The eagerly awaited The SpongeBob Musical is heading your way, and it'll be hard to ignore the bubbles it will make when it hits the stage this summer for its debut, pre-Broadway run!
Ahead of its June premiere in Chicago, Entertainment Weekly has unveiled an exciting first look behind the scenes at what will easily be the best underwater piece of musical theater hitting a stage this summer!
SpongeBob SquarePants | 'The SpongeBob Musical' Official Sneak Peek | Nick
Go inside Bikini Bottom with this first look at 'The SpongeBob Musical,' making its world premiere this June in Chicago! Director Tina Landau, book writer Kyle Jarrow, designer David Zinn, and choreographer Christopher Gattelli are among the creators featured in this video, along with musical sneak peeks from Aerosmith, T.I., They Might Be Giants, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! at the Disco, Lady Antebellum, Jonathan Coulton, The Flaming Lips, Plain White T's, and Sara Bareilles!
'The SpongeBob Musical' stars Ethan Slater as SpongeBob, Danny Skinner as Patrick, Lilli Cooper as Sandy, and Gavin Lee as Squidward.
Director Tina Landau, book writer Kyle Jarrow, designer David Zinn, and choreographer Christopher Gattelli are among the creators who pop up in the video and share their passion for the ambitious project, which is almost a decade in the making, as Landau revealed back in January.
The SpongeBob Musical follows an average day in Bikini Bottom turned wholly un-average, when the threatening eruption of a nearby underwater volcano called Mount Humongous flips the entire town on its head. With just 24 hours until the purported end of days, SpongeBob (newcomer Ethan Slater) takes the hero's quest upon himself to save the town and rescue his friends from certain volcanic doom.
Among its treasures, the video betrays a first glimpse at how the characters of Bikini Bottom will come to life on stage, including Mr. Krabs (Carlos Lopez), Patrick (Danny Skinner), and Sandy (Lilli Cooper). Though not directly featured here, the show also stars Nick Blaemire as Plankton and Gavin Lee as Squidward.
The musical's set, designed by David Zinn, shows off Landau's aesthetic approach to building Bikini Bottom out of salvaged materials and, as Zinn points out, "found objects or things that could float to the bottom of the ocean." Cue the hula hoops, kiddie pools, rubber tires, and sea noodles.
The video also reveals but a few song titles from the score, which is essentially crowdsourced via a roster of big-time artists including David Bowie, John Legend, T.I., Lady Antebellum, The Flaming Lips, and Sara Bareilles. Landau and Jarrow conceived specific story beats for each artist they wanted to pursue, and the artists - all major fans of SpongeBob - bit. Let your imagination run wild with the teased songs, which include a Cyndi Lauper-penned "Hero Is My Middle Name," Panic! At the Disco's "Not a Simple Sponge," the Plain White T's "BFF," and "Bikini Bottom Boogie," as written by Aerosmith.
The SpongeBob Musical, a co-production from Nickelodeon with Sony Music Masterworks and The Araca Group, plays a limited engagement from Tuesday 7th June to Sunday 3rd July 2016 at Broadway in Chicago's Oriental Theatre, before a Broadway run opening in the 2016-17 season. To quote the sponge himself: I'M READY!
And if you're ready you can watch EW's exclusive first look in the Sponge-Tastic video below!:
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