Rachel McAdams ‘Can’t Wait’ to See Broadway’s The Notebook Musical – and Hopes the Rain Is ‘Gentler’ on Its Cast

Rachel McAdams is on Broadway for the first time. And no, it's not in The Notebook musical.

The Oscar nominee makes her Broadway debut this month in Amy Herzog's new play Mary Jane, which opens April 23 at New York City's Samuel J Friedman Theatre — just two blocks away from where the new musical adaptation of McAdams' beloved 2004 film is playing to sold-out houses.

"[It's] crazy, just crazy," McAdams, 45, said of the coincidence in an interview with Paul Wontorek that airs on The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal this weekend.

She went on to joke about how even someone close to her was confused by the two events happening at the same time, recalling how her friend's mom was boasting, "'We're going to see Rachel on Broadway! And she’s going to be singing and dancing!' "

"He was like, ‘Um.. I don’t know if you are… I don’t think you have the right show,' " McAdams laughed. "She was like, ’She’s doing The Notebook right?’ And he was like, ‘No, she’s not. She’s not.’ "

McAdams began preview performances for Mary Jane on April 2. And once the Manhattan Theater Club production wraps its limited run on June 2, she says she plans on heading to the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre to watch The Notebook.

"I can’t wait to see it," gushed McAdams. "I think it’s so exciting. To see it take on a whole other life like this, it blows my mind."

The Notebook has been a lasting highlight in McAdams' career since its release 20 years ago. The movie, based on the best-selling Nicholas Sparks novel, followed rich girl Allie Hamilton (McAdams) and mill worker Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) over the course of their romance, and how their lasting love continued to be a uniting factor in their lives despite the forces threatening to pull it apart.

Fans cherish the film as one of the silver screen's greatest romance, many pointing to a scene where Allie and Noah embrace in a kiss on the rain. It's an iconic moment that even surprises McAdams to this day.

"We didn’t even know if anyone would see this movie when we were making it, when we were drowning in the rain," she said on The Broadway Show.

McAdams went on to spill a secret of the movie's making. "There wasn’t rain, they would pull the rain out of the bottom of the lake from fire hoses," McAdams said. "It was a really powerful, stinging rain."

Broadway's The Notebook musical does in fact recreate that scene on stage eight times a week, with rain pouring down on the cast. "Hopefully it’s a little bit gentler [on them]," McAdams said, before playfully wondering, "Where does it go?"

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Singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson composed the music and lyrics for The Notebook musical, with playwright Bekah Brunstetter adapting Sparks' book. Direction comes from Michael Greif (Dear Evan Hansen, Rent) and Schele Williams (The Wiz, Motown the Musical).

For the stage, three actors play versions of Allie and Noah each throughout the story — a device that not only helps reflect the span of time these two have been together, but also symbolizes the muddled mixture of memories swirling through an elderly Allie's mind as she struggles with the effects of dementia.

Jordan Tyson, Joy Woods and Tony Award-winner Maryann Plunkett star as Younger, Middle and Older Allie (respectfully), while John Cardoza, Ryan Vasquez, and Dorian Harewood do the same for Noah.

As for Mary Jane, McAdams stars in that opposite April Matthis, Susan Pourfar, Lily Santiago and Brenda Wehle.

The Mean Girls star admitted on The Broadway Show that she was initially "intimidated" to do Broadway, but her thoughts changed when she read Mary Jane. The drama follows a singer mother with an ailing son living in Jackson Heights, New York, who adapts an unflagging optimism to face life's insurmountable odds.

"It just got its hooks in me and I was like, ‘There’s something in the universe that’s telling me this is the one,' " McAdams said, noting it's "hopefully not the last one" she'll do on Broadway. "This play is just so gorgeous, the writing is incredible. It's heartwarming and it’s heart-wrenching and it’s surprising and it’s funny. And it’s a testament to the human spirit."

She added: "It certainly is a play that has changed me."

Tickets for Mary Jane are now on sale, as are tickets for The Notebook. 

The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal airs weekends in syndication (check local listings).