Danny Skinner will make his Broadway debut as SpongeBob's Starfish pal Patrick Star, Gavin Lee (Les Misérables, Bert in Mary Poppins) will play the sourpuss Octopus Squidward Tentacles, and Nick Blaemire (Godspell, Cry-Baby) will play the scheming villain Sheldon J. Plankton!
The show had previously cast Ethan Slater in the title role of the "absorbent and yellow and porous" character, SpongeBob SquarePants. Lilli Cooper will play SpongeBob's close Squirrel friend Sandy Cheeks. Casting for Mr. Krabs has yet to be announced.
The cast will also feature Gaelen Gilliland, Curtis Holbrook, Stephanie Hsu, L'ogan J'ones, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Mark Ledbetter, Kelvin Moon Loh, Vasthy Mompoint, JC Schuster, Abby C. Smith, Jason Michael Snow and the newly announced Juliane Godfrey, Jesse JP Johnson, Lauralyn McClelland and Allan K. Washington.
Slater's credits include the role of Modell in Diner at Delaware Theater Company. His Off-Broadway credits include parts in Claudio Quest (NYMF), What We Know (Teatro Circulo) and Independents (SoHo Playhouse, FringeNYC).
Cooper, who plays the deep sea diving Squirrel maiden Sandy Cheeks, played Martha in the original Broadway production of Spring Awakening and was a standby for Elphaba in the Broadway company of Wicked. Lilli also had a role in The Wildness.
The production's tryout will begin previews on Tuesday 7th June 2016 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, with a limited run scheduled through Sunday 3rd July 2016. The production is co-conceived and directed by Tina Landau (Superior Donuts, Bells Are Ringing), and Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli (Newsies) will choreograph.
The SpongeBob Musical will be part of the "Broadway In Chicago" subscription series. Group tickets for 10 or more are now on sale by calling Broadway In Chicago Group Sales at (312) 977-1710. Individual tickets for The SpongeBob Musical will go on sale Sunday 13th March 2016.
Broadway dates, theatre and ticket information have yet to be announced.
For the most up-to-date news and information about The SpongeBob Musical, visit BroadwayInChicago.com and Facebook.com/TheSpongeBobMusical.
Spanning nine seasons on Nickelodeon, SpongeBob SquarePants has had his fair share of underwater adventures. But, on Broadway, he's going to have to save the world.
The SpongeBob Musical follows a day in the fictional underwater town of Bikini Bottom, where the citizens have just learned that a nearby volcano named Mount Humongous will erupt at sundown the next day. Amid the antics and fantasies of the community over the ensuing 24 hours, SpongeBob takes it upon himself to save the day and rescue his city from certain destruction. It's an original story not pulled from the television series, says Tina Landau.
"I know this sounds insane, but it's basically SpongeBob Apocalypse," book writer Kyle Jarrow (A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant, Whisper House) told Playbill.com. "If you can imagine the movie 'Armageddon' with SpongeBob as like the main character, essentially saving the world, that is... It's not about an asteroid, but other than that it's basically SpongeBob has to save the world from certain destruction."
The musical will feature songs from a mixture of classic and contemporary artists, including Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of the band Aerosmith, Tony winner Cyndi Lauper (Kinky Boots), They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton, Dirty Projectors, The Flaming Lips, John Legend, Lady Antebellum, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T's and T.I., with an additional song by David Bowie and additional lyrics by Jonathan Coulton.
"All of the musicians got a brief on where their song fits in the story, so they weren't randomly writing songs on the topic of SpongeBob," Jarrow explained. "They knew where it fit in the story."
He added, "SpongeBob is super fun. It's obviously family-friendly; it's got like a hipster humor to it as well, but I think there's an opportunity to say something that actually matters about the way that we live now and about the way that fear can make people make decisions that are maybe not the smartest decisions."
Tom Kitt (Next to Normal, If/Then) provides music supervision for the show and, according to Jarrow, is "making it sound cohesive."
He added, "To be a book writer, where you have, I think, 14 different songwriters, it's just a crazy beast. It's been really wild, but it's super awesome. It's just a really complicated Animal, so it's been this fun process of figuring out how to get the songs to fit."
Additional The SpongeBob Musical credits include: Scenic and costume design by David Zinn; Lighting design by Kevin Adams; Projection design by Peter Nigrini; and Sound design by Walter Trarbach.
Additional sources: TheaterMania.com, Time Out Chicago, Encyclopedia SpongeBobia.
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