The SpongeBob Musical

I’m not going to lie, as an older gentleman I’ve never seen the Nickelodeon cartoon from which this wonderful musical is derived and knew nothing about the characters. Hence I had to ask an expert – in this case a ten-year-old who described who each of the characters were.

I managed to watch this NODA North premiere twice on the same day to see both the actors playing the titular character in this double cast production so considered myself fairly ‘SpongeBob savvy’ by the end of the day (don’t hold me to it LOL).

Firstly, the production was bright, colourful, vocally excellent with superb choreography (well executed by the cast) – costumes and makeup were magnificent, sound and lighting up to the normal excellent traditions of Terry Cain. Band under the tutelage of John Hudson were tuneful and not overpowering.

Patchy the Pirate (Toby Bartley) made a cameo role, with suitably ‘piratical’ accents, even before the production started as he explained that ‘Spongebob’ was a favourite of his and wanted to sneak in to see him in person. His endeavours were thwarted by two ‘theatre security’ operatives (the vertically challenged but scary looking and sounding Daisy Bradgate and Eve Belcher). As theatre security warned us of theatre etiquette regarding mobile phones yet another character arrived front of curtain – that of Narrator of the show in beret and French accent (Alma Ali-Pedrosa). Despite being confused at this point (remember I didn’t know the various characters), the plot that Bikini Bottom was to be obliterated by an eruption from a recently active undersea volcano was fairly easy to follow and expertly guided through by the wonderful cast and principals. It was nice to see Patchy get his own song as he  joined up with his fellow pirates in Act 2 opener ‘Poor Pirates’

In the opening number of ‘Bikini Bottom Day’ the audience were given a brief introduction to the various supporting roles of the Mayor (Sophie Jones) acting suitably ‘political’; ‘Perch Perkins’ & Mrs Puff’ (Amy Burlison-Brown & Isla Reiss); ‘Larry the Lobster’ (Rana Ozbek); Jenny the Bartender (Erin Kilgallon); and the curmudgeonly ‘Old Man Jenkins’ (Thomas Nugent). Each maintained their individual characters through the production well, and were an asset to the overall production.

Mr Krabs (George Anglesea) – the entrepreneurial owner of the ‘Krusty Krab’ was determined to cash in before disaster struck played alongside daughter ‘Pearly Krabs’ (apparently a whale played by Lucy Wilkinson) – Lucy could belt out a tune that is for sure and her star struck demeanour and  juvenile determination to escape the boredom of Bikini Bottom led her to trying to get engaged by the ‘teen sensations pop group’ – The Electric Skates (Milly Cassin, Katie Kyle and Autumn Morris) who were hired to perform in a rock concert to raise funds for an ‘escape’ pod for the town’s impending doom.

‘Squidward’ (Oscar Petre) – the squid with six limbs (great costume) - works alongside SpongeBob in the Krusty Krab. Although a neighbour of SpongeBob, he resents him for his cheerfulness, local friendships and the noise he makes. He longs to be on the stage performing, and his failure to do so lead to his moment in the limelight with ‘I’m Not a Loser’.

Rival fast-food owner of the less successful ‘Chum Bucket’, is ‘Plankton’ (Ted Gladstone) and his wife ‘Karen – the computer’ (Darcy Ranasinghe). This manipulative and occasionally evil couple excelled throughout especially in Ted’s rap number, accompanied by his wife with various computer noise ‘bleeps’. I particularly liked the costume of Darcy with her spiky purple hair and LED glasses that mimicked the actions and emotions she was feeling; her whole demeanour and strutting was very effective and a joy to watch.

‘Patrick (the Starfish)’ (Freddie Scott) is SpongeBob’s neighbour and Best Friend Forever –the title of a song they partnered with each other to great effect. They’d do anything for each other and when ‘Patrick’ is lured away by a shoal of sardines as their hero who would be their saviour, Patrick turns his back on helping his friend – the falling out doesn’t last long as Patrick realises the error of his ways in the emotional “(I Guess I) Miss You’.

‘SpongeBob’ was dual cast with two incredibly talented young performers (Harry Hudson and Dan Burlison) – seeing them both perform within a couple of hours of each other you could be forgiven for comparing – but anyone that did would struggle to find an ‘edge’ to either performer. Both their characterisations and movements and accents were spot on, and in matters vocally and movement you’d be hard pushed to slip a sheet of paper between them.

Helping them on their quest to save Bikini Bottom from Mt.Humongous erupting was ‘Sandy’ (the squirrel – don’t ask me why a squirrel is living under the sea…) Sandy was played by Ellen Ledgerwood in her last performance as a ‘junior’ – and what a way to go out – she stole the stage with her fine singing voice and superb acting and movement.

Although probably the smallest of the cast, Eevee Devonport-Eastman, filled the stage in her couple of cameo scenes as ‘Gary the Snail’ with her cute ‘meowws’ and movement around the stage flat on her belly – I raise my ‘shell’ to you Eevee!

An ensemble including Katy Kyle, Ava-Mae Simpson, Emily Slater, Sophie Bannerman, Eliza Armstrong, Ruby Belcher, Millie Thompson, Lydia Armstrong, Jos Godfrey, Anna Eddon, Scarlette Lewis, Florence Wilkinson played various roles enhancing the production.

This was a special show well performed by talented youngsters and the standing ovation they got at the end of both performances I saw was well justified.

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