The most lovable sponge in the universe is coming to UCSC. The SpongeBob Musical is set to premiere on Nov. 14, with performances continuing through the 23rd. It’s a wacky play with subversive undertows.
In 1984, marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg was asked by his employer, the Orange County Marine Institute, to create an informative comic book to educate students who were interested in the complicated ecosystems of the ocean. Hillenburg’s picture book, The Intertidal Zone, was not only the origin of SpongeBob SquarePants, but the inflection point where Hillenburg began to change directions from teacher to full-time artist.
By 1993, the aspiring artist was hired by Nickelodeon as an animator. And in 1999, our somewhat trusty SpongeBob hit the airwaves and never left, making it the fourth longest continuing animated series. And in 2016, just like every concept that lives in a pineapple under the sea, SpongeBob was turned into a musical.
SpongeBob, an innocent and naive sponge, is big on enthusiasm and short on common sense. Director Rebecca Wear is a theatre enthusiast who uses play and comedy, and theatricality, as ways to invite the audience into the bigger ideas. “SpongeBob is definitely a story about climate change. And it’s also a story about xenophobia. Part of the draw of it for me is that it presents those issues in such a way that they’re intergenerationally appropriate,” Wear explains.
Fans have posited that the award-winning cartoon character has neurodivergent traits and is possibly “autistic”—a theory supported by comedian Tom Kenny, the voice of the animated SpongeBob. And so what is celebrated on screen and stage is an underwater community that welcomes, and wouldn’t exist without, diversity.
But one of the most important things in a musical is the music. “Inherent to the piece is also celebrating this range of music. And so even as it’s talking about how we all need to come together and, in the context of this specific piece, to face the impending doom of a volcano erupting, and try to figure out if they can save Bikini Bottom. I think it’s also just as much about celebrating what makes each of these characters unique, and what their particular strengths are. And about affirming the fact that there’s a place for every lobster in the ocean, just as much as there is for every squid,” Wear says.
And with a catalogue of songs written by people like David Bowie, Cyndi Lauper and the Flaming Lips, this feisty musical production about the residents of the submerged Bikini Bottom community, including characters such as Mr. Krabs, Squidward Tentacles and the villainous Plankton, the tunes will be having attendees singing and Krab dancing in the aisles.
SpongeBob is a contemporary cultural hero. Albeit a reckless and bluntly obnoxious hero, but time and time again, SpongeBob saves the day. And this resonates throughout several generations. When the call went out for auditions it wasn’t only theater kids who tried out, but students who are majoring in cognitive psychology, economics, and who are part of HAVC (History of Art and Visual Culture) and History of Consciousness. “It’s been delightful and inspiring to see how much talent there is within this group of students who come from all different areas of interest and study,” Wear enthusiastically elucidates.
Ava Leones is an 18-year-old UCSC student from Southern California, majoring in theater, and she is indeed a theater kid. “I’m in the ensemble, the band The Electric Skates, and a dance captain (in SpongeBob). I think it’s also just about accepting our strengths and, like, how we can use our strengths to uplift others. I think it’s a very important reminder to know where we are in the world and to just further appreciate the world that we live in,” Lenoes makes clear.
As SpongeBob says, “F is for friends who do stuff together!”
The SpongeBob Musical runs Nov. 14-23 at UCSC Theater Arts Center Mainstage, 411 Kerr Road, Santa Cruz. Tickets: $5-$25 events.ucsc.edu/series/the-spongebob-musical
