Review: Dive into THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL at the Carrollwood Cultural Center

“There’s nothing more fun than mindless entertainment.” --Patrick in THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL

Comic strips and animated TV series seem ripe territory for creating musicals.  Some of the most popular stage shows started as iconic cartoons found either in the Sunday paper or on the television screen: Annie, L’il Abner, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Doonesbury, and even in the 1990s,  Rugrats: A Live Adventure (remember that?).   So, it shouldn’t have surprised anyone when, less than a decade ago, Tina Landau conceived of THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL based on Stephen Hillenburg’s Nickelodeon series, with a book by Kyle Jarrow, and starring everyone’s favorite multicellular organism that lives in a pineapple under the sea.   

Since then, THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL has popped up on stages from dinner theatres to middle school cafetoriums.  It boasts songs by a number of artists, including Cyndi Lauper, The Flaming Lips, Stephen Tyler, John Legend, They Might Be Giants, and even Panic! At the Disco.  And if you want the “mindless entertainment” that Patrick was referring to in the above quote, then THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL just might be your cup of kelp. It’s a feel-good mess featuring beloved sea creatures, sort of like a live-action melding of Yellow Submarine and Sid & Marty Krofft’s Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, and it has the potential to bring out the kid in all of us.    

But where does that leave someone like me?  Yes, I love a great goofy-goober time at the theatre, even a smartly mindless one as showcased in SPONGEBOB, but I also hunger for more. THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL is beloved by so many audience members, and I don’t want to rain on their already-wet parade.  But like other popular musicals that I find rather forced--The Addams Family, Mean Girls, Legally Blonde—it has only a few good songs and lots of heart, and it’s perfect for the summertime blahs when we should just sit back in our lounge chairs and slurp our Pineapple Hibiscus Punches. 

The story, such as it is--Spongebob helps save the undersea world from a destructive volcano--is not why we see a show like this.  We go for the much-loved characters (Patrick, Squidward, Sandy Cheeks, and the various denizens of Bikini Bottom) and the “feelies” that the songs and dances provide.  It also carries a nice message: Enjoy your life and make every day the Best Day Ever before doom inevitably comes.  In this regard, you might think that Rent and THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL have little in common, but they both carry the same themes in the face of disaster:  In Rent, it’s “there’s no day like today,” and in SPONGEBOB it’s “The Best Day Ever.”  So make sure to smile as the world ends.

It may be the Best Day Ever in Bikini Bottom, but is it the best show ever?  Oh my, no.  But THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL doesn’t pretend to be.  It is what it is--a musical to bring the family where kids can smile nonstop and adults can remember what it’s like to be kids who smile nonstop. And even if doesn’t hit the highs for this hopeless curmudgeon, then it still might for you.  Always remember, your best day ever and mine might not be the same thing; one person’s heaven just may be another person’s hell, and vice versa.     

Thank God the current production at the Carrollwood Cultural Center has some sterling performances by some of our area’s top talent that makes this sushi songfest go down in the most delightful way.  It’s so much fun that it may be able to turn your Mr. Krabs frown upside down.

As the squeaky-walking SpongeBob SquarePants, Chris Cordero shows us why he is one of our area’s most sought-after performers.  He’s in more than just fine form here; he’s stunning, with a singing voice that can raise the dead, especially at the end of “(Just a) Simple Sponge,” where his final doozy of a note garnered lots of applause from the audience. And when he speaks in his cartoony SpongeBob voice, he’s always in character, sounding like he sucked in a balloon’s worth of helium.  And we believe in his giddy optimism, such as in his rendition of “Best Day Ever.”  Filled with so much verve and electricity, he brilliantly carries the show.  It’s an astoundingly lovable performance.

As for the other cast members, Yvelisse Cedrez Wallace is a wonderfully spunky Sandy, and Jonathan Hogsett as Patrick bubbles with likability. Tyler Walker makes the most of Mr. Krabs, and Jillian Koehn showcases so much off-the-charts talent and vocal ability as the Electric Skates groupie, Pearl Krabs.

Suzanna Humana is fun as Patchy the Pirate, and Caron Davis stands out with strong vocals as the Mayor of Bikini Bottom.  Paul Berg brings lots of soul and heart to the part of Old Man Jenkins; in his wig, he resembles the weird melding of William Hickey in Prizzi’s Honor and Norman Bates’ mother.

I’m still trying to figure out Robert Grogan as a Squidward unlike any I’ve ever seen.  He’s fun and certainly has the crotchety aspect of the part down.  But there was a missed moment in the specific performance that I witnessed.  During his big number, “I’m Not a Loser,” Squidward’s wig flies off his head and lands on the center of the stage.  He doesn’t pick it up, and neither do any of the sea anemones that surround him.  It just stays there for quite awhile, plopped on the center stage where the entire audience notices it and wonders how they are going to deal with this. He could have actually made this a special moment, the one that live theatre was created for, and found the perfect timing to plunk that wig back on his head like a king’s crown.  As it stood, only later did he awkwardly snatch it up and quietly sneak it back on his head without fanfare.  In a show like this, it’s best to own these moments, where what could have been a mistake could actually turn into a triumph, the whole lemons-into-lemonade cliché coming true.    

Caitlein Jammo is a marvelous ensemble member, as is Charles Fite who is always in character and fills the stage with so much enthusiasm. Alianna Waggoner is quite a find as Karen, one of the show’s villains, and 6-year-old Bella Rose Brennan is cuter than cute, adorable times ten, as Gary.

The amazing Kathryn Thomas is my favorite ensemble member.  Whenever she’s onstage, the world of Bikini Bottom brightens.  You can’t help by notice her, always in the moment, always galvanizing the numbers to the next level.  She gives one of the best performances of the night.

The rest of the ensemble do a lot of incredible physical work and have some outstanding harmonies, including Neil Bleiweiss, Naima Gatewood, Arianna Williams, Khaleel White, Kaileen Barreto, Jacob Harris, Dakota York, Lily berg, Finn Brown, Lillie Garrett, Jayden Garner,  Taylor Landau, Alexa Palena, Grant Tushaus and the multi-talented Devan Bittinger. 

Hands down the best performance in the show--one of the main reasons to see THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL--is Evan Lomba as the villainous (and salty) Sheldon J. Plankton.  He resembles a Seventies glam rocker; imagine Ursula as played by T. Rex’s Marc Bolan with a gritted Norma Desmond smile. Although he only has one big number, “When the Going Gets Tough,” it easily became the best of the entire show.  You never know what he’s going to do next, including a Vogueing reference where he out-Madonna’s Madonna.  It’s a one-man showstopper and, with this song alone, worth the price of a ticket.  

We are incredibly lucky that dear Evan Lomba is still in the Tampa area, because with his off-the-scales talent--a talent unlike very few if any that I have encountered in decades of theatre-going--he can make it anywhere if he so chooses.

The music and vocals of SPONGEBOB are deceptively difficult, and music director Michael Castillo gets the most out of his cast, many of them teens.  (The music is pre-recorded, and I only wish there was a live band to up the ante.)  Michael D’Aquino’s costumes are a blast, like some scuba-fantastic acid flashback. Josh Eberhart’s lighting works well, and Daniel Gentry’s sound is fine, with only a couple of moments of late mic cues (especially with the French narrator). The set, by Mr. Eberhart and Mr. Berg, works fine enough within the confines of the Carrollwood Cultural Center stage (I particularly like the lighted jellyfish that hover overhead).

THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL has been directed and choreographed with so much creativity and soul by Andi Garner.  She has guided a strong show with an energetic cast and has turned a musical that isn’t normally my kettle of fish into one that I rather enjoyed.  My only qualm is that at times the actors would be staged on a balcony in the house, and if they were above you, it was impossible to see them from one side of the auditorium (we often wondered where their voices were coming from).  I like that the entire theatre was being utilized (beware of bouncing beach balls), but there could be other ways to remedy this staging, because the entire audience deserves to see all of the wonderful SPONGEBOB talent in every moment.

While the show was going on, I looked around and could see the children in the audience smiling widely, having the times of their lives with their pals SpongeBob and Patrick.  And that’s what this is about: Having the times of our lives in a world that has gone crazy.  THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL may be messy, but it’s a feel-good mess, like recess in an elementary school and just as much fun as that sounds.  It may not be the Best Day Ever, but whenever Chris Cordero, Evan Lomba and the rest of the energetic denizens of Bikini Bottom are onstage, it sure comes mighty close. 

THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL runs thru August 4th at the Carrollwood Cultural Center.

Photo Credit: Chaz D Photography

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