SpongeBob SquarePants has made his mark on the small and big screen, but like a true thespian, the absorbent, yellow and porous creature wishes to test his abilities on the Broadway stage.
Nickelodeon is producing "The SpongeBob Musical," which will feature SpongeBob SquarePants and all his Bikini Bottom friends. The show will launch next summer in Chicago for a limited engagement with hopes to open on Broadway in the 2016-2017 season, according to a Nickelodeon press release.
The musical will feature original music by major acts including John Legend, Cyndi Lauper, The Flaming Lips, T.I., Lady Antebellum and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. Theater veteran Tina Landau will direct the book by Kyle Jarrow and music by Tom Kitt.
"I was drawn to this project not only for its wild theatrical possibility, but also because I felt 'SpongeBob,' at its core, is a layered and hilarious ensemble comedy," said Landau. "SpongeBob himself is, of course, its center and beating heart — the eternal innocent in a sea of cynics. He's also the classic underdog hero, and so our production sets him on a hero's journey with real stakes, all the while retaining the show's trippy humor and irreverence."
She added, "We will present the world of Bikini Bottom and its characters in a whole new way that can only be achieved in the live medium of the theatre. We're bringing the show's fabled characters to life through actors — not prosthetics or costumes that hide them — and we're deploying some unconventional stage craft that will prove that anything can happen in Bikini Bottom.
"The SpongeBob Musical" will have its world premiere on June 7, 2016 at Chicago's Oriental Theatre and run until July 3, 2016.
Nickelodeon premiered the animated cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants" in July 1999 and it remains the most-watched animated program with kids for more than 13 consecutive years. SpongeBob made the leap to the big screen earlier this year in "The SpongeBob Movie," which premiered at No. 1 its opening weekend.
