CHICAGO — With an original score by such incongruous music luminaries as David Bowie, John Legend, Cyndi Lauper, Lady Antebellum, and Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, the animated series “SpongeBob SquarePants” is to become a Broadway musical during the 2016-17 season in New York.
But the denizens of Bikini Bottom will sing for the first time in Chicago next summer.
“‘SpongeBob’ has transformed television, fashion and the art community,” said Russell Hicks, Nickelodeon’s president of content development and production, in an exclusive interview with the Tribune. “The theater will be next.”
Thus the pre-Broadway world premiere of “The SpongeBob Musical” will begin performances on June 7, 2016, at Chicago’s Oriental Theatre, playing in Chicago for at least a month.
The show then will move to Broadway, probably in the fall. It is co-conceived and directed by the Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Tina Landau, with a book penned by Kyle Jarrow and music supervision by the Broadway composer Tom Kitt, whose primary job is to wrangle and coalesce the work of a number of rock stars, each writing one song for the musical.
“All of those amazing composers are fans of SpongeBob,” said Hicks. “Music has always been an important part of the show and everyone saw this as a real creative challenge. We were excited by everyone who wants to write songs for him.”
Other composers who’ve signed on for the project include Jonathan Coulton, Dirty Projectors, The Flaming Lips, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants and T.I.
“The SpongeBob Musical” will indeed have a narrative. “One of our challenges,” Landau said, “has been to take an episodic art form, remain true to its spirit of non-sequiturs and outrageousness and then create a really strong storyline that will not only get people involved but pay off emotionally. So we have a story and a subplot, but it’s all spiced with the particular flavorings of the SpongeBob universe.”
The animated series, created in 1999 by the animator and marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, is phenomenally popular throughout much of the world. An eternal optimist who works as a fry cook at an establishment called The Krusty Krab, the sponge who serves as the leading character has been called the “Anti-Bart Simpson,” and the show is known for its broad appeal to many demographics and for its its narrative ability to operate on several levels at once.
Earlier this year, a movie, “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” was released, albeit with a different creative team. Reviews were generally favorable, although some critics noted the difficulty in expanding the short SpongeBob format to a full-length movie.
The narrative in the musical will be completely different, as will the aesthetic style.
Landau said that she wanted to be clear that this was not an arena-style show featuring performers in costumes closely replicating the TV show, all running around the stage re-creating the familiar show. “We’re not talking actors in prosthetics,” she said. “We’re more interesting in how the human body can transform itself into cartoon-like characters.” Circus-style workshops, Landau said, have been part of the process.
The casting for the show has yet to be released, although Landau said there will be one central actor playing the title role, albeit appearing as SpongeBob in many different guises. The show will be geared to both adults and children.
Both Hicks and Landau say that if ever there was a property that lent itself to a wacky mash-up of styles, “SpongeBob” is that project. “No one ever though of having a sponge as a character,” Hicks said, “But SpongeBob has been embraced by the artistic community like no other sponge before him.”
By Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
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