For the actor, Lon is not the villain standing between Noah and Allie — he is a man who loves deeply enough to let go.
James Marsden as Lon in the 2004 film The Notebook (left), and Markki Stroem, who takes on the role in Theater Group Asia’s The Notebook The Musical (right).
© 2004 New Line Cinema Productions. All rights reserved. / Theatre Group Asia
Lon Hammond Jr. before love asks him to let go — The Notebook (2004).
Photo by Melissa Moseley - © 2004 New Line Cinema. All rights reserved.
Markki Stroem as the nurse who cares for older Noah in The Notebook: The Musical, during a rehearsal on 20 August 2026.
Hans Chua/Theatre Group Asia
For many who fell in love with The Notebook through the 2004 film, Lon Hammond Jr. is remembered as the man standing between Noah and Allie.
Played by James Marsden in the film, Lon is Allie’s wealthy, successful fiancé, the seemingly sensible choice against the passionate young man she once loved. In Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 novel, Lon is a successful lawyer from a prominent Southern family who genuinely loves Allie and gives her a sense of security. He is not simply a villain standing in the way of the central romance.
For Markki Stroem, who plays Lon in Theater Group Asia’s upcoming production of The Notebook The Musical, that distinction is essential.
“I just feel like the character was originally very comic relief,” Stroem told DAILY TRIBUNE in an exclusive interview during one of the cast rehearsals. “But I decided that, you know what? This character is the third party-ish or the third wheel or the third person. Therefore, he needs to have a reason to fight for either his fiancée or the love of his life, Noah. And to choose.”
Rather than play Lon as a stereotypical obstacle to Noah and Allie’s romance, Stroem wants to give him depth.
“I didn't want to play him like a joke. I wanted to really give him the depth,” he said. “And not a character who is mean or a red flag.”
For Stroem, Lon has to be someone the audience can understand, even when they already know how his relationship with Allie will end.
“I wanted to make him genuinely someone that loved her very, very much. Someone that cared for her,” he said. “And someone that, just because of a circumstance, she chose the love of her life.”
That approach leads Stroem to an important conclusion about The Notebook: There is no conventional villain.
“There is no bad person in this show,” he said. “There's no villain. This show only has love and the circumstance, which is the dementia.”
Stroem's interpretation of the story extends beyond Lon. He also plays the doctor who cares for older Noah, creating what he sees as an ironic connection between the characters across the story's different periods.
“The irony of my character saving older Noah in the future, even if he was the third wheel,” he said.
Stroem brings years of musical-theater experience to the role. He first gained national attention as a finalist on the inaugural season of Pilipinas Got Talent in 2010. In 2011, he made his professional theater debut as Henry in Atlantis Productions' Next to Normal.
His subsequent theater credits include Mula Sa Buwan, Angels in America, Side Show, Hair, Jersey Boys, Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady, Carrie, Camp Rock and The Sound of Music. He is also part of The Morning Rush on RX 93.1.
In 2024, Stroem represented the Philippines at Mister Universe, where he finished fourth runner-up and won Best in National Costume and Best in Talent.
But in The Notebook, Stroem is less interested in Lon as the man who loses Allie than as a man capable of loving her enough to let her go.
“At the end of the day, if you love them, set them free,” he said. “So that's my rule.”
It is a perspective that asks audiences to look at Lon differently — not as the man who gets in the way of Noah and Allie's love, but as another person caught in the complicated choices that love demands.
The Notebook: The Musical, the Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson and book by Bekah Brunstetter, based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel, will have its international premiere in Manila. The Theatre Group Asia production is directed by Nicholas Polonio and runs from 3 to 20 September 2026 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit Makati. TGA is led by Artistic Director Clint Ramos, with Christopher Mohnani as Executive Director.
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