'The Notebook' becomes a musical, and I'm sorta okay with that

The Nicholas Sparks novel The Notebook, adapted to a big-screen tearjerker in 2004, is now headed to the stage. In Wilmington, NC. Actress/singer Bethany Joy Galeotti (Haley on The CW’s One Tree Hill) and music producer Ron Aniello (Lifehouse’s “Hanging By a Moment”) have joined forces to compose the songs for the first-ever live theatrical workshop of the production, which will hold auditions in Wilmington in early August. (Actors will not be paid, but their public performances in October may help Galeotti & Aniello secure funding for a trip to New York.)

I doubt have no idea if the duo is up to the challenge of creating a musical — let alone one that apparently features General Patton giving his famous WWII speech in Act II and asks those interested in auditioning for the role to prepare a musical theater standard — but in theory, I’m okay with someone turning The Notebook into a stage extravaganza. It’s an epic love story, set in a time of great music and fashion, and judging by the number of male country singers who’ve admitted to me that they’ve cried watching the movie, universally heartwarming/breaking.

Would you go see a musical production of The Notebook? Even if it’s by Galeotti & Aniello, who, presumably, won’t have the budget for a rain machine?