Review: Toto Too Theatre's Presentation of THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL at The Gladstone

Toto Too Theatre’s presentation of Nickelodeon’s The SpongeBob Musical is everything you might expect: a colourful and zany show that will leave families, especially kids, with a smile. The premise? A sea dwelling Texan squirrel named Sandy Cheeks (Tiffani Kenny), a starfish named Patrick Starr (Mason Timm), and a “not so simple” sea sponge, SpongeBob SquarePants (Alex Davidson), team up to save stop Mount Humongous’ imminent eruption that threatens their home at Bikini Bottom. Okay, so maybe it sounds a bit bizarre. Admittedly, I have never watched a single episode of the SpongeBob SquarePants television series. I found myself doing some research to ensure I had some basic knowledge of its background and main characters before attending the show.

As someone who enjoys history and science, I was fascinated to discover that the show’s creator, Stephen Hillenberg, was a marine biology teacher who based the series’ concept on an unpublished educational comic book entitled, The Intertidal Zone. The book was intended to teach children about the organisms that live in tide pools. In the musical, SpongeBob’s home, Bikini Bottom, is faced with the threat of destruction from Mount Humongous. The plot has parallels with the devastation wreaked upon Bikini Atoll by nuclear testing during the Cold War, leading to the permanent displacement of its entire population and the extinction of more than 25 species of coral. Even the musical’s narrator (Jean-Loup Lhérisson) is a Frenchman, lovingly modeled after Hillenberg’s idol, Jacques Couteau.

With its larger than life characters and peppy song and dance numbers, The SpongeBob Musical manages to keep a consistent pace throughout the show, although Act One did start to feel a teensy bit long right before intermission. The clever, colourful, and vibrant costumes (Ana Lorena Fuentes Roman) provide many visuals to maintain the audience’s focus. The costume design for Squidward Q. Tentacles (played by Luc Cormier), in particular, is almost a carbon copy of the Broadway musical.

The relatively barren main stage is flanked at one end by Mount Humongous (set design by Justin Ladelpha and properties design by Jennifer Barkley). Lighting (Mark Macdonald) is used strategically, with flashes of colour coordinating with the sound design (Ladelpha) and choreography (Niamh Webber) to amplify the volcano’s increasing tremors. The squishy sound effects, meant to evoke fishy movements, were a little off and were sometimes more distracting than effective. SpongeBob’s meowing pet snail, Gary, was entertaining, and its creators and builders (Jennifer Barkley, Stefania Wheelhouse, Graham Barkley, and Mike Thompson) deserve kudos for pulling off such a cool prop.

The show’s musical numbers are written by a variety of talented singer-songwriters, including David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper, Sara Bareilles, John Legend, and Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. They mostly work well here, with Director Lisa Dunn ensuring the cast utilizes the entire stage area. The ensemble chorus had some difficulty coming together to create the bombast it needs to make the big numbers really stand out; however, individual performances were strong, especially Davidson, who maintains his childlike tone and demeanour throughout the show, and displays a level of exuberance that must be exhausting to perform night after night. Other standout performances include Kenny, Noah Pacheco as the villainous Sheldon J. Plankton, as well as Alianne Rozon, who plays Karen, a computer and Sheldon’s wife. Rozon is impressive in her dedication to the role, never once breaking character. Likewise, Paul Melsness, who portrays the money-hungry Mr. Krabs, consistently adopts crabby movements. Timm makes Patrick into a sympathetic character who gets swept up in fame but eventually decides to do the right thing.

Although existing SpongeBob SquarePants fans will get the most out of the musical, the show contains many relevant and timely themes, including environmentalism and climate change, corporate greed and the lust for power, immigration, self-esteem, and acceptance. These lessons are important to share with the kids in attendance, but they will also resonate with adults in the audience. Toto Too Theatre’s production of The SpongeBob Musical is on stage now through December 7th at The Gladstone. Click here for more information or click the link below to buy tickets.

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