For pop music fans, Charli XCX’s brat album may be their summer soundtrack, but for musical-theater fans, the soundtrack for these sunny days seems to be The Notebook. In fact, the musical’s original Broadway cast album topped Billboard’s Cast Album Chart at No. 1 the week of May 3, and again on August 3.
Both the original novel, written by Nicholas Sparks, and the 2004 film adaptation, starring Tony nominee Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling, garnered an abundance of fans, and now the stage musical adaptation is seeing its own fan base emerge.
With a book by Tony nominee Bekah Brunstetter, The Notebook, codirected by Michael Greif and Schele Williams, opened at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on March 14.
Composed by Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, the song “My Days” (performed by Joy Woods) quickly became a fan favorite from The Notebook. With more than 3 million plays, the song is the most-played song from the cast album on Spotify and has inspired an overwhelming number of TikTok videos of singers presenting their own takes on it.
Broadway Direct chatted with Michaelson and Woods about their creative processes and their reactions to “My Days” becoming so beloved by fans.
Ingrid, when we spoke earlier this year, you mentioned “My Days” wasn’t the first song you wrote for that moment in the narrative when Middle Allie is choosing the life and love she wants. It took you three songs to write before you got to it, correct?
Ingrid Michaelson: Yeah. I had different songs in its place. In fact, I was performing a song called “Words” that I thought was her big song. I was performing it at my concerts and stuff — that’s how confident I was that that was the song.
Nobody told me to write something else. I just remember thinking, “I need something that just carries more weight.” It just felt like it wasn’t big enough or something. It wasn’t taking up enough space sonically. In the very beginning, like in 2017 or 2018, I had another song, and then I replaced that with “Words.” From “Words” to “My Days,” I think there was definitely one full song, and then probably, like, three or four half-song ideas. Finally I came to “My Days” and I thought, “Oh, this feels like something.” We workshopped it and it just felt so good. Bekah, Michael, Schele, and I, we all just kind of looked at each other and we thought, “OK, this is the one. This feels special.”
As you were trying to unlock this song and thinking you wanted it to feel bigger, do you remember the moment you felt like you were headed in the right direction?
IM: I don’t remember the moment. I just remember having the desire to make the song more. I didn’t know if that was within the song. Like, do I add things to the words? Do I build in a key change? But I think one of the luxuries of having a lot of time, because with COVID we were delayed about two years, I had time to kind of sit around and really listen to these songs and really judge them. Most of them came out unscathed, but the original one for Middle Allie, I just remember thinking, “I’ve got to figure it out, because this isn’t it.” Nobody was telling me; I just knew it, you know?
My first voice note draft says, “‘My Days.’ June 14, 2021.” That was when we were kind of coming out of the lockdown, but not really. I think I just had a lot of time, and I really wanted to make it something really powerful. I like to think I would’ve come to a different song, but who knows? I think a lot of “My Days” came out of the pandemic. Every day turned into the same day. And then you think, like, how do I, and this character, this woman, how does she want to spend these days? How do we all want to spend our days? I think COVID really forced a lot of people to really think about that question. I feel like the lockdown and the global shift and change, everything we went through between the beginning of 2020 and that we were still going through, I think that is definitely shaking out in that song.
Joy, what was your reaction when you first heard “My Days”?
Joy Woods: I was so nervous! I was much younger the first time I was on a cast album, and I wasn’t the proudest of how I sounded on it. Knowing that this time it’s a thing we created and is going to be referenced in history as the album is a lot. I’m really grateful for Ingrid and the folks who built all of it. Hearing it for the first time was much better and joyful than I would’ve imagined.
Do you have a favorite part that you just love to sing?
JW: My favorite part of the song to sing is the second verse — before it becomes insane! I love a good cruise and a storytelling moment before thinking about cracking or choking or running out of air.
So then did Joy’s vocal abilities change your approach at all, Ingrid?
IM: Joy chose the opt up, so I cannot take credit for that. Joy added that note at the top, and I said, “Are you sure you wanna do that every night?” And she said, “Yeah!” She’s just so crazy-talented. I said, “You’re going to do that, now everyone’s going to try to do that.” I also think that note really brings the whole thing home in such a beautiful way. She’s definitely a huge part of this song. I had it written before we cast her, but once I met her, I added little things [and edited a little]. I raised the key here and there. She’s the kind of artist who just inspires you to keep trying to pile on more because she’s just so good. I think forever she will be synonymous with this song.
You shared one of your early “My Days” drafts on TikTok. What inspired you to share your process in that way?
IM: I wanted to show people this song that was resonating with everybody, kind of where it started out, because that’s always really interesting to me as a songwriter. I love to hear demos of songs. Growing up, I listened to this CD, [The Music Behind the Magic: The Musical Artistry of Alan Menken, Howard Ashman & Tim Rice], and there were a few of them that went from demo into the actual song. I was like, “This is the coolest thing ever, the two of them at the piano.” I loved hearing the evolution and I thought, “Right now people are really loving this song. They might want to hear where it came from.”
There’s also a joke about how high it is and how it’s impossible to sing, and I kind of wanted people to hear that there are other ways to sing it. I do not have Joy’s capability. She is wildly talented. I wanted to show that when I’m writing these really belty, belty songs, I’m not belting them. I’m just singing them really lightly in my little tiny voice. I think it’s also something for aspiring writers to know that you can write outside of your voice, which is actually the magical thing for me. All my life, I’ve just been writing for my voice and for my voice’s limitations. I’m not trying to drag my voice. I think I have a very beautiful voice; it’s very specific, and it’s mine, and I love it. It’s gotten me to the places it’s gotten me, and I’m very appreciative of it. But there’s something that’s so exciting about writing outside of your limits. You don’t have to sing like that to write like that. You can write like that and have that in your mind and picture what that might sound like. I thought that was just another interesting thing that people might want a peek at.
On that TikTok, I saw a comment saying that fans want you to release an “Ingrid’s Version” of The Notebook, to hear more of your process and demos. Would you consider that?
IM: Yeah, if it made sense to do it. If the producers or the people on the team wanted that, I wouldn’t be opposed. I think for the time being, we really wanted to focus on the cast album. I actually put out a song from the show already, called “If This Is Love,” which is Young Allie’s song, and it’s kind of like my version, how I wrote it. I have a record coming out and I’m doing that song again, but set to jazz chords because I wanted to show it in a different light. I think there’s space for me to kind of reinterpret these songs in my own way in the future, for sure.
I don’t know if it’s like a full concept album, or if it’s, like, covers of musical-theater songs and then there are a few of mine on there. I don’t know. I think there’s room for something. I just don’t know exactly what it is yet. For right now, though, it’s all about the cast album! We’re No. 1 on Billboard again last week for cast albums, which is pretty amazing.
Why do you think the song resonates with so many folks?
IM: I think it’s a combination of Joy’s voice and the sentiment of the song. I think there’s something about the unapologetic decision to be good to yourself, and to be proud and give yourself the space to be. That’s why I wanted it to be this big moment, because I wanted it to be screaming from the rooftops, which is literally the video that we made. Like, screaming from the rooftops, like, “I’m going to choose me!” I really didn’t want the song to be “Is it this man or is it this man?” I wanted it to be “It’s me.” I think a lot of people love that.
JW: The kids love an anthem. Something you can holler on a roof at the top of your lungs. There’s also the message behind it and the feeling it gives you, a sort of release. The orchestrations and way this song is put together embody the full feeling of letting go and freeing yourself. That feeling of releasing judgments or expectations on yourself and living freely is something everyone can relate to.
Have you seen the TikToks using the song? Have you had any favorites?
JW: I really had no idea the song was going to be received as widely as it has been. After seeing a few of the TikToks in the beginning, I tried to stay offline. The ones I saw were very sweet. My favorites are the ones of babies singing it. Start ‘em early!
How has it been seeing the response from fans?
IM: It’s really moving. I take everything with a grain of salt, because I think that’s how you have to live your life, but it is really wild that people are resonating with it.
JW: It’s so special! To hold this thing that you build so closely and knowing you’ll have to release it to the masses for critique, judgment, acceptance, and even celebration is a scary thing. To see it being celebrated most of all is an embarrassment of riches. It really means the most.
IM: The show is going to have a beautiful life. It’s going to be all over the country. It’s going to be all over the world. It’s an international title that people love. The show is beautiful, and the score is beautiful. Our cast is amazing. They made an amazing cast record, and Joy is gonna be forever the one who broke that ice. I’m excited to see where the song goes because I know it’s going to have a wild life of its own, which is pretty amazing.
I’m very proud of it, and Carmel Dean and John Clancy, who were the orchestrators, did an amazing job of it. It was just this confluence: The perfect voice and the perfect sentiment just hit people where they needed to be hit.
OK, last question: Joy, it was just announced you’ll be performing at Darren Criss’s Elsie Fest. Will we get to hear you sing “My Days”?
JW: Come through and find out!