SpongeBob faces existential crisis in new musical
Does SpongeBob really represent the best of humanity?
You can find out this weekend and next as Spotlight Theatre, 1800 7th Ave., Moline, stages “The SpongeBob Musical,” based on the phenomenally popular Nickelodeon animated series, “SpongeBob SquarePants” (which premiered in 1999 and has already inspired three feature films and two spinoff series).
Director Noah Hill (who directed Spotlight’s “The Lightning Thief” in February 2022 and played the title character in 2021’s “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”) helms a boisterous cast of 22.
Though it’s a Technicolor cartoon brought to silly, fizzy life, Hill also appreciates the musical’s dark tones and seriously addressing vital issues.
“There is some deep stuff and that’s what I like,” he said Wednesday. “Here’s a comedy song, followed by an absolutely sad scene out of nowhere. Let’s run the gamut.”
Hill loves the balance in shows offering something for kids and adults, as “SpongeBob” does. “This show fires on all cylinders and it never stops.”
All the varied songs were written for the show (arranged and orchestrated by Tom Kitt) – including by David Bowie, Brian Eno, Cyndi Lauper, Steven Tyler, Lady Antebellum, John Legend, They Might Be Giants, Panic! At the Disco, Sara Bareilles, and Plain White T’s, among others. The world premiere was in 2016 in Chicago, and it opened on Broadway in December 2017.
The musical opens with a violent tremor that rocks the entire underwater town of Bikini Bottom. It was caused by the nearby Mount Humongous, a volcano that will soon erupt, throwing the town into a panic.
In the 2004 SpongeBob movie (which featured a live-action David Hasselhoff), SpongeBob almost dies, Hill said.
The stage musical shares the “scrappy energy” of the original series, the director said.
“You don’t have to have a lot to make a lot. There’s a big emphasis on imagination,” Hill said. “I think even the original creation of the show, like with set design, we throw things at the wall and see what sticks. That’s what they did with the original show, too. That’s what we’ve been doing even with rehearsals.
“With the cast, it’s ‘Make choices, do it different every time – find one, stick with that and run with it’,” he said.
Actors don’t mimic original
While SpongeBob and Patrick in the series have very recognizable voices, the actors playing them at Spotlight (Ryan Hurdle and Adam Sanders, respectively) don’t try and copy them.
“My voice is already kind of there, just naturally,” Hurdle said. “The way this show was written and creators’ notes in the script, and what Noah really hit home, is bring yourself to the voices rather than the voice to yourself. Like, bringing the cartoons to human form, so it’s not too cartoony.
“You don’t want to be doing an impression,” he said. “Bring the humanity to it.”
“SpongeBob is one of my favorite television shows, period,” Hurdle, 23, said. “This role is very energetic and SpongeBob as a character is a very optimistic guy. He’s kind of oblivious to all of the pessimism in the world.”
He and his best friends (Patrick and Squidward) are “the definition of blissfully ignorant, but not that they’re stupid,” Hurdle said. “They just like being alive and they see a lot of joy in their town. They just love Bikini Bottom and in the show, when Bikini Bottom is threatened by a natural disaster, they love their lives so much that they have to do whatever they can to stop it.”
Hurdle was in “Lightning Thief” (in ensemble) and described Percy Jackson as a more passive protagonist. SpongeBob is more, “I’m gonna make things happen now,” he said. “We’re gonna save this town, and everyone else is like, ‘eh, it’s a lost cause’.”
Sanders, 24, said people view Patrick as big, dumb and lovable from the TV show. But in the musical, “we get to explore a little bit the different emotions he feels throughout the show,” he said. “Not only joy, but we get to see anger from him, sadness, hope, despair. I don’t feel like we get to see that often from the TV show.”
“It’s been fun to dive into those different feelings,” Sanders said. “We can’t do it two-dimensionally. We have to do it three, four, five dimensional.”
Hill said all the songs are very different from one another, and you can hear each artist’s unique style in each.
Sydney Rosebrough, 21, had never seen the TV show before doing this.
“It kind of gave me an advantage in developing my character as Sandy,” she said. “I got to make her my own without the fear of emulating the TV show.”
Sandy is a squirrel, a really smart scientist, and her best friends are two dummies, Hurdle said.
“She’s basically the one that comes up with the solution for saving Bikini Bottom,” Rosebrough said.
Bringing out the best
“We bring out the best in each other,” Hurdle said, noting the show centers on SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy. Smaller characters have their own plotlines.
“She’s kind of the outsider, as the land mammal,” Hurdle said. “There’s a lot of good, real-world issues that they tackle, with a good amount of subtlety.”
Echoing real issues in recent years, there’s a climate emergency, a mayor who’s incompetent, people who are propping up someone as a savior, a person denying the climate crisis (the villain), and Sandy faces xenophobia and discrimination.
“She’s the scape-squirrel,” Hurdle said.
Since the pandemic, “all of these things the show was talking about have been brought out even more,” Hill said of current events, noting there’s even police brutality in the show.
“It is very subtle — it’s not like we’re gonna talk about this for five minutes,” he said. “It’ll show up and they jump right into the next thing.”
“It works perfectly for kids to be like, ‘I get what’s happening,’ but then adults say, ‘I think I get what they’re actually saying’,” Hurdle said.
Sandy ends up forgiving people at the end, Rosebrough said. “SpongeBob for sure is Sandy’s biggest supporter in the entire show, all of Act 2.”
“One thing that Noah was really good about in this whole process – of course, there are silly moments, it’s funny and it’s a cartoon, but the stakes are so high,” Hurdle said. “It’s literally life and death; our world is coming to an end. If we don’t commit to that as characters and as actors, the audience won’t care.
“Because of how big the themes are, we have to own that,” he said. “The series doesn’t really address stuff like that, but it does have some darker, just more adult, absurdist type themes.”
There are existential things in the TV series, especially with Squidward, Hurdle said. “There are really beautiful moments and there are dark, scary moments, especially Squidward goes through.”
Many spoonfuls of sugar
Addressing weighty topics under the guise of a light, breezy and colorful musical makes them more accessible – medicine within a sugar sweet flavor.
“OK, cool, that was fun, we can look at different topics,” Hill said. “It puts you in a spot where you can discuss it. With dramatic stuff, it’s that kind of awkwardness you have as an audience member. Do we talk now? What are we gonna do?”
“After the end of this one, you can go back to those things,” he said.
Sanders has enjoyed playing dramatic roles at Spotlight, but in recent years, he’s more drawn to more comedic, cartoonish roles.
“I don’t necessarily go over the top in this show as much,” he said. “I try to be a bit more human with I, even though I’m a starfish. This one has definitely been a challenge, trying to find a happy medium through being a cartoon and being a human.”
Sanders and Hurdle were both in “Tuck Everlasting” at Spotlight. Sanders and his wife Bethany (who is choreographer for “SpongeBob”) have a 10-month-old boy together.
“He loves to see Dad be silly,” he said.
Rosebrough was in Spotlight’s “All Shook Up” in February 2023 and has done theater since she was 6, including Junior Theatre, Center for Living Arts, and Countryside.
One of the show centerpieces is “Tomorrow Is,” which shows up twice, and sings the theme, “We only have tomorrow,” Hurdle said. “One of the big themes of the show is the climate emergency they’re facing in the volcano, obviously reflecting real life – I think that really is exactly what the whole show is saying, we only have tomorrow.”
“Who’s trying to save it is science, optimistic people and maybe younger people,” he said.
It’s the Act 1 finale and it’s, “Where do we go next, what do we do?” Hill said.
The trio of heroes want to save their home, at first they only have two days to do it, then one day, and then 10 minutes.
‘A perfect balance’
“This gives you the right amount of escapism, and ‘Oh, this is about us’,” Hurdle said of its relevance today. “It’s a perfect balance.”
“I love escapism and turn your brain off, and then as soon as it ends, turn your brain on, and OK, what was that actually about?” Hill said. “I love stuff like that and ‘Lightning Thief’ had plenty of that.”
“It’s kind of like Brecht got really silly,” Hurdle said.
The show also has some of the TV series’ absurdist moments, Hill said, citing some weird puppetry and a dream sequence.
“There’s no inherent meaning to life,” Hurdle said of the musical’s existential crisis. “At the end of the show, we’re all going to die, SpongeBob’s like, ‘Well let’s make it the best seven minutes ever’.”
“That is peak existentialism and absurd,” he said. “If there’s no inherent meaning to life, you can make your own. You can find the happiness for yourself – rather than looking for it in a job, in religion or in other ideology.”
“Who would have thought SpongeBob would be this deep?” Hurdle asked.
Spotlight performances will be at 7 p.m. on June 2, 3, 9, and 10, and 2 p.m. on June 4 and 11. Tickets are $20 for general seating, $25 for floor seating, available at the Spotlight website HERE.
