Opening tonight at the Straz Center, The Notebook arrives with the kind of quiet electricity that comes from a story everyone thinks they know until they meet the people bringing it to life. Among them is Anne Tolpegin, stepping into two women who shape Allie’s journey from opposite ends of her life: the mother determined to secure her daughter’s future and the nurse safeguarding her final chapter.
What becomes immediately clear in conversation with Tolpegin is that she refuses to flatten either woman into an archetype. “Her mother really is only looking after Allie’s best interests,” she says in the interview. “She wants her to flourish and live in a world that is not easy for a woman of mixed race.” That protective instinct echoes decades later in Nurse Lori, who is “trying to keep the best health and life quality for older Allie” while navigating the relentless pace of a care facility. Tolpegin sees the two women as unexpectedly aligned, each driven by a fierce desire to keep Allie safe, even when their choices land differently on the heart.
Her own experience as a caregiver deepened her understanding of Nurse Lori’s emotional terrain. “There comes a time when the fatigue that the caregiver is experiencing starts to override a bit of what they see as a love story unfolding,” she shares. And audiences recognize that truth immediately. “We go with the audiences in every city, and they just say, oh, you know, my mother has Alzheimer's or my father has dementia. Everyone seems to be dealing with this on some level, and so people really recognize this.” Tolpegin sees that connection as part of why the show’s portrayal of caregivers lands with such clarity, honoring both the heart and the heaviness of the work.
From the stage, she feels the audience lock in almost immediately. “It starts almost immediately,” she says. Older Noah’s first entrance, quiet and unhurried, draws the room into stillness. Humor then opens the door to deeper connection. “Once they laugh with somebody, it’s easier for them to feel deeper for them.”
For those who arrive expecting a familiar story, Tolpegin believes the production’s modern lens will be the biggest surprise. “All of our Allies are women of color and all of our Noahs are white men,” she explains. The choice is intentional, not decorative, and audiences across the country have responded with recognition. The timeline has shifted as well, moving from World War II to Vietnam, bringing the story closer to lived memory for many.
Working under co-directors Michael Greif and Schele Williams offered Tolpegin a new kind of artistic clarity. They encouraged her to ground both characters in truth rather than trope. “They really did not want this character to be the evil one,” she says of Allie’s mother. Instead, they asked her to play the intention of a woman who believes she is doing what is best for her daughter. For Nurse Lori, they urged her to focus on the reality of a charge nurse’s day. “She’s just a very busy, very sort of can’t catch up nurse,” Tolpegin says. That grounded approach gives the role its authenticity.
When asked which lyric from Ingrid Michaelson’s score she hopes Tampa Bay audiences carry home, Tolpegin points to the final song, Coda. “You’ll always be my home,” she says, calling it one of Michaelson’s greatest lines. The moment becomes communal, almost liturgical. “This should feel like a church singing moment,” she recalls being told. The audience feels that invitation and answers it.
What she hopes people talk about in the car on the way home is simple and universal. “The richness of a life together, the resilience of love,” she says. The show reminds audiences of what they share: family, connection, loss, and the courage to let go.
And while the emotional weight of the piece is undeniable, Tolpegin is also having the time of her life backstage. “I changed my wig 16 times,” she laughs. “I have to change my lip color between nurse and mother every time.” The sprint between a charge nurse’s sensible world and a country club mother’s polished one has become one of her favorite challenges. “It’s a real joy for me to do every night.”
Tonight, Tampa Bay meets both of these women through her. And through them, the heartbeat of The Notebook lands exactly where it always has: in the place we call home.
Learn more and buy tickets at https://www.strazcenter.org/events/2526-season/broadway/the-notebook
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