Review: THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL At Barnesville High School

Barnesville High School was lucky enough to get the local premier of the Broadway smash hit! This is the very first production in the brand new auditorium at Barnesville. The show was originally planned for March, but they pushed it back to make sure their beautiful new home was ready.

First of all, this is a great space that holds 650 people. I will definitely be coming back for future shows. Director Alissa Nibble decided to go big to kick off the new home of BHS Theatre. The 12 time Tony Award Nominee. This is a show featuring original music by artists like Sara Bareilles, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry and many, many more.

A big shout out to Musical Director Sarah Leach and the rest of then Pit Orchestra. Also a very special shout out to the love Foley Artist Erick Knudson who did an amazing job with sound effects.

There is some wonderful talent in Barnesville led in this show by Sam Nibbe who tackled the title role of SpongeBob with ease. He had the stage presence and vocal talent to match. His personality was perfect for this role and his scenes with Patrick and Sandy were some of my favorites. Some of my favorite vocal performances by Sam were on "Bikini Bottom Day", "BFF", "Just A Simple Sponge" and "Best Day Ever".

Probably my favorite character of the whole show was Patrick played perfectly by Haydyn Hedland. He brought the innocence of Patrick to life perfectly. He had some great scenes with SpongeBob and got to show off his vocals on a few of my favorites "BFF" and "(I Guess I) Miss You.

Olivia Desing as Sandy put on a beautiful performance. A great actress and vocalist she played the part so well. She had some wonderful scenes with SpongeBob and I loved her vocals on "Tomorrow Is" and "Hero Is My Middle Name".

There were so many great supporting cast members and such a wonderful ensemble. A few more standouts for me were Hannah Riddle as Pearl, who I am told was in her first ever high school production and Healey Brekhus as Mr. Krabs who did great on "Daddy Knows Best". Jacy Rice as Squidward on "I'm Not A Loser". Trysten Nystuen as Plankton and Lexi Hoeft as Karen on "When The Going Gets Tough". Everyone in the cast added so much to this show.

I really wish this was going one more weekend (maybe next year 2 weekends?). I strongly encourage all local theatre fans to plan on checking out what the BHS Trojans Theatre Troupe brings us this fall for their next musical production.

Congrats to the complete cast & crew and anyone involved in this show. You all should be very proud.

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