Two-time Tony Award winner James Naughton, Frozen star Jelani Alladin, Rent on Fox's Vanessa Hudgens, and Tony nominee Hailey Kilgore (Once on this Island) will be part of an upcoming reading of the musical stage adaptation of The Notebook. The musical will kick off the previously announced in-development reading series at Vassar & New York Stage and Film's 35th Powerhouse season this summer.
The reading of The Notebook will take place June 23 at 3 PM Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, and will be free and open to the public.
Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks (also adapted into a well-known film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams), the musical features music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson, a book by The Cake playwright Bekah Brunstetter, and direction by Michael Greif.
The cast of the reading will also feature Nicholas Belton (Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812), Candy Buckley (Cabaret), Antonio Cipriano (Jagged Little Pill), Drama Desk Award winner Janet Dacal (In the Heights), Mili Diaz (Wicked), Clifton Duncan (Carmen Jones),Drama Desk Award nominee Jennifer Mudge (Rocky), and Ben Jackson Walker (Disaster!).
The Notebook chronicles the love story of Noah and Allie, beginning with their first meeting during a lustful summer, through the trials imposed on them by class differences in North Carolina.
The other readings that are part of the 2019 Powerhouse season are: Galileo, with a book by Danny Strong, music and lyrics by Michael Weiner and Zoe Sarnak, directed by Michael Mayer (June 29); Sanctuary City by Martyna Majok, directed by Rebecca Frecknall (July 13); Becky Nurse of Salem by Sarah Ruhl (July 19); Delusion by Proxy by Brooke Adams, directed by Ethan Silverman (July 20); The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin by Jessica Huang, directed by Lee Sunday Evans; (July 20); and The Excavation of Mary Anning by Ian August, directed by Sammi Cannold (July 21).
The annual summer season, which will run June 20–July 28 at Vassar, will also feature two mainstage productions—Harrison David Rivers' Relentless Award-winning play, the bandaged place, directed by David Mendizábal (June 27–July 7); followed by Pulitzer Prize winner Henley's Lightning (or The Unbuttoning), directed by Mark Brokaw (July 18-28)—as well as workshop presentations and other works in progress for theatre, film, and television.
This season's artists also include playwrights Jocelyn Bioh, Emily Feldman, and Antoinette Nwandu; composers Tom Kitt, César Alvarez, and Michael Thurber; and directors Saheem Ali, Rachel Chavkin, Kate Whoriskey, Daniel Aukin, and Michael Mayer, among many more. Visit Powerhouse.vassar.edu for more information.
