[clockwise] Gareth Gates, Divina De Campo, Chrissie Bhima, Lewis Cornay and Irfan Damani are cast in the UK and Ireland tour of The Spongebob Musical
Gates who first found fame on ITV’s Pop Idol and has gone on to star in a number of major musical theatre productions in the West End and on tour including Les Misérables, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, will play Squidward (at selected venues) with De Campo, a runner-up on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and a recent UK Theatre Award winner for Hedwig and the Angry Inch as Sheldon J. Plankton. West End star Cornay (The Book of Mormon, The King and I) will play SpongeBob. Further casting for the role of Squidward will be announced at a later date.
The cast also includes Irfan Damani (Billionaire Boy, Garrick Theatre) as Patrick, Chrissie Bhima (Whistle Down the Wind, The Watermill Theatre) as Sandy, Richard J Hunt (Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol, Southbank Centre) as Mr Krabs, Sarah Freer (Jack and the Beanstalk, Sheffield Lyceum) as Pearl, Eloise Davies (42 Balloons, Vaudeville Theatre) as Mrs Puff, Hannah Lowther (Kinky Boots, Theatre Royal Drury Lane) as Karen and Rebecca Lisewski (Strictly Ballroom, Piccadilly Theatre) as Mayor.
They are joined by Sam Beveridge, Jeremiah Olaleye, Eleanor Turiansky, Rhys Batten and Reece Kerridge.
Presented by Showpath Entertainment, the Tony Award-nominated stage version of the popular Nickelodeon children’s series SpongeBob Squarepants, is due to open in Southampton on 5 April 2023.
Following the Southampton run which will end on 8 April, the production will visit Birmingham, Bradford, Oxford, Dublin, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff, Blackpool, Peterborough, Wolverhampton, Norwich, Leicester and Aberdeen.
The production will then play a five-week season in London at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall before playing the final dates of the tour at Theatre Royal Plymouth (30 August-2 September).
Directed by Tara Overfield Wilkinson, the creative team for the production also includes choreographer Fabian Aloise, designer Steve Howell, musical supervisor Mark Crossland, musical director Marcus Carter-Adams, costume designer Sarah Mercade, lighting and video designer Ben Bull, sound designer Ben Harrison, costume and wig supervisor Megan Rarity, associate choreographer Paris Green and casting director Harry Blumenau Casting with general management by Selladoor Worldwide.
Based on the series by Stephen Hillenburg, The Spongebob Musical is written by Kyle Jarrow and conceived by Tina Landau. The musical which received its world premiere in Chicago in 2016 before debuting on Broadway in late 2017 features original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady A, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants and T.I. Additional songs are by David Bowie, Tom Kenny and Andy Paley, with additional lyrics by Jonathan Coulton and additional music by Tom Kitt.
The original production which was directed by Tina Landau, attracted 12 Tony nominations in 2018 – tying for the highest number of nominations with Mean Girls – and won one Tony (Best Scenic Design of a Musical), four Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Musical and six Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Musical.
Angela Thomas
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