Review: The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage!

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s your typical beautiful day in Bikini Bottom, until weird tremors start to shake up the city. Soon, the word has gotten around: there’s a disaster brewing, and everyone is going to be goners the next day! In true optimistic fashion, Spongebob tries to calm everyone down, but there’s just no stopping the panic, and everyone is freaking out until they come up with an idea to help fund their escape via Chum Bucket with a benefit concert.

Unwavering in his belief that they shouldn’t simply abandon the town, Spongebob teams up with Sandy and Patrick to stop the volcano from erupting on their own. Sandy comes up with an anti-erupter invention, but when it comes time to use it, only Spongebob can save the day. He may be just a simple sponge, but sometimes that can come in handy!

Our Take:

Spongebob Squarepants has graced our TV screens for almost two decades now. It’s a show that’s lowkey funny, sometimes smart and often silly, and is very easy to join in progress. In 2017, a musical version opened on Broadway to pretty good reviews. Fast-forward to today and Nick is bringing it to the small screen for viewers everywhere to enjoy. Why does there need to be a Spongebob musical, you may ask. Well, it’s 2019 and live musicals on TV are cool now. Just ask Disney and ABC!

To be fair, the wacky nature of Bikini Bottom lends itself well to the song and dance format, but there’s just something off-putting about watching humans who sound like off-brand versions of their cartoon voices. In the show, an ever-optimistic sponge is just silly enough to work. But as a living human person, his never-ending charm just feels too strong and made me start to dislike him? Still, I have to admit that Tony Award-nominee Ethan Slater does an admirable job with the role. Gavin Lee also turns in a fun performance as Squidward. His version is much less pessimistic and a bit more bombastic. Brian Ray Norris does a spot-on impression of Mr. Krabs, and Christina Sajous is easy to root for as Sandy the scientific squirrel from Texas.

How are the songs? Not bad! But the thing is, the show already had songs, some of them pretty darn catchy. In that respect, it doesn’t feel like anything too crazy to witness Spongebob and co breaking out in musical harmonies. The dance numbers are something new, and the choreography kept things funky throughout. (It’s weird watching a guy pretending to be a cartoon octopus break into dance. This whole show is just weird.) Some fairly famous contributors wrote songs for the show, and the music meshes together nicely. Except for the strange rap battle between Spongebob and Plankton… we won’t talk about that.

On the technical side of things, there were some neat touches. The show incorporates a soundboard guy on the stage itself, which the characters reference on occasion. They also call out the orchestra pit. It’s a very fourth-wall breaking kind of show, which fits the vibe of Spongebob well. The camera views kept me engaged, and I appreciated that we got a variety of angles showing the view from different seating sections, making me remember that I’m actually watching a recording of other people watching a live musical.

Overall, I can’t say I loved this. I do enjoy musicals, and I won’t turn off an episode of Spongebob when it comes on a hotel TV. But together, they weren’t exactly my cup of tea. Spongebob is kind of twee and overbearingly enthusiastic in the normal show, and once you add in a musical format to the mixture, it’s a bit much. Unless you really love Spongebob AND really love musicals, I would just watch an episode of the actual cartoon and then go out and watch a local production of Into The Woods or something.