Eighteen shows. That’s it. No extensions built into the plan, no open-ended run to catch it if you miss opening week. When The Notebook: The Musical opens at Makati’s Samsung Performing Arts Theater on September 3, 2026, it’ll be the first time this Broadway show — adapted from Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 novel and the 2004 Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams film that made it a household tearjerker — has been staged anywhere outside North America. And it’s landing with a cast that isn’t just Filipino-led. It’s Filipino, full stop, top to bottom.

A Broadway Import That Isn’t Playing It Safe

Theatre Group Asia (TGA) — the Clint Ramos-founded production company opening its 2026–2027 season with this show — isn’t just importing a hit and recasting it locally. On Broadway and its North American tour, The Notebook cast the roles of Allie and Noah “colorblind,” open to actors of any race. Manila’s production drops that approach entirely, telling the story through an explicitly Filipino lens with an all-Asian, all-Filipino company — a first for the show anywhere it’s been staged.

That distinction matters to the cast themselves, not just as marketing copy. Celeste Legaspi, who plays Older Allie, has framed her own casting as the difference between performing someone else’s story and making an original Filipino work. Laurence Mossman, who plays Middle Noah opposite Morissette, has talked about the production less as an attempt to match Broadway’s version and more as its own question: what does this story look like built from scratch, in a different interpretation entirely?

The musical itself, for anyone who only knows the film, tracks Allie and Noah across three separate life stages instead of one linear timeline — which is why it needs six leads instead of two. Middle Allie and Middle Noah carry the central romance audiences know from the movie; Younger Allie and Younger Noah play out the first spark of it; Older Allie and Older Noah close the loop decades later, with memory, aging, and Alzheimer’s forming the emotional backbone of that final chapter. The show has music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson — this is her Broadway debut as a composer — and a book by Bekah Brunstetter, who picked up a Tony nomination for it when the musical opened on Broadway in 2024 after debuting at Chicago’s Shakespeare Theater in 2022.

Who’s Playing Who

Morissette — returning to the stage after a decade dominating the concert circuit, and fresh off a Best Actress win at the Manila International Film Festival for her film debut in Song of the Fireflies — leads as Middle Allie, opposite Laurence Mossman’s Middle Noah. It’s the role carrying the musical’s now-viral anthem, “My Days,” which has been circulating in cover versions online well before the show even opened.

Sheena Belarmino and Benedix Ramos play Younger Allie and Younger Noah, the first-love version of the couple. Both have said they’d recorded their own covers of “My Days” long before either knew the musical was coming to Manila at all.

Celeste Legaspi and Rody Vera close out the trio as Older Allie and Older Noah — described in casting materials as two titans of the Philippine performing arts, and both leaning into the material’s harder edges. Legaspi has spoken about her own mother’s decade-long struggle with Alzheimer’s shaping how she’s approaching the role; Vera has called the story’s real center not the grand gestures but “the choices we make every day to remember, to stay, and to care with patience and loyalty.”

The supporting cast rounds out with Kathleen Francisco as Nurse Joanna, Shaun Ocrisma as Fin, Jillian Ita-as as Georgie, Carla Guevara Laforteza as Allie’s Mom, Floyd Tena as Allie’s Dad, Markki Stroem as Lon, Felicity Kyle Napuli as Sarah, and Omar Uddin as Johnny.

The Actual Math on Getting a Seat

This is where the urgency in TGA’s own promotion isn’t just hype: 18 shows, running September 3 through 20, is a genuinely tight window for a title this in-demand. There’s no standing-room overflow date built in if a particular performance sells out — once the run is done, it’s done.

The show is presented by Theatre Group Asia in partnership with Ayala Land, BPI, and Philippine Airlines, with additional support from Make It Makati and Circuit Makati, where the Samsung Performing Arts Theater is located.

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The Details

Dates: September 3–20, 2026 — 18 performances total, Thursday through Sunday each week (Thu/Fri 7:30 PM, Sat/Sun 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM).

Venue: Samsung Performing Arts Theater, Circuit Makati, Makati City.

Tickets: Available now via TicketWorld.

Rumors are already circulating about a possible West End run following Manila’s — which would make this production’s placement even more significant: not just an international premiere, but potentially the version other markets end up looking to first.