Ones to Watch: Joy Woods, Star of Broadway's The Notebook, Is No Imposter

Joy Woods has played a medieval pop star, a riffing street urchin and a gold-digging dancer. But not until The Notebook—beginning performances February 10 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre—has she played someone made of flesh and bone. “Allie is a human—a full, multifaceted person,” she tells The Broadway Show correspondent Charlie Cooper about the role that made her one of this season’s stars to watch. “I haven't had the opportunity to play anything like that yet, so the imposter syndrome was so real starting out.”

At just 24, Woods has already built an impressive resume of characters who float above pesky concerns of self-consciousness. She made her Broadway debut in 2022, channeling Beyoncé as Catherine Parr, the surviving wife of SIX. Prior to that, she brought her inner Motown diva to the role of Chiffon in the hit off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. And just this past fall, she embraced her conniving, seductive side as Martha Mills in I Can Get It For You Wholesale at Classic Stage Company.

And yet, it’s the grounded Allie Hamilton that gives this confident performer butterflies. Woods plays one of three Allies in Ingrid Michaelson and Bekah Brunstetter’s stage adaptation of the famed Nicholas Sparks romance, sharing the character with Jordan Tyson (Younger Allie) and Tony Award winner Maryann Plunkett (Older Allie). However, as Middle Allie—the first role Woods will be originating on Broadway—she finds herself at the center of the sweeping love story, even performing the iconic rain scene that anyone with a passing awareness of the film can quote by heart.

Watch Joy Woods with Charlie Cooper on The Broadway Show.

“I'm really, really grateful to have been in the spaces that I have this early in my career, and to have been around legends,” Woods tells Cooper. They chat at the dance studio Steps on Broadway, one of Woods' main haunts, where, surrounded by music and artists, she feels most at home. The daughter of a dancer, Woods started her creative life in dance and quickly set her sights on the stage. “I was on the poms team at my high school and it just seemed like something that was a part of me so wholly that it was the only option to do for a living,” she says. Now a fully realized triple threat, she refuses to choose her preferred talent. “It's like asking a parent to pick their favorite child,” she demurs. “I think there's something about all three being a different language to say the same thing. It's the storytelling of it all. That is my favorite.”

In this iteration of The Notebook—the same tear-jerker audiences know and love, but with a deeper dive into memory’s unique way of chronicling a life—Woods has found new avenues into the storytelling she loves so much. “One of the best things I've learned in The Notebook is just how little you have to do to be recognized as human, and to be able to own all mistakes and all triumphs,” Woods reflects. “I feel like we're the same in a lot of ways,” she adds, drawing a personal comparison to Allie. “We're both in the self-actualization phases of our lives, so it's been easy, and a bit healing, to connect with her.”

It’s a character, and a career milestone, that has allowed Woods to grow into her identity as both an artist and a must-see star of a stacked Broadway season. And as a self-proclaimed “Hamilton kid” whose inner Broadway fan pokes through her leading lady comportment, she has a life-changing few months ahead. “Everybody's a celebrity to me,” she bluntly admits. “I get to just sit and watch and take notes and learn and be a sponge for as long as I can.”

GET TO KNOW THE ONES TO WATCH
Left to Right: NICHELLE LEWIS (The Wiz) | ALI LOUIS BOURZGUI (The Who's Tommy) | JOY WOODS (The Notebook) | BRODY GRANT (The Outsiders) | SHAINA TAUB (Suffs)

Watch the full episode of The Broadway Show with Tamsen Fadal highlighting all six of these rising Broadway talents. Also: Flip through the complete gallery of photos from our exclusive Broadway.com photo shoot.

The Broadway Show Credits: Directed by Zack R. Smith | Producers: Paul Wontorek and Beth Stevens | Senior Producers: Caitlin Moynihan and Lindsey Sullivan | Videographers: Born in Brooklyn, Shaun Copeland, Luis Ferrá, Eddie Lebron, Anton Ponomarev, Nick Shakra and Tyler Ward  Photo Credits: Photography by Emilio Madrid | Photo Assistants: Alan Padilla and Cooper Hammel | Location: Corner Studio. Styling Credits: Styling: Eliza Yerry | Hair: Monique Gaffney | Make-up: Angella Valentine and Eldo Ray Estes | Brody Grant: Black Tank: Abercrombie & Fitch; White Tank: Sunspel; Pants: Mavi; Shoes: Gola; Jewelry: Title of Work | Joy Woods: Dress: A.Potts; Shoes: Gianvito Rossi; Jewelry: Jenny Bird | Ali Louis Bourzgui: Top: Acne; Pants: Diesel; Shoes: Nike; Jewelry: Title of Work | Shaina Taub: Jumpsuit: Miss Selfridge; Shoes: New Balance; Jewelry: Jenny Bird | Nichelle Lewis: Jacket: Khy; Bodysuit: Wolford; Skirt: ASOS; Shoes: RAID