SPONGEBOB Will Close On Broadway This Fall

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical will conclude its Broadway engagement at the Palace Theatre (1564 Broadway at West 47th Street) on Sunday, September 16, 2018, due to previously planned theatre renovations beginning mid-September.

Early in 2019, school and youth group licensing rights will be available, with professional licensing to follow. Additionally, a North American tour will begin fall 2019 (cities, venue engagements and casting to be announced at a later date). The production, which began previews on November 6, 2017, and opened on December 4, 2017, will have played 327 regular performances and 29 previews.

"Our bold reimagining of SpongeBob SquarePants as a musical has been embraced by SpongeBob fans and theatre-goers alike, who experienced the wonderous life in Bikini Bottom first-hand during the Broadway engagement in New York City" said Executive Producer Susan Vargo. "It will continue absorbing audiences across the country and around the world."

SpongeBob SquarePants was named Best Musical by the Drama Desk Awards and Outer Critics Circle and earned 12 Tony Award nominations - the most nominated musical of the 2017-2018 theatre season - winning for Best Scenic Design of a Musical (David Zinn).

SpongeBob SquarePants explodes with energy and features an original pop and rock-infused score by a legendary roster of Grammy® Award-winning songwriters. Led and conceived by visionary director Tina Landau (2018 Tony Award nominee) and a Tony Award®-winning design team, the production brings the spirit of SpongeBob to life with humanity, heart, and pure theatricality. SpongeBob SquarePants features a book by Kyle Jarrow, music supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Tom Kitt and choreography by Christopher Gattelli.

The stakes are higher than ever as SpongeBob and all of Bikini Bottom face the total annihilation of their undersea world. Chaos erupts. Lives hang in the balance. And just when all hope seems lost, a most unexpected hero rises up and takes center stage.

The SpongeBob SquarePants cast includes Tony Award Nominee Ethan Slater as SpongeBob SquarePants, Tony Award Nominee Gavin Lee as Squidward Q. Tentacles, Lilli Cooper as Sandy Cheeks, Brian Ray Norris as Eugene Krabs, Danny Skinner as Patrick Star and Wesley Taylor as Sheldon Plankton.

The ensemble includes Brandon Espinoza, Alex Gibson, Gaelen Gilliland, Juliane Godfrey, Jordan Grubb, Kyle Matthew Hamilton, Curtis Holbrook, Jesse JP Johnson, L'ogan J'ones, Jai'len Christine Li Josey, Kelvin Moon Loh, Lauralyn Mcclelland, Vasthy Mompoint, Oneika Phillips, Catherine Ricafort, JC Schuster, Allysa Shorte, Abby C. Smith, Robert Taylor Jr., Allan K. Washington, Brynn Williams, Matt Wood and Tom Kenny as the French Narrator.

SpongeBob SquarePants is a one-of-a-kind musical event with original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alexander Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady Antebellum, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T's, They Might Be Giants and T.I., and a song by David Bowie and by Tom Kenny and Andy Paley. Additional lyrics by Jonathan Coulton. Additional music by Tom Kitt.

The design team includes scenic and costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by Kevin Adams, projection design by Peter Nigrini, sound design by Walter Trarbach, hair and wig design by Charles G. LaPointe and casting by Telsey + Company/Patrick Goodwin, CSA.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Original Cast Recording is available now from Masterworks Broadway wherever music is sold and streamed.

SpongeBob SquarePants is produced by Nickelodeon with The Araca Group, Sony Music Masterworks and Kelp on the Road.

Since its launch in July 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants has reigned as a pop culture phenomenon. The series has been the most-watched animated program with kids 2-11 for more than 15 consecutive years, and over the past several years, it has averaged more than 100,000,000 total viewers every quarter across all Nickelodeon networks. SpongeBob SquarePants is the most widely distributed property in Viacom history, seen in more than 208 countries and territories and translated in 55+ languages. Paramount Pictures' second feature film based on the property, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, in 2015 at #1 opening weekend. A third feature has been announced for 2019, timed to the series' landmark 20th anniversary. The character-driven cartoon chronicles the nautical and sometimes nonsensical adventures of SpongeBob, an incurably optimist and earnest sea sponge, and his undersea friends.