Back on Broadway After 46 Years, The Notebook's Dorian Harewood Gets His Sardi's Portrait

Dorian Harewood, the veteran actor of stage and screen currently starring in The Notebook on Broadway, was honored with one of Sardi's famed caricature portraits on March 22. Other stars of The Notebook, including Maryann Plunkett (another Sardi’s portrait honoree), were present for the unveiling.

“It was something that I had never thought about when I first came here to work in New York so many, many years ago,” Harewood told Broadway.com. “To have this unbelievable honor was pretty overwhelming but just tremendously exciting. And to have the support from the wonderful cast and crew of The Notebook was very nice.”

Harewood has fond memories of the historic Theater District watering hole. In 1972, he made his Broadway debut in Two Gentlemen of Verona at the St. James Theatre—right next door. “The cast would go to Sardi’s all the time,” Harewood said. “I think they had an actor special.”

Growing up as one of six siblings in a musical family in Dayton, Ohio, Harewood won a scholarship to Cincinnati's Conservatory of Music, studying opera before transitioning to musical theater. In the summer of 1971, he was working as a welder in a factory before completing his final year of studies. Scanning a newspaper’s classifieds section for automobile parts for his hot rod, he came across an audition notice for a national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. He auditioned and landed the role of Judas, playing the part across the country. At the end of the tour, he considered returning to the Conservatory to complete his studies, but decided to pursue acting in New York instead.

It was the beginning of an exceptional career. After Two Gentlemen of Verona, Harewood performed in Don’t Call Back (1975), Streamers (1976) and The Mighty Gents (1978) on Broadway, before largely concentrating his energies on television and film roles, including prolific voice-acting work.

Now, 46 years since his last Broadway role, Harewood is giving a tender, deeply felt performance as The Notebook’s Older Noah. “It is very exciting to get back,” said Harewood, “especially in a project like this.”

In another recent conversation with Broadway.com, Harewood praised the show’s approach to racially diverse casting. “That’s what was so exciting to me,” he said. “People don’t look the same, but we are the same. There’s an essence that we can’t see but we know is there. And in my opinion we’re all connected.”

Given the show’s theme of remembrances of things past—as well as the Sardi’s event—Harewood has had plenty of cause to reflect on his own life and journey recently. (Harewood has one of the most memorable lines in The Notebook: “I was already young. I already did that. I’ve moved on.”) The story of Harewood’s Broadway debut, it turns out, also happens to be the story of meeting his future wife, Nancy Denning, who was also in the company of Two Gentlemen of Verona. The pair went on to be co-stars in the musical Brain Child and married in 1979.

“That’s the foremost memory for me,” said Harewood. So yes, it turns out that the star of The Notebook is an incurable romantic. “That’s for sure. I am a little romantic, certainly with regard to Nancy.”