By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
“SpongeBob: The Musical” is a paean to cockeyed optimism.
Our hero bursts on stage singing that it’s another beautiful day in Bikini Bottom. He’s sure this will be the best day ever. Maybe he’ll even land his dream job of managing Krusty Krab, where he’s now the fry cook. He has high hopes, never mind that a volcano is about to explode and destroy Bikini Bottom.
In the end, as the residents wait for six minutes to learn their fate, what’s to do? Another production number, of course.
“The SpongeBob Musical” opens tonight (June 23) at 7 p.m. in the Owens Center for the Fine and Performing Art, 7270 Biniker Road, Perrysburg Township. The Perrysburg Musical Theatre production continues Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Click for ticket information.
Directed by Ashley Cambers, the show features a young cast of actors age 8 to 22 who do justice both to the inherent silliness of the show and the real emotions at its heart.
SpongeBob (Lucas Patterson) is front and center as Bikini Bottom faces what could be its worst day ever. Despite what anyone else thinks, he feels he can help save the day.
Then there’s SpongeBob’s BFF,the starfish Patrick (Gabe Hunyor), who faces a whole day unable to watch “Mermaid Man’ because all the TV is broadcasting is news of the impending doom.
The mayor (Katie Kleeberger) is going to launch an initiative in order to form a committee to write a study. In the meantime everyone needs to shelter in place, that is until she orders them all to the town square to brainstorm ideas.
Sandy (Savanah Hernandez), a squirrel who doesn’t let her love and knowledge of science keep her from living at the bottom of the sea, has an idea for plugging the volcano. But that’s dismissed as is Patrick’s idea that they all close their eyes and hope the problem goes away. Instead the townspeople buy into a scheme to acquire an escape pod to abandon their beloved home. This is the brainchild of Plankton (Clayton Snyder) who along with his wife Karen (Mira Zarobinski) wants to hypnotize the populace so they’ll love the food from his restaurant the Chum Bucket.
Plankton’s rival and SpongeBob’s employer, Mr. Krabs (Sophie Wolfinger) just wants to make as much money as he can with a last chance sale.
This all confirms the worldview of the eternal pessimist Squidward (Isaac Bermudez) who sees the world as a place of abject misery. To which SpongeBob replies : “But it’s our abject misery!”
But the situation challenges even SpongeBob’s optimism as he finds himself insisting in song that he’s not “(Just a) Simple Sponge.”
For his part Squidward reveals his own feelings of anxiety in the song and dance number “I’m Not a Loser.”
All these emotions are expressed in a score penned specifically for the musical by an all-star cast of songwriters. “Simple Sponge” comes from Panic! At the Disco and “Loser” was written by They Might Be Giants.
Whether it’s the sunny anthems “Bikini Bottom Day” by Jonathan Coulter that opens the show or “Best Day Ever” by Andy Paley and Tom Kenny, or the doom-is-coming electronica of “No Control” by David Bowie and Brian Eno, the country-flavored tribute to determination “Chop to the Top” by Lady Antebellum or the gospel number “Super Sea Star Savior” by Yolanda Adams, the songs brim with cheeky humor.
That’s true even of John Legend’s “(I Guess I) Miss You,” a heartrending song about realizing almost too late, the value of a friendship sung by Patrick and SpongeBob.
PMT uses 12-piece orchestra, directed by Adam P. Miller, to bring out all their colors and shifting textures. And choreographer Julie O’Connell makes the most of Owens’ spacious stage and the energy of her young cast to create an animated swirl that is true to the show’s cartoon inspiration.
For all the production numbers and over-the-top satire, at the heart of the show are the emotions, the love and rage, deviousness and greed, fear and determination, with hope and a simple joy in life winning out in the end. Because sometimes, it’s not so bad just to be simple.
