The SpongeBob Musical premiered on Broadway in December 2017. This April it comes to Parkland’s Miner Theater. This show is a goofy tribute to the Nickelodeon cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants and features all the fun and fancy of an episode of the cartoon. One important detail to get out of the way is that these are not actors in foam suits shaped like their characters.
“These are fish in a cartoon but we’re also portraying them as people,” said Director Chelsea Collier. Each costume captures the personality and energy of the character in a way that clearly shows who they are while still giving them a unique feel. For instance, the costume worn by SpongeBob, played by Laramie Ziegler, features the character’s well known shiny black shoes and red tie, but also sports some too short brown plaid pants and a yellow shirt to complete the SpongeBob look. Patrick’s green and purple shorts make an appearance in the costume for actor Jerry Strain, and the look also include a Hawaiian shirt and hair that defies the laws of gravity.
“People have expectations about what they want stuff to look like and if they’re huge Broadway fans they want it to look like the Broadway characters and we don’t always have the resources to do that,” Costume Designer Sheri Doyle said. “So, your sort of stuck between the resources you have, not making [the costumes] look like fish, humanizing them, and making them able to move.” The costumes were made with help from the class of THE-109 Costume Design and the show truly wouldn’t be the same without it.
Between the costumes and the lively set design, the actors of this production are accompanied by a live pit orchestra and sound effects, all coming together to translate the feeling of a cartoon to a real-life production. And the cast brilliantly mimics many cartoonish mannerisms between Ziegler’s spongey flexibility to Mariah Smith’s robotic portrayal of Karen, computer wife to villain Sheldon J. Plankton.
“The last show I did was Cabaret at Krannert right before Covid hit, and so this has been a really exciting return to live theater comma here instead of period” said Choreographer Elliot Emadian. “They were totally collaborative, half of the stuff that I gave them [the cast] just filled in the blanks and their own character’s spins to it and they were just a really great group.” The SpongeBob Musical is a family friendly show and runs weekends from April 14th through May 1st. Tickets are available at https://parkland.universitytickets.com/
