SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS Previews — Page 2

Bump. The Palace becomes Bikini Bottom tonight!

I can't believe this is taking up one of the theaters on Broadway. It should have just traveled for kids. This is embarrassing for Broadway.

I've also heard very good things from friends who attended the invited dress on Saturday. The worst they've said is that it could stand some cuts, but other than that they have spoken highly of the performances and the creativity.

Broadway has survived far more questionable productions, that's for sure.

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Updated On: 11/6/17 at 02:35 PM

Absolutely hated the recording, but I got a rush ticket for this, so super curious to see how it plays on stage.

I have absolutely no knowledge of the television program. Would I be totally lost seeing and/or appreciating this?

It's intermission, it's good but many lines and choreo are changed. I don't like me.krabs costume because it's very ooc, but the Playbills are beautiful. I love how the room looks like. I posted it on @playbillsnstuff instagram

Just got out of the first preview. It’s an astounding show, in my opinion. Full of joy, heart, and positivity that is unabashedly thrown in your face for 2.5 hours.

The score is more or less the same as the cast recording, but nearly every song has at least some lyric changes. The songs that have the most changes are When The Going Gets Tough, Chop To The Top, and the end of Bikinni Bottom Day.

Cast is uniformly excellent, and they are clearly having a blast. The production value is through the roof - thank you Nickelodeon for showing some $$$ can go so long way. David Zinn’s set will be a worthy successor to Mimi Lien’s Comet win, and the lighting design cannot be beaten. Technically and creatively, this show is a marvel.

The pacing can definitely use some work, and I? think the creative team will rethink some scenes and songs, such as Poor Pirates, which unfortunately flopped tonight. Ran 2:40, was on the street at 10:45.

And expect to hear the name Jai’ Len Christine Li Josey for years to come. As an 18 year old Jimmy Award recipient making her Broadway debut as Pearl, she brings the house DOWN.

All I? can say is: go. Not everyone may love it, but I? can’t imagine anyone leaving without a smile on their face. This is not a theme park show. It has the creativity of Groundhog Day and Great Comet with the spectacle of Wicked, but at its core is a story about community that our country needs to hear. It’s remarkably and irreverently beautiful.

YASSSSSS! My friend is going with me instead and we are planning right before New Year's :) (I have teeth surgery, which is why it can't be sooner)

Sorry to be the total opposite, but I hated it. I have to say, going in, I knew I didn't care too much for the recording, but the songs, in context, weren't awful. I think "Bikini Bottom Day" was the standout solely because they reprised it like 12 times, which I think they should have reprised the Panic! At The Disco song instead, or the Squidward song since that's what the merch was referencing. But none of them propelled the plot forward, so not bad songs, but not really meaningful.

The design built out of the theater was cool. It's very Vegas, and a lot to take in, but the actual set/deck of the show is very simple. There's some pieces rolled on, and maybe one or two tracked elements, but other than that, it's a lot of pizazz without a lot of actual set pieces.

The performances were all around great. I think Ethan is giving a terrific performance. His accent went a bit "Jewish gay" for awhile, but it was better than the super nasally sound we get on the recording. But his vocals were great, and I thought he was terrific. I thought the Patrick was a bit of a let down vocally and acting wise. He had zero energy, and every time he was on stage, I just felt the energy sink. Gavin Lee was fine, his big number went over well, but again, why do we care? I don't know. Wesley Taylor was good, but again, he didn't really have any moments to shine, so we didn't care. The standout of the entire cast was Pearl, since she was given moments to really shine. She was great.

Overall, the book is confusing. It's at times incredibly boring. I had a whole group who didn't show up after intermission, and a mother and her child fell asleep during the second half. It's too long. 3 hrs for a children's show is terrible. There is basically no plot, or there is a lot of plot? I can't quite figure it out. Either way, we don't care at all. And the design is confusing. They are climbing this giant mountain...made out of boxes? But then they get to the top and it's made of ladders? And then he throws something down the inside..but it's not in perspective, so it looks like a giant spider's web? Huh? And then they roll on ladders from Home Depot...it's all very confusing and uninteresting. Sure, I'd categorize it as "fun," but there needs to be more. There needs to be about 100% more comedy.

Honestly there is no spectacle? I'm not sure what part of it was spectacle? They were literally sitting on boxes moved around by members of the ensemble? There were no surprising set pieces, no surprises in general.

Side note: I rushed today and was side balcony. It was a fine view. I didn't feel like I missed much of anything. The stage is built out over the pit, but they never really use it.

Also, the band sounded canned. Like, I felt like they were all singing to tracks. I wish it had more energy to it.

I didn't think I was exactly the target audience for Spongebob. Up until a few months ago I hadn't even watched an entire episode of the TV show from start to finish, so I decided to sit down and take in a few. I liked it well enough, but was hardly ready to rave about it and watch the whole series.

I guess it took me by surprise then by how much I fell for the musical this evening. Not everything is perfect, but the energy is infectious and there's such exuberance emanating from the stage of The Palace that it would be hard not to be won over. Almost all of the songs are catchy as hell; I popped on amazon at intermission and bought the cast recording. I was singing "Bikini Bottom Day" all the way home with a chorus of "(Just a) Simple Sponge" thrown in for good measure.

The show is rather eclectic and having the songs all written by different composers only adds to that mood. There is an overarching plot, but it's ultimately insignificant. The structure plays more like Hair or Godspell- a bunch of vignettes that introduce all the creatures of Bikini Bottom and describe their relationship with Spongebob. Tom Kitt deserves a lot of credit for his orchestrations, which do hold all the random styles in some cohesive state. The most unnecessary song is easily "Poor Pirates" at the top of act two, but are you going to be the one who calls up Sara Bareilles and tell her that her song is cut? (It's not that it's a terrible song- I guess it only exists to give Patchy something to do.)

I enjoyed the cast a lot. There isn't much a chorus, so basically the principals are always onstage, joining the ensemble when they're not the center of attention. It adds a nice sense of community to the folks of Bikini Bottom, but the actors must be exhausted by the end of the night. Danny Skinner (Patrick) and Gavin Lee (scene-stealing Squidward) get the big showstopper in the first and second acts respectively. Ethan Slater is adorable as Spongebob- at times his every movement is synced with a sound effect, and to his (and the sound booth's) credit, he never missed a cue.

The physical production is something to behold. TONS of money has been spent on this thing and it shows. The creative team found that quirky whimsy that so eluded Amelie last season, and this certainly blows anything Little Mermaid attempted to do right out of the water. Thank god the costumes were not literal interpretations of the cartoons; then again, something literal would never have been in the spirit of the weird little show anyway. I loved everything they did in the last ten minutes with the finale. It was so freaking joyous, which is just what I needed today.

I tend to gravitate more to shows like The Band's Visit, but sometimes you just want to go the theater and have a good time and be uplifted by the material. If that's what Spongebob was aiming for then it found success in spades.

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I was there tonight as well and my opinion fell more toward negative. My biggest problem lies with the score, which isn't cohesive at all and 95% of the songs make no attempt to move the paper thin plot forward. I also don't like the over the top character voices. I also wish they made it more of a revue and just thrown out that boring, uninspired plot, that was essentially just the plot of the Spongebob movie. Look, the show is completely stupid and ridiculous and isn't creative at all, but it is pretty fun (for the most part). Slater's a star and the actress playing Pearl is incredible, but the rest of the cast is kind of forgettable. Btw, the choreo is atrocious. It's good for kids, but I wish it was better at capturing the earlier era of SpongeBob. That was when my kids were young and we would watch it together and I would laugh just as much as they would. I can't say the same here.

The set is beautiful when you enter the theatre. It's just a beautifully designed production. It's bright and colorful and it reminds me of the beauty of Lien's Comet set. It's stunning, but the show is VERY problematic and even though there have been changes made since Chicago, the show just doesn't work.

6/10 stars