‘The hyphens are still flaring’ for Broadway’s Asmeret Ghebremichael
By SHARON EBERSON
Author Nicholas Sparks’ The Notebook, a love story for the ages, spent 56 weeks on The New York Times hardcover best-seller list and 54 more on the paperback list before it became a hit movie, launching Ryan Gosling as an A-lister.
It was only natural that Broadway would come calling. With songs by Ingrid Michaelson and a book by Bekah Brunstette, The Notebook musical comes to Pittsburgh after a nearly year-long NYC run in 2024.
With the show from its earliest days was associate director Asmeret Ghebremichael, a name known to Broadway fans of shows such as The Book of Mormon, Legally Blonde and Spamalot, and to Pittsburghers who follow hometown talent.
Ghebremichael, who grew up in Churchill, started dancing at age 3, and traveled as a dance-competition contestant from age 7-18, while attending Winchester Thurston School and Woodland Hills High School.
She left Pittsburgh for New York University to earn a media and communications undergraduate degree, but performing was still the goal, and she quickly earned her first Broadway job, as a swing for the original stage production of Footloose.
When she wasn’t onstage, she was backstage, working on papers and homework. It helped, she said, having a Pittsburgh castmate, Billy Hartung, who played Chuck Cranston in the show that opened in 1998.
“He was so kind and generous,” she recalled of those days. “I was so incredibly overwhelmed, and to have someone like Billy from my hometown, it was nice to have someone who made it a safe space.”
She continued as a go-to ensemble member, from Wicked to Spamalot, before landing in Legally Blonde as Pilar, and then, starting in 2011, she was attached to The Book of Mormon as a dance captain and a replacement for the leading female role of Nabulungi.
She joined castmates onstage at the Tony Awards earlier this year, when The Book of Mormon celebrated its 15th anniversary on Broadway.
“I just saw Rory last night!,” she said of Rory O’Malley, one of the Carnegie Mellon graduates who starred in the show, along with Josh Gad, and who has returned to Mormon on Broadway as part of a put-in celebrity cast celebration.
Ghebremichael started out auditioning for The Notebook, before it became her launching pad for her move behind the scenes.
“I was at one of the early 2020 readings, playing one of the parts, and I met [director] Michael Grief for the first time,” she recalled. “I was inspired by the way he worked, and it piqued my curiosity about what my life might be like as a director. I casually mentioned to him and to Ingrid Michaelson that I might be interested in directing, and things took off from there, and Michael and [co-director] Schele Williams asked if I would come on as an associate director, and I have been with the show since out-of-town tryouts.”
The experience has spawned a new phase of her career, which includes the Tony-nominated Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York.
That’s not to say she has stopped acting. “All the hyphens are still flaring,” she said.
Ghebremichael recently starred in “an immersive culinary theatrical” production in for Theatre Aspen, Colorado, titled Becoming Mawa: Stories from Mawa’s Kitchen.
“I played a famous chef from the Ivory Coast, telling her story in five acts and five courses, and then she came out at the end and moderated a discussion. It’s exciting to be able to choose projects I want to do, acting or directing.”
(Image: Teresa Castracane)
She is excited to see the Broadway tour of The Notebook headed to her hometown, and noted the major differences between from the book and movie to the musical are the phases of life for the main characters, Allie and Noah.
Three actors play each character, with the labels “younger, middle and older.”
“Having three different versions amplifies their love story, really chronicling all their stories at different phases of life,”
Ghebremichael said. “I love it when all the Allies and Noahs are on the stage at the same time.”
Those may be her favorite moments in the show, but she is aware that the “rain scene” is what audiences who know The Notebook may be waiting for, and she said the won’t be disappointed.
“There are people who know that rain stuff inside and out, how they do it every night is incredible,” she said.
The music is a mix of the folk-rock and pop that singer-songwriter Michaelson is known for.
“Ingrid’s music is able to make complex emotions feel simple to understand, which is so profound,” noted Ghebremichael.
The original Broadway cast recording reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Cast Albums Chart, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, while the song “Carry You Home” won a Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite New Song.
For those who may not know the story of The Notebook, which is told through dual timelines and flashbacks, “You’re going to see a story with a lot of heart, and a lot of joy,” Ghebremichael said. “I was talking before about community, and this story brings people together. Something special happens with a connection to people not only onstage but also around you. It’s sharing something so human, it really unifies people. I think this show is universal and accessible.”
Ghebremichael’s time working on The Notebook has been “incredibly special,” she said. “I’ve been friends with Ingrid Michaelson for a long time, and I’ve known Schele Williams, too, so it’s so beautiful to me, to have been a part of the development process, and then from Broadway to the tour, it’s like a home to me.”
During the recent telephone interview, Ghebremichael wasn’t sure if she would accompany The Notebook when it comes to the Benedum Center November 10-15,
“I am so proud to be from Pittsburgh, and it is so exciting that the show that made me a director is coming to my hometown,” she said. I’m still working on details, but I know my parents would like it.”
TICKETS AND DETAILS
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s presentation of Broadway tour of The Notebook is at the Benedum Center November 10-15, 2026. Tickets: https://trustarts.org/production/105573/the-notebook.
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