'The Notebook' musical director hails Morissette, co-stars ahead of rehearsals

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MANILA, Philippines — New York-based Filipino-American stage director Nicholas Polonio is excited to finally work in person with the cast of "The Notebook: The Musical" in the Philippines led by Morissette Amon.

The September 2026 run at Makati's Samsung Performing Arts Theater will be the first international production of the novel by Nicholas Sparks and its 2004 film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.

Featuring music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson and a script by Bekah Brunstetter, the musical offers a more intimate and reflective take on Sparks' book by portraying lead characters Allie and Noah across multiple stages of their lives.

Morissette will play Middle Allie opposite Laurence Mossman's Middle Noah. Playing their older and younger versions are the tandems of Celeste Legaspi with Rody Vera and Sheena Belarmino with Benedix Ramos.

Polonio recently sat down with select members of the media including Philstar.com to talk about his anticipation to work with the cast, who he's only communicated with virtually and digitally ahead of rehearsals beginning July 25, Saturday.

He began by praising what Michaelson wrote for Middle Allie's characterization before shifting the commendation to Morissette's incredible sense of humor.

"I often think about Middle Allie, and Younger Allie to a degree, as someone trying to make the decision to become someone that they already know on some level that they are," the director continued. "You're meeting her at this [decisive] point of whether or not to stay with Noah [that] kind of creates an almost fractured sense of self."

For Polonio, Allie deals with such choices through humor and expressing the world around her, admitting he was blown away by Morissette's — who is making her theater comeback — vocals as if the production's songs were written for her.

The director then lauded the balance brought by Mossman and his classically trained voice, noting as well the actor's sense of history, presence, and stillness to himself when performing scenes.

Polonio called Noah another tough role to play given what happens before crossing paths with Allie and that he was a character that "falls in love so easily," yet Mossman projects Noah's resolve so easily in a performance that sells.

Belarmino and Ramos have worked together numerous times in their careers — "Tabing-Ilog: The Musical," "Bar Boys: The Musical," "Next to Normal" — which is why the director believes they are so good together.

"Just selling this part of your life where you're trying on new identities for yourself and seeing how they feel," Polonio continue about the two young actors. "They have so much fun in every single setting, especially on stage, like [a] playfulness to it."

One thing he did commend them for creating was a sort of "summer romance" where people are capable of separating imagination from reality in just a few weeks together, even saying it was effortless for them.

'Greatest collection of talents'

The entire cast —which also includes Carla Guevara Laforteza, Markki Stroem, Floyd Tena, Omar Uddin, Jillian Ita-as, and Felicity Kyle Napuli — was described by Polonio as "the greatest collection of talents he's ever gotten the privilege to work with."

It's high praise for a director that worked with Emmy winners Billy Porter and Wayne Brady in "La Cage Aug Folles" as well as "Game of Thrones" star Kit Harington on "Slave Play" on the West End.

Polonio is excited to see how the cast will be able to build off and support each other, lauding Brunstetter for writing intergenerational characters that can be taken seriously from the get-go or as pure comic relief.

"It's this whole, large menagerie of different types of people and types of performers that are asked to do this," he continued. "I'm kind of thrilled across the board with the cast that we got. I'm so grateful that everybody said yes."

Getting to know his cast will allow the director to better understand what this version of "The Notebook" will become, and Polonio tried to do his own research online by looking into the Philippine theater scene.

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