‘The Notebook’ goes onstage at the Samsung Performance Arts Theater from Sept 3 to 20, 2026.
The story of forbidden love, reigniting after years of absence, and reliving memories even for just a moment are familiar tales from the the war years. Surely, many of us have similar family histories and have at one time or another heard them told by our grandparents.
In those days, journaling in diaries was also a practice common among young people. There’s The Diary of Anne Frank, for one, or the diary of Anaïs Nin retold in the film, Henry and June. The musical The Notebook starts with a similar premise. Set to music composed by Ingrid Michaelson after a 1996 novel by Nicholas Sparks, it is nothing short of romance, heart-wrenching music, a story of forbidden love overshadowed by true love, kicked off track by Alzheimer’s disease, and highlighted by a memory, only to be forgotten once more.
What’s unique in this sung storytelling is that the main theme of the musical is not sung, but played solo on the piano, requiring a fine hand to interpret the gamut of emotions that runs through the musical, a series of sympathetic notes that inadvertently not just tug at the heartstrings, but induce the driest of eyes to tear up in emotional depth, ironically, at the prologue of the musical. What follows is the flashback.
Farley Asuncion has worked with several productions and theater companies over the years.
The Notebook is a rare formatted play where the musician, not the lead actor, sets the tone for the unraveling of the plot. In this production, the spotlight is on pianist Farley Asuncion, who, while being a vocal coach and actor, is perhaps better known as a theatrical pianist, never grabbing the limelight for himself, except maybe when he played the role of pianist Ludwig in Floy Quintos’s The Kundiman Party.
Over the years, his role as music director grew, but he has remained known mostly in the theater community. Perhaps his most acclaimed feat as music director of late was his highly creative interpretation of Man of La Mancha directed by Nelsito Gomez, where Farley rearranged the well-known classical, opera-theme score, introducing percussions and native Spanish guitar twangs, giving the play a contemporary strain while keeping the original phrasing.
Farley notes that there should be no difference between being a pianist and an accompanist, where the majority tend to rate the latter lower than the former, when in truth, both are one and the same. Yet a “ranking” is assigned, and in a show’s program, the font of the pianist’s name is almost of equal size to the singer’s, while an accompanist’s only deserves a smaller font. It is a witty observation he underscores, since he has been both, and even now has a rank of musical director, whose name is sometimes as big as the lead singer.
He has worked extensively with Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group for a number of years under the direction of the late Bobby Garcia, doing the acclaimed Kinky Boots in 2017, and other noteworthy productions, from Barefoot Theater Collaboration’s We Aren’t Kids Anymore, Repertory Philippines’ I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Dulaang UP’s Kundiman Party with the late Floy Quintos and director Dexter Santos, to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) opera productions like La Traviata, La Boheme, and Carmen, just to name a few of the various musical genres he has contributed to, either as music director, repetiteur, pianist, accompanist.
Whatever title is assigned to his position, Farley Asuncion always works to give his best, and nothing less can be expected with the spotlight on him as he performs the 11 O’clock number of The Notebook, with quiet laid back bravura, as he ventures into yet another unique theatrical production by Theater Group Asia. By any other name, Farley is Farley.
‘The Notebook’ goes onstage at the Samsung Performance Arts Theater from Sept 3 to 20, 2026.
