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In October 2022, Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune reviewed “The Notebook” when it performed at the Goodman Theater and praised that Michaelson had written “an absolutely magnificent set of songs.” But he knows that, given all the changes made to the staging of the story, fans of the book and the movie could feel betrayed. “There are people who are unhappy because it’s not the movie,” Michaelson acknowledged. “Some people will come to just hate the show, because it’s another movie-to-musical adaptation. Others will walk in expecting to see Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams on stage. Oh!
“It’s not a bombastic, bombastic musical,” Michaelson said. “Hiring me sent the ship in a different direction: a quieter, more introspective direction.”
When writing songs for Allie and Noah, Michaelson incorporated thoughts he had had about his mother’s death, as well as comments made by his widowed father. “I don’t want to talk about my parents all the time, but there are a lot of them involved in these songs.”
As a result, he relives their deaths every time he watches the show. “I haven’t really had any crisis moments since my mother died,” she said. “It wasn’t until a month ago, in rehearsal, that I completely lost it, like a loud, guttural, other humans can’t see this crying. You’ve already seen me cry eight times today, so you may not find it convincing,” she joked.
As opening night approached, Michaelson, no stranger to creative neuroses, had developed what she said her therapist called “pre-post-mortem anxiety.” Aside from an album she’ll release this summer, full of what she called “quiet, old music,” she doesn’t know what’s next. “Being a woman my age, without children or parents, I am free from both sides. “Sometimes I feel like I’m just a tire rolling down the road.”
Fulfilling a 35-year-old dream has been fantastic, he said, but it has also introduced new concerns. “I don’t want to be pigeonholed as the whiny romantic writer,” Michaelson said, then laughed. “Though that’s probably what I’m best at.”