VIDEO: Morissette and Sheena Belarmino in Music Rehearsal for THE NOTEBOOK in Manila
Watch the video below.
Theatre Group Asia has released a first look at music rehearsals for the international premiere of The Notebook: The Musical, and the clip puts the show's two Allies front and center.
The video features Morissette, who plays Middle Allie, and Sheena Belarmino, who plays Younger Allie, singing together in their first music rehearsal for the production.
"Here's one thing definitely worth your money," the company wrote in the post. "If our Middle Allie and our Young Allie sound this incredible in their first music rehearsal, just wait until you see them live."
The Notebook: The Musical opens September 1 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Manila, launching Theatre Group Asia's 2026-2027 season. The Clint Ramos-founded company is presenting the show's first production outside North America, and the first anywhere to be performed by an all-Asian, all-Filipino cast. Nicholas Polonio directs. Tickets are available at bit.ly/TheNotebookMusical.
Based on Nicholas Sparks' 1996 bestseller, The Notebook features music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson and a book by Bekah Brunstetter. It follows Allie and Noah across three stages of their lives, with three sets of actors playing the couple simultaneously onstage.
Joining Morissette and Belarmino are Laurence Mossman as Middle Noah, Celeste Legaspi as Older Allie, Rody Vera as Older Noah, and Benedix Ramos as Younger Noah.
Where Broadway and the North American tour cast the show colorblind, the Manila production tells the story uniformly through a Filipino lens. "Because I'm Filipino and as I play Older Allie, then that is an original Filipino work," Legaspi has said of the production. Mossman, a Miss Saigon alum, has framed the run as a chance to stop matching Broadway and start asking "what new interpretation are we going to do?"
Michaelson's score, her Broadway debut, has already found an audience locally ahead of opening, with the anthem "My Days" circulating in cover versions across social media. Belarmino offered audiences a warning about what the music does live: "Tears, tears, tears after tears. So, sana magbaon sila ng tissue."
