NewsSpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical Ends Broadway Run September 16The high-profile production attracted some of the biggest names in the music industry to contribute original songs for its score.
By
Adam Hetrick
September 16, 2018
The new Broadway musical SpongeBob SquarePants ends its run September 16 at the Palace Theatre. The new musical—featuring a score by a roster of pop and rock hit-makers, including Aerosmith, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Sara Bareilles, Panic! At the Disco, and David Bowie—opened December 4, 2017.
Ethan Slater
Marc J. Franklin
SpongeBob SquarePants arrived in New York following a Chicago out-of-town try-out in summer 2016. Upon closing, the musicalplayed 29 previews and 327 regular previews. The production’s Broadway run is cut short, in part, due to the fact that it is losing its home. The 105-year old Palace Theatre will close temporarily as part of a $4.2 billion real estate deal that will redevelop the site, including the Double Tree Hotel which was constructed around the Palace in the 1990s.
The Tony-nominated production will embark on a North American national tour beginning fall 2019, with amateur licensing slated to become available in early 2019 as well.
The musical stars Tony nominee Ethan Slater as SpongeBob alongside fellow Tony nominee Gavin Lee as Squidward Q. Tentacles, Danny Skinner as Patrick Star, Christina Sajous as Sandy Cheeks (recently stepping in for Lilli Cooper), Wesley Taylor as the maniacal-yet-microscopic Sheldon Plankton, and Brian Ray Norris in his Broadway debut as Krusty Krab owner Eugene Krabs.
The show’s director, Tina Landau, earned a Tony Award nomination for her inventive and unconventional approach to the material that humanized the characters rather than creating literal representations of the familiar Nickelodeon cartoon.
SpongeBob SquarePants features a book by Kyle Jarrow and a score from Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alexander Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady Antebellum, Lauper, Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants and T.I., and a song by the late Bowie and by Tom Kenny and Andy Paley.
The production also features choreography by Christopher Gatttelli, orchestrations by Tom Kitt, musical direction by Julie McBride, costumes and Tony-winning sets by David Zinn, lighting design by Kevin Adams, sound design by Walter Trarbach, and foley design by Mike Dobson.
