The company of SpongeBob SquarePants – The Broadway Musical at the Palace Theatre, New York. Pictures: Joan Marcus
SpongeBob SquarePants – The Broadway Musical continues at the Palace Theatre, New York.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
SpongeBob SquarePants, the anthropomorphic sponge who lives at the bottom of the ocean, has made it to the Palace, the one-time mecca for vaudeville greats and now one of the vaunted showplaces for musical theatre. And he and his aquatic chums prove themselves more than ready for the Broadway big time, as they cavort in a musical that’s said to cost some $20 million.
Of course, SpongeBob is hardly an unknown quantity. He has his own animated kiddie television series, which premiered in 1999, and he’s starred in two animated feature films, with a third set to come. Along the way, he’s reputed to have sold billions of dollars of franchised merchandise.
For his Broadway debut in a show that emblazons his own name in the title, SpongeBob SquarePants – The Broadway Musical, director Tina Landau has corralled a bevy of pop songwriters to contribute to its score.
They include such top drawer names as Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith; Sara Bareilles; Cyndi Lauper and Rob Hyman; John Legend, and They Might Be Giants. There are also songs by David Bowie and Brian Eno, among others, additional lyrics by Jonathan Coulton and additional music by Tom Kitt, who additionally supervised the music, orchestrations and arrangements.
As for SpongeBob himself, the character, who in animated form looks more like a kitchen rather than a sea sponge, has been transformed into a human being, as have most of the other denizens of Bikini Bottom, the underwater town they call home.
He’s garbed in an appropriately yellow shirt with checkered trousers, but he retains his cheery smile, bright eyes and endearing disposition in the embodiment of Ethan Slater, who’s been playing SpongeBob since developmental workshops began some years ago and in the Chicago tryout in 2016.
Slater’s a big reason much of the show’s free-for-all web of ingratiating nonsense works.
Gavin Lee in SpongeBob SquarePants – The Broadway Musical
SpongeBob’s cohorts include his best pal, the rather indolent star fish Patrick (Danny Skinner), his cranky squid neighbour Squidward Q. Tentacles (Gavin Lee) and a really smart water-loving squirrel Sandy Cheeks (Lilli Cooper).
The book by Kyle Jarrow has them all trying to figure out how to save Bikini Bottom from the ravages of a nearby volcano eruption scheduled to happen the next day.
Suffice to say they do, thanks to SpongeBob’s heroism (enacted by Slater in a daredevil climax), but not until numerous complications are overcome.
They involve such other characters as Eugene Krabs (Brian Ray Norris), the money-hungry owner of the town’s most popular restaurant and SpongeBob’s boss; Pearl (Jai’Len Christine Li Losey), Krabs’ rock star wannabe daughter; Sheldon Plankton (Wesley Taylor), the evil owner of the town’s least popular restaurant; and Karen (Stephanie Hsu), his computer wife. (That’s right, she‘s a computer.)
Director Landau and choreographer Christopher Gattelli fill each moment with some sort of bit, ranging from goofy to spectacular.
To begin with, there’s the expansive set, designed by David Zinn, that spreads out from the proscenium with its clusters of giant kelp and other undersea flora along with items that might simply have been discarded into the ocean. Zinn also did the clever and oh-so-colourful costumes.
Among the more prominent bits, there’s Patchy the Pirate (Jon Rua), who appears at the start of each act as SpongeBob’s No.1 fan determined to meet him. Patchy has to be removed from the stage by security people. But before that happens in Act II, Patchy gets to sing a protest song ‘Poor Pirates’ by Bareilles, which builds into a production number, when Patchy’s crewmates come marching down the theatre aisles.
Among other noteworthy numbers is John Legend’s ode to absent friends, ‘(I Guess I) Miss You’, sung by SpongeBob and Patrick when circumstances separate them. There’s also Jonathan Coulton’s jaunty, mood-setting ‘Bikini Bottom Day’ which gets several reprises.
And of course, there’s the perfunctory boffo tap dance number, coming as it usually does in Broadway musicals of late, late in Act II.
That’s when Gavin Lee’s Squidward, fitted with four legs and longing to be a performer, gets his chance – at least in his imagination – at a benefit concert to raise funds to buy an escape vehicle for the townsfolk. The number is ‘I’m Not a Loser’ by They Might Be Giants, and Lee gets to do it with a chorus line of sequinned sea anemones.
There are other winking references to other musicals as well as nods to the current political climate. It also carries a message about the importance of friendship and community, and inclusion as well (since Sandy Cheeks is a squirrel she has to overcome some xenophobia from the townsfolk).
But for the most part, SpongeBob SquarePants deals in high-grade, eye-filling silliness, and it does so with panache. A touch more emotional depth might have helped – or maybe hindered. Who knows? But for a show that has a sponge as its central character, it does pretty well.
Ron Cohen
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