Tina Landau | Marc J. Franklin
When director Tina Landau got the call from her agent asking if she’d be interested in pitching herself to Nickelodeon for a SpongeBob SquarePants musical—now in previews at Broadway’s Palace Theatre and officially opening December 4—she didn’t know much about Nickelodeon's hit animated character who lives in a pineapple under the sea. “I guess I would say I liked it,” she told Playbill. “I didn’t watch it often. When I did, I could only watch one episode. Eleven minutes was all I could bear.”
Landau’s initial reaction to adapting the series? “I’m not interested in a theme park show.”
But what ultimately piqued her interest was the opportunity to divert from the familiar SpongeBob aesthetic and channel the “indie spirit” creator Stephen Hillenburg originally embraced. “I thought if I could pitch exactly the kind of show that I want to do and would be interested in seeing, why not give it a whirl?”
She describes the process as extracting the “SpongeBob DNA.” The identifying feature: the celebration of the surreal. Years later, when meeting with the series’ writers, she’d learn she wasn’t far off. They approached the show with a similar theatrical sensibility, telling her, “We worship at the altar of Dada.”
As Landau signed on, there was still no script. With a focus on physicalizing her vision, she worked with an array of collaborators, including clowns and circus performers, to create a set of laws for the SpongeBob universe.
Contemplating her childhood, Landau recalls her early ambitions: director (check) or, fittingly, oceanographer. She now realizes the unifying factor of the two: “You can be in a world other than our own everyday, walking, breathing one. Laws are different; sound is different.” Creating a SpongeBob musical became an absurdist composite of both.
Landau’s Bikini Bottom (where SpongeBob resides) exudes a DIY mentality: “We made a tunnel out of hula hoops. There’s a mountain made out of cardboard boxes. It’s a whole world created out of scrap metal and a chum bucket.”
Landau then found actors to inhabit her world (led by Ethan Slater, whom she asserts has “that eau de SpongeBob”), a story to share (an apocalyptic Everyman tale), and a musical language to tell it. (Like Bikini Bottom, the score is a hodgepodge of elements from various sources; among those who contributed are Sara Bareilles, John Legend, and the late David Bowie.)
The end result is a show that creates new life with the SpongeBob DNA. As a young audience member from a workshop recalled, the series shows how SpongeBob looks while the musical shows what SpongeBob feels.
And Landau believes the world needs a SpongeBob musical. “In a world that can feel like it’s crashing into some horrendous ending, SpongeBob has a different spin. He says, ‘No. Let’s not give up. Let’s find a way to make this better.’”
Go behind-the-scenes and get a first look at SpongeBob SquarePants - The Broadway Musical here on Playbill.com!
Bikini Bottom is coming to Broadway in Nickelodeon's brand-new SpongeBob SquarePants musical!
SpongeBob SquarePants places the characters of the hit Nickelodeon cartoon series in an original story set in Bikini Bottom, where the stakes are higher than ever before, as SpongeBob and all of Bikini Bottom face the total annihilation of their undersea world! Chaos erupts. Lives hang in the balance. And just when all hope seems lost, a most unexpected hero rises up and takes center stage!
The show features a book by Kyle Jarrow and a score arranged by Tom Kitt, featuring original songs from a plethora of recording artists, including Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Sara Bareilles, Panic! At the Disco, and the late David Bowie.
Reprising their roles from the musical’s 2016 world premiere in Chicago are Ethan Slater as SpongeBob, Gavin Lee as Squidward Q. Tentacles, Lilli Cooper as Sandy Cheeks, and Danny Skinner as Patrick Star. They will be joined by stage and TV favorite Wesley Taylor as the maniacal-yet-microscopic Sheldon Plankton and Brian Ray Norris in his Broadway debut as Krusty Krab owner Eugene Krabs.
Rounding out the cast are ensemble members Gaelen Gilliland, Juliane Godfrey, Kyle Matthew Hamilton, Curtis Holbrook, Stephanie Hsu, Jesse JP Johnson, L’ogan J’ones, Jai’len Josey, Kelvin Moon Loh, Lauralyn McClelland, Vasthy Mompoint, Oneika Phillips, Jon Rua, JC Schuster, Abby C. Smith, Robert Taylor Jr., Allan Washington, Brynn Williams, and Matt Wood.
Acclaimed Steppenwolf director Tina Landau and the groundbreaking designers behind Fun Home, Hedwig, and Spring Awakening have brilliantly reimagined Bikini Bottom for the Broadway stage, bringing the spirit of SpongeBob to life with humanity, heart, and pure theatricality. With an original score from some of the biggest names in pop and rock, SpongeBob SquarePants explodes with energy.
SpongeBob SquarePants will begin Broadway previews Monday, November 6th at the Palace Theatre on New York City's prestigious Broadway, before officially opening on Monday, December 4th.
To purchase tickets the SpongeBob SquarePants Broadway musical, visit SpongeBobBroadway.com, Ticketmaster.com or call 877-250-2929.
Full information about the The SpongeBob Musical can be found on the productions official website, thespongebobmusical.com! #SpongeBobBway.
SpongeBob SquarePants - The New Musical Original Cast Recording is available to purchase today at https://spongebobmusical.lnk.to/SpongebobMusicalRecording.
Online / Social Media
Website: SpongeBobBroadway.com
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More Nick: Are You Ready Kids? SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS Musical Begins Broadway Previews Monday; New Block Of Tickets Available!
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