Everyone should have a good cry now and then. It serves a heart well to get in touch with its capacity for compassion, reminding you that loss, heartbreak and confronting them are essential elements to being human.

The musical adaptation of “The Notebook” seems specifically designed for that purpose. So much so that the merchandise table at St. Paul’s Ordway Center — where its first North American tour has settled in for a fortnight — is selling $5 boxes of tissues emblazoned with the show’s logo. Unleashing the waterworks seems an obvious goal.

Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling 1996 novel and Nick Cassavetes’ 2004 film are both known for being big-time tearjerkers. But emotional engagement has a lot to do with how invested you are in the characters, and Bekah Brunstetter’s stage adaptation — propelled by the folk-rock balladry of Ingrid Michaelson — doesn’t draw an audience in as deeply as it could.

While directors Michael Greif and Schele Williams have fashioned a solidly rendered production with impressive stagecraft and performers who do about as much with the characters and songs as they can, “The Notebook” suffers from an overly simple story about two relatively generic lovers seemingly designed to establish some lowest-common-denominator connection with audiences.

That’s a flaw in Brunstetter’s writing (and perhaps Sparks’), although I give her credit for trying to add shadings through an interesting device: She divides each of the principal characters into three, showing us a couple when they first meet as teens, are reunited about a decade later, and in their final years together in assisted living, the memories eventually interweaving, the chronologies scrambled as they might be in a mind struggling with dementia.

Perhaps that tripartite split had something to do with it, but I came away from Tuesday’s opening night feeling as if I never really got to know these people. Allie and Noah come across as a couple of cute kids who have the hots for one another, but struggle against the constraints placed around Allie by her dishonest and overly class-conscious puppet master of a mother.

Yes, they dance in the rain, recreating the film’s most memorable scene. And the final exchanges between their aged incarnations have moving moments, especially when Sharon Catherine Brown eloquently expresses her memory struggles in song to Beau Gravitte, who spends much of the show injecting believable humanity into a production with a paucity of it.

Yet if there’s a profound emotional and spiritual link between Allie and Noah, we’re never made privy to it. While the lust comes through, we don’t learn enough about them to raise the stakes of a potential separation or give us a great sense of loss when their end seems near.

Hence, I’m not sure that you’ll need that trademarked box of tissues unless this show touches you in a particularly vulnerable place, depending upon your life experiences. In which case, weep at will.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

‘The Notebook’

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1:30 and 7 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 25 and 26, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 28 and 29, 1:30 and 7 p.m. Nov. 30

Where: Ordway Music Theater, 345 Washington St., St. Paul

Tickets: $144-$45, available at 651-224-4222 or ordway.org

Capsule: While potentially touching, it’s at root about the long-term love between two not terribly interesting people.

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Mark your calendars.

The Twins are officially scheduled to play in the “Field of Dreams” game, which will take place on Aug. 13 in Dyersville, Iowa, the site of the iconic movie. The Twins will play host to the Philadelphia Phillies in the third major league game set amongst the cornfields. Two days earlier, the Triple-A Saints will play a game there against the Iowa Cubs.

“The Minnesota Twins are thrilled to be playing in the return of MLB at ‘Field of Dreams,’” executive chair Joe Pohlad said in a release. “Taking the field in Dyersville, where so much of baseball’s magic comes alive, is special for our club and for our fans in Iowa. August 13, 2026 will be a true celebration of our sport and a memorable day in Twins history.”

The Chicago White Sox hosted the New York Yankees in 2021 and the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds played in Iowa the next year. Since then, the site, which had featured a temporary stadium has undergone major renovations and expansion.

The original schedule had the Twins hosting the Phillies on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Target Field. It has since been adjusted and now that Friday will be a day off before the series resumes in Minneapolis.

As part of their new agreement with Major League Baseball, that game will be streamed on Netflix.

“Major League Baseball is excited to return to Iowa in 2026 and to deliver a unique experience to the Twins, the Phillies, their players, our two Minor League teams, and fans across the game,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in the release. “We look forward to working with Netflix and creating an event that all sports fans can enjoy.”

TV update

MLB announced new three-year media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix on Wednesday.

With the new deal, ESPN will now have in-market rights for the teams whose games MLB produces and distributes, offering fans an additional way to stream games. The Twins are among those teams.

For now, things will be status quo for Twins.TV subscribers. The Twins will be available on the same linear and streaming platforms next season as they were in 2025 and in-market Twins fans do not need to purchase the ESPN app to watch the team. Information on Twins.TV subscription packages will be available later this offseason.

Briefly

It may be the offseason, but the Twins recently took home a victory when third baseman Royce Lewis and former Twins outfielder Aaron Hicks won the inaugural MLB Open in Las Vegas. The golf tournament, which featured two representatives from each team — typically a current and former player — was aired on TNT on Tuesday night.

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By SUDHIN THANAWALA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday asked attorneys to identify witnesses and offer plans for how to conduct a contempt probe of the Trump administration for failing to turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington said a ruling Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit gave him the authority to proceed with the inquiry, which will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to refer the matter for prosecution.

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On March 15, Boasberg ordered the aircraft carrying accused gang members to return to the U.S., but they landed instead in El Salvador, where the migrants were held at a notorious prison.

“I am authorized to proceed just as I intended to do in April seven months ago,” the judge said during a hearing Wednesday. He added later, “I certainly intend to find out what happened on that day.”

Boasberg said having witnesses testify under oath appeared to be the best way to conduct the contempt probe, but he also suggested the government could provide written declarations to explain who gave orders to “defy” his ruling. He said he wanted to start any hearings Dec. 1.

The Trump administration has denied any violation, saying the judge’s directive to return the planes was made verbally in court but not included in his written order. U.S. Justice Department attorney Tiberius Davis told Boasberg the government objected to further contempt proceedings.

The last Minnesota Wild player to leave the ice at TRIA Rink on Wednesday was Zach Bogosian.

The veteran defenseman has been missing from the lineup for more than a month with a lower body injury but appears to be working his way back into playing health. When he returns, that will mean some tough decisions for Wild coach John Hynes, as young defenseman Daemon Hunt has made a solid case to stay in the lineup.

Hynes admits he has thought some about what will happen when his team is healthier, and it’s generally a good problem to have, although the nature of hockey at the NHL level means that when Bogosian is healthy, there could well be another injury absence.

“I think it will be a tough (decision) to make,” Hynes said following the team’s optional morning skate before playing Carolina in a late start at Grand Casino Arena. “What I find with our group is it’s truly day to day. We could say today that there might be an injury tonight, and then Bogo comes back.”

Hunt, who was playing his seventh consecutive game on the Wild blue line on Wednesday night, has made a positive impression.

“He’s come in and played well,” Hynes said. “Now, when Bogo gets healthy and comes back and is ready to play and we stay healthy, I think that’s a good thing because then you have some competition for spots.”

The forthcoming blue line battles may play out at center as well. Currently the Wild are shorthanded up the middle, with regulars Marco Rossi and Ryan Hartman out. With Nico Sturm inching closer to making his season debut, Hynes is hopeful that a surplus there is coming at some point.

“I think if we were healthier, we’ll have some decisions,” Hynes said. “But there’s probably three or four games before that even happens. It would be a good problem to have. We’ll see if we actually have it.”

On Wednesday, the Wild officially placed Hartman on injured reserve and recalled Hunter Haight from their Iowa farm team. Haight, the team’s second-round draft pick 2022, made his NHL debut earlier this season, getting into the Wild’s first two games.

A hard loss off the ice

Weston Paszkiewicz, the 10-year-old Long Lake boy who spent a day as a member of the Wild last month in the midst of a cancer battle, passed away surrounded by family late Tuesday night. According to his family, Weston was watching a hockey game when he took his final breath.

On Oct. 30, before a home game versus Pittsburgh, Paszkiewicz was signed to a one-day contract by Wild general manager Bill Guerin, participated in the team’s practice, was a guest of the Wild in the locker room and even was honored by the Penguins following their 4-1 win in St. Paul that night.

“He spent a lot of time with us, and you could tell when he was here that he wasn’t doing well,” Hynes said. “It’s one of those things, too, where you realize, in our profession, whether you’re players or coaches at this level, the impact you can have on someone. … It’s sad for him and his family, but the fact that we could make an impact on him, I think that gives us some satisfaction.”

Diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in January, Paszkiewicz was at Grand Casino Arena on Sunday for the overtime win versus Vegas, in a suite along with his family and retired Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, as the team held its annual Hockey Fights Cancer night.

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