The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!

This is a wonderful recording of the Broadway Spongebob musical. The performances were exceptional and each actor did a great job capturing the essence of the character they were portraying. The story is easy to follow, but doesn't feel dumbed down for kids. There's plenty of great messages. The character designs are fresh and imaginative, and it is easy to tell who is who. The songs are incredibly catchy and sung well( though unfortunately some of them have been shortened from the original Broadway production.) To top it all off, they even have sound effects from the show so it feels like you are watching an actual episode of Spongebob.

Ethan Slater is an excellent Spongebob and the years of practice he put into the role shows. He somehow manages to perform a variety of stunts while singing in Spongebob's voice perfectly. Danny Skinner is a great Patrick and complements Slater's performance nicely. Gavin Lee commands the stage as Squidward and steals the show with his "I'm Not a Loser" bit. Christina Sajous is not the original Sandy that was cast, but still performs the role well. Wesley Taylor is a natural comic and brings a new never before seen side to Plankton.

I'd also like to address a lot of criticisms this musical received before it even aired: -The characters look nothing like they do on the animated show That's sort of the point. The characters in the show inherently do not have designs that are "human friendly" as in no actor could ever really look like a character in the show unless they had a goofy theme park costume or a gross amount of makeup on. Both of which would not be fitting because it would hamper their ability to move and express themselves respectively. And that is no good for a musical. I personally find the costumes very imaginative and applaud what they have done.

-The actors are cringeworthy/have no talent I honestly have no idea where people got this one and assume people inferred it after they looked at the character designs. All the performers are incredibly talented as actors, singers, and dancers. Ethan Slater is practically unreal, singing while doing a split, while upside down, etc. And let's not forget Gavin Lee's unforgettable tap dance - eloquently singing in Squidward's voice and dancing with FOUR legs.

-Awful humor I suppose that one's a matter of personal opinion - but the musical's humor is far better than any season of the show after the first movie. The musical has more Hillenburg-era humor and makes plenty of references to it. There's none of the awful gross out humor from current seasons.

Overall this musical is amazing. If it's not to your taste that is fine - but it's totally undeserving of the vitriol it gets.

As someone who grew up on the OG show, I thought this was fun and pretty true to the original cartoon. A few things I want to address from other low ratings here: 1. This is a Broadway musical, not the actual show. The voices are not going to sound like the ones in the cartoon-- they're Broadway actors. Besides, I thought the voices were pretty good and similar to the show considering they weren't the actors from the show! 2. Sorry there's no explosions or bloody fights to keep your children's attention. Again, this is a musical based on a cartoon-- sorry, no, it's not based on the Bourne series. I don't know what you guys were expecting, but this was a fun, cute musical based on a beloved children's series! Maybe watch the show from season one and then a watch again. I don't know what to tell you guys, except this was a pretty dope musical and the nostalgia was abundant for me. Oh! Squidward was spot on!! And the imagery, effects, costumes... It was all fantastic! Very catchy!

This was a great representation of the incredibleness of the brief run of the SpongeBob musical! However, it was not filmed at the Palace, and to make room for more ads, they had to cut a few minor things. Plus, this didn't include any of the Rube Goldberg devices that were on both sides of the stage, which was a bummer. On the plus side, we were finally able to hear some of the things that were left off the cast album, like Plankton's speed rap in "When the Going Gets Tough". Another plus was having Tom Kenny not only voice the French Narrator, but also perform Patchy.

I don't normally enjoy musical productions, but I caught an hour or so of this one. The actors are so amazing and they display their love for the original show by their performances. Everything just felt like it should. Bravo to everyone involved in this. This is truly a musical done right.

I cannot express how much I love The SpongeBob Musical. I saw it live on tour a few months ago and I'm so glad they decided to do an official recording with a decent chuck of the original cast (AND Tom Kenny who's never been apart of a performance but they got him to be Patchy here!)

The set looks incredible, every musical number is so much fun (my favorites include "Bikini Bottom Day," "(Just a) Simple Sponge," "Tomorrow Is," and "I'm Not a Loser"), the costumes are great, and the cast fantastically embodies the essence of their characters.

Now I've seen a lot of people complain about various things, so I'm going to address the main 2 that I've seen because some people just don't understand it for some unknown reason. 1. People have complained that the cast doesn't sound exactly like the characters in the show. Honestly WHAT were you expecting? They're not the voice actors. This isn't a surprise. YOU try sounding exactly like SpongeBob as well as doing his laugh without touching your Adams apple like Tom Kenny has to do for the show. And also, as far as singing goes, I'm very glad they don't sound exactly like the characters because I think we can all agree that when the characters sing in the show, they're nowhere NEAR being Broadway level talented haha. That would get annoying and grading very fast with all the notes they have to hit in a lot of these songs. Plus you can still tell who each performer is portraying, soooo... & 2. I've seen people complain about the costumes, and this baffles me to no end. Again, you can still tell who everyone is. They're not supposed to look exactly like the characters. They just have to embody the essence of them, which again, they do a great job of. The show (although still great aside of the costumes) literally would have never made it onto Broadway if it had a guy wearing a square box. That's just a fact (look up The Sponge Who Could Fly Musical on youtube if my word isn't convincing enough for you). Plus everyone wearing full body suits wouldn't leave much room for flexibility (or showing emotion) which is something that everyone in this show needs for the sake of choreography, among many other things, of course. Plus I think the costumes are great and I admire just how creative they were with them. Try using your "i-ma-gin-a-tion" ;)

So yeah, that's all I have to say. I absolutely adore this musical, and I recommend it to all SpongeBob fans as well as everyone who doesn't hate fun and joy. The recording is great, but if you ever get the chance to see it live, definitely go!