The new SpongeBob SquarePants musical celebrated its opening night at Broadway’s Palace Theatre December 4. The Tina Landau-helmed production heads to New York following a Chicago world premiere last year.
Leading the cast as the title absorbent, high-energy phenomenon is Ethan Slater in his Broadway debut. Joining him are Danny Skinner as Patrick Star, Lilli Cooper as Sandy Cheeks, Gavin Lee as Squidward Q. Tentacles, Wesley Taylor as Sheldon Plankton, Brian Ray Norris as Eugene Krabs, and Jai’len Christine Li Josey as Pearl.
Read reviews for the new musical below. Playbill will continue to update as more reviews come in.
Broadway News (Elizabeth Bradley)
The Chicago Tribune (Chris Jones)
Entertainment Weekly (Isabella Biedenharn)
The Hollywood Reporter (David Rooney)
NY Daily News (Joe Dziemianowicz)
New York Magazine (Sara Holdren)
The New York Times (Ben Brantley)
Time Out New York (Adam Feldman)
The Washington Post (Peter Marks)
SpongeBob SquarePants features a book by Kyle Jarrow and a score from an impressive roster of pop and rock hit-makers, including Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alexander Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady Antebellum, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants and T.I., and a song by the late David Bowie and by Tom Kenny and Andy Paley.
Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to Normal composer Tom Kitt serves as SpongeBob's music supervisor, orchestrator, and arranger. Kitt is responsible for translating all of the original songs into a unified score.
Rounding out the cast are ensemble members Alex Gibson, Gaelen Gilliland, Juliane Godfrey, Kyle Matthew Hamilton, Curtis Holbrook, Stephanie Hsu, Jesse JP Johnson, L’ogan J’ones, Kelvin Moon Loh, Lauralyn McClelland, Vasthy Mompoint, Oneika Phillips, Jon Rua, JC Schuster, Abby C. Smith, Robert Taylor Jr., Allan Washington, Brynn Williams, Matt Wood, and Tom Kenny.
The production is choreographed by Tony Award winner Christopher Gattelli. The design team includes scenic and costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by Kevin Adams, projection design by Peter Nigrini, sound design by Walter Trarbach, hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe, and casting by Telsey + Company/Patrick Goodwin, CSA.
SpongeBob SquarePants is produced by Nickelodeon with The Araca Group, Sony Music Masterworks, and Kelp on the Road.
