“The Notebook,” the 2024 musical of the same name as Nicholas Sparks’s 1996 novel and its 2004 film adaptation starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, has humongous cultural shoes to fill in the modern consciousness. As I arrived at the Connor Palace theatre for the Sept. 21 showing of the musical’s national tour, this cultural knowledge and expectation only became all the more apparent. When I was getting my $6 Diet Coke, the ladies in front of me were asking the bartender just how much she cried, to which she responded that she cried with every showing. I can see where she was coming from, as it is one of the musicals that has moved me the most in my entire life.

This is not to say that the musical is perfect by any means, but there are points in which it is fantastic. The opening number, “Time,” is an incredibly moving set-en-scene, with abstracted, full-cast choreography and a sweeping score, primarily led by Older Noah (Beau Gravitte) as he considers his inability to stop time—whether that be to return his youthful knees or his wife’s memories. “Time” is one of the best numbers in the musical. This is where the musical succeeds: abstraction and non-linearity.

Whenever the past blends with the present, in a seamless flow of memories, the musical becomes rarified, moving to a point of emotional destruction which neither the novel nor the film ever quite reach. These moments are where the play truly shines.

Some of these songs include the act one finale “Home,” in which Middle Allie (Alisha Deslorieux) and Noah (Ken Wulf Clark) reunite after ten years of separation while being watched by other versions of themselves, “Iron in the Fridge,” a heartbreaking lament in which all Noahs recount Allie’s decay into Alzheimer’s, and the musical’s final two songs, “I Know” and “Coda,” which show the pivotal moment where Older Noah and Allie (Sharon Catherine Brown) reunite and die in each other’s arms. These fracturing timelines only further drive the point that Noah and Allie’s love story extends beyond time, space and even memory itself.

Additionally, the cast and script have an incredible sense of comedic timing, ranging from Older Noah’s tendency towards dad jokes to Young Noah (Kyle Mangold) and Allie (Chloe Cheers) having laughable, but adorable, attempts at flirting. Whenever the audience was not sobbing their eyes out, a well-timed joke would quickly change the sound of sniffling to that of resounding laughter. Similarly, the musical is just as swoon-worthy. Each pair of Noah and Allie have incredible chemistry, making their relationship’s evolution completely believable. Their shift from puppy love, to a more tested love, to finally having a last chance to be in love and together makes sense, and each of the actors sell it perfectly.

When looked at with a critical eye, it is easy to see that the parts are greater than its sum. Particularly, there were two main issues: the pacing and the music.

While the musical opens on its strongest song, the first act’s pacing is meandering at best and full of seemingly endless starts and stops at worst. The parts that suffer from this the most are the trio of songs that Young Noah and Allie sing at the lakeside and the series of act-closer fake-outs that come from the transition from Young Noah and Allie to Middle Noah and Allie. The latter is simply a case of keeping a large quantity of climactic moments back to back in the first act as a way to keep the most shocking moment—Older Noah having a stroke after Older Allie tells him to get away from her—for the act closer. The relentless march of the transition to ten years later, to a flashback of Young Allie and Noah being separated, to Middle Allie and Noah seeing each other once again gives us little room to breathe, and yet plenty of time for the plot to drag.

Meanwhile, the lakeside scene is composed of three songs: “Blue Shutters,” “I Paint” and “Sadness and Joy.” The latter two of these songs would have been best left as dialogue rather than three minutes of song that stretched on. “I Paint” especially suffers from this, as all the emotion it gives me is relief that there’s a perfect 16-bar cut for whichever mezzo-soprano is looking to audition for her high school’s production of “Hadestown.” There is no point of these two songs, and the introduction of these songs feel much more like an “[insert song here]” rather than a natural conclusion to the line of dialogue and the pace of the scene. Thankfully, the second act is relatively clear from these pacing issues, but the first act is so rife with them that it leaves an impact.

The second issue is one of taste: the music is mediocre. This does not mean that it is bad; no, the music is happy when it needs to be happy, sad when it needs to be sad, abstract when it needs to be abstract, and swoon-worthy when it needs to be swoon-worthy. It is also proficient, being composed by Ingrid Michaelson, and it is effective at what it does. What it is not, however, is memorable. It is quite hard to pinpoint which song is my favorite on a sonic level or if there even is a catchy melody that will stay stuck in my head for days to come, the only exception being “Dance with Me,” which is a rather fun time all around. Instead, trying to remember most of the songs has the unfortunate tendency to make me think of better, more memorable scores. Again, it is not bad: it simply does not stick with me.

In the end, I can easily admit that I loved the musical. It made me emotional and made me laugh even through my tears. It had some of the best theatrical romantic acting I’d seen in quite a while (outside of “Hadestown”) and it really made me invested in Noah and Allie’s love story. Unfortunately, I have to admit that, while I loved it, and it is very good at its peaks, it is not great nor is it amazing, and I’ll just have to live with loving a musical that is just plain “good.” 7/10.