Inside THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL: Musical Supervisor, Tom Kitt

Additional reporting by M. William Panek.

Broadway World Chicago goes for a deep dive all the way to Bikini Bottom all this week with our coverage of the new show THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL.

Music supervisor Tom Kitt, laughs at the idea of SpongeBob having a mental breakdown as in Kitt's Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning show NEXT TO NORMAL

"That's why they hired me," he says with a chuckle about the Broadway-bound musical which begins its pre-Broadway tryout here on June 7.

He's joking, of course. No one in SPONGEBOB has a meltdown quite like in his previous award-winning show. If anything, the lead character is the polar opposite of NEXT TO NORMAL's Diana Goodman. SpongeBob is an eternal optimist.

It was more than just a change of pace from a character perspective that drew Kitt to the project, though.

"The concept was exciting, Tina Landau is someone whose work I admire and I wanted to work. And let's face it, it's SpongeBob," Kitt says. "He is iconic. He is loved by my kids. To have the opportunity to be entrusted to bring him to the stage, I still feel like I need to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming."

Kitt also says the roster of musical talent --the show features original songs by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Jonathan Coulton, David Bowie and Cyndi Lauper and others - also appealed to him.

"I was inspired to be a singer/songwriter from an early age. The musical concept [for SPONGEBOB] was presented to me early on and I thought anytime I can be in the same room as some of the heroes of mine, I'm going to do it."

His likens his role to the one he performed with AMERICAN IDIOT. Of course, in the case of that show, he only had to arrange material from one band into a concise and complete musical narrative.

"I do not take my job lightly. There is a great responsibility with what I am being tasked to do," Kitt says. "I can help adapt the material when necessary to a theatrical sensibility. Some of the material came to us in demo form with just one singer and it needed to be a group number. I had to adapt it for the ensemble, but remain faithful to the composer's original intent."

"I give it a sweep when necessary," he adds, " However, I always keep with the style it was written in even if I need to bring in other instruments or make things feel more theatrical".

So will the Aerosmith song sound like an Aerosmith song or will it exist on its own within the context of the musical? Kitt says it's his job to make sure the musical satisfies both criteria.

"If we were to hand you a list of the songs and just the artists' names and you had to listen to it, each song sounds like that artist while being a cohesive piece," says Danny Skinner, who plays Patrick in the production.

Ethan Slater, who plays SpongeBob in the show, agrees.

"[It is all thanks to Tom Kitt because he's a genius," Slater says. "We have these specifc genres and awesome songs and Tom has made it into a score than remains cohesive but pumps up the genre. And we get to rock out to a Cyndi Lauper song!"

"This is Spongebob's musical world," Kitt adds. "These characters are taking their cues from the sensibilities of the artist who wrote the material. The songs all leap into the theatricality of the moment in the right way."

Kitt says fans of some of the iconic music from the TV show will also be surprised to see where the team has incorporated material from the show into the stage production.

"We are using other songs from the cartoon in the music, but in a creative and surprising way," Kitt says. "It will feel like SpongeBob and fans will be happy".

The pre-Broadway World Premiere of The SpongeBob Musical will begin performances on Tuesday, June 7 at the Oriental Theatre (24 W. Randolph St., Chicago, IL) in a limited engagement through July 10, 2016. - See more at: broadwayinchicago.com/the-spongebob-musical/world-premiere-of-broadway-bound-the-spongebob-musical-in-chicago.