.

“In theater, they can do things that neither the film nor the book can do, like have all three Allies onstage singing at the same time,” Sparks said. “They took this familiar story and turned it into something bold, elegant and new.”

When: 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 2 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 1:30 & 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Nov. 30.

Where: Ordway Center, 345 Washington St., St. Paul.