The SpongeBob Musical previews in Chicago beginning June 7, 2016- Page 8

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/8/16 at 5:02pm

I guess you are right. And I guess a guess is just a guess. So maybe guesses are always right, but I guess it could be right, too!

[romain2]

Posted: 7/8/16 at 7:44pm

I'm seeing this tomorrow night.  My ticket is in Dress Circle, Row A.  Later after I bought my ticket I read that the Dress Circle at the Oriental Theatre isn't the greatest.

Any one seen the show in the Dress Circle...please tell me the sight lines are decent.  But go ahead:  warn me if they aren't.  : )

Thanks!

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 7/9/16 at 4:05pm

I saw the show last night and my feelings were very mixed. I've been a fan of Landau for years, and her work was a delightful visual treat, but so little of the show felt like the SpongeBob world I grew up with, for better or for worse. I haven't read the entirety of this thread, so if I am just repeating what others have said, I apologize.

My main problem with the show was the score. The problem (for the most part) was not that the songs felt too disparate and eclectic to be of one world--they were all far too generic for that to be the case. The problem was that very few of the songs felt like they were written for SpongeBob, the David Bowie song probably being most guilty of this. Secondly, most of the songs were not comedy numbers but extended emotional numbers. A few of these are important to tell a story, but it felt like every song was trying to be the 11 o'clock number, so the tone was off. The laughs in the show were mostly during the book scenes, and the songs would teach us more about the characters. It was too serious for what I wanted from The SpongeBob musical, and the flipping between lightheartedness and seriousness so quickly (and the lack of integration between those tones) made it difficult to respond to each moment. Thirdly, and perhaps most crucially, I can't think of many songs in the show that moved the story forward. There were some sound issues that caused me to miss a lot of lyrics (in one particularly loud rock song, I couldn't hear a single word), and I never felt that I missed any piece of the story.

The book fared better than the score--its tone was consistent and very much of the SpongeBob world. There were some good one-liners, and there were just enough references to the show (i.e. "I'm ready!", the sound effects, the dolphin call bleeping out words, etc.) to satisfy fans of the show but not get in the way of telling the story. Most of the characters were integrated into the poor very effectively, my only exception being Mr. Krabs, whose subplot felt really irrelevant.

The quality of the performances was all over the place. I think this area suffered the most from the struggle between recreating the cartoon character or creating something original. Everybody was trying something like the character voice on the show, but nobody quite nailed it, as you have to at least modify the voice in order to sing a high note. I happened to enjoy the performances that deviated most from the cartoon (like Lili Cooper's Sandy), and I found Ethan Slater's SpongeBob to be grating, but I understand that most audience members found him charming. The biggest problem was that it seemed like each actor had a different answer to the question of how much to imitate the cartoon characters.

Lastly, Tina Landau. I am such a fan of her work--I still say that her production of The Wheel at Steppenwolf is one of the best plays I have ever seen. She has such an incredibly ability to represent large phenomena on stages in creative ways, and how to manipulate bodies on a stage. However, I am not sure if the person who wrote the book on Viewpoints is also the right person to bring SpongeBob to life. Her concept was to focus on the humanity of each character, but what always charmed me about the show was how they found aquatic equivalents for human behavior and translated those. To retranslate back to humanity frequently felt a little too abstracted, if that makes sense. Landau's creativity and visual style brought an overwhelming amount of heart and truth to the proceedings, finding humor along the way, which definitely worked in its own way. But I think that the way SpongeBob works is the opposite--it overwhelms with lighthearted humor and maybe finds a bit of truth along the way. I watched much of the show thinking "this isn't quite right, but I can't think of a way to do it better."

In the final moment of the show, the cast all walked onstage playing instruments, which was a nice touch. Then they stopped playing them and started just making noise. Then, as this was happening, bubbles started spreading through the theatre. On top of this, confetti cannons fired to every inch of the theatre.  As all this was happening, beach balls were then thrown into the audience. It was loud in every sense of the word. I really wasn't sure what to make of that moment, but now I actually think that was exactly how SpongeBob would choose to end a musical about himself, and it was the only time the show found a true theatrical equivalent for the feeling of the TV show. Overall, the show suffered from what I consider to be the same problem The Lion King suffers from--it is stuck between two worlds, the world of the original cartoon and a new theatrical and more emotional world. Each world has merits, but one must be chosen because right now the constant flipping back and forth between the two is throwing the whole thing off.

[Leaf Coneybear]

Posted: 7/10/16 at 11:01am

Does anybody have a source about it not transferring to Broadway? 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/12/16 at 8:09pm

I heard there was a massive rewrite at the end of the run and it was instated during the last four performances. Did anyone go to them?

[Laurapattifan]

Posted: 7/12/16 at 9:39pm

Call_me_jorge said: "I heard there was a massive rewrite at the end of the run and it was instated during the last four performances. Did anyone go to them?

 

"I saw the Friday performance 

 

[markypoo]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 11:50am

Does it have a theatre or is it on temporary (or perhaps permanent) hiatus?

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 11:23pm

Is this still happening on Broadway?

[LightsOut90]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 12:33am

Can people chill out it closed 11 days ago, its going to Broadway, February start of previews, theater TBA shortly. 

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 12:52am

LightsOut90 said: "Can people chill out it closed 11 days ago, its going to Broadway, February start of previews, theater TBA shortly. 

 

"

Yeah, the two people who responded today chill

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 12:53am

According to who, Lights?

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 8:06am

This one will make millions in licensing. It'll either tour or do Broadway, so it can get that exposure, record an album and be "marketable" through MTI or TRW or whoever.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 10:45am

LightsOut90 said: "Can people chill out it closed 11 days ago, its going to Broadway, February start of previews, theater TBA shortly. 

 

"

Well, someone said earlier it got cancelled.

[markypoo]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 10:47am

Jorge I loved your comment

I now feel flattered that I was one of the blessed two

[Call_me_jorge]

Posted: 7/22/16 at 11:02am

Laurapattifan said: "Call_me_jorge said: "I heard there was a massive rewrite at the end of the run and it was instated during the last four performances. Did anyone go to them?

 

"I saw the Friday performance 

 

 

"

Wanna give a full detailed synopsis so we can figure out what changed?