Inside THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL: Christopher Gattelli

Additional reporting by M. William Panek.

Broadway World Chicago goes for a deep dive all the way to Bikini Bottom all this week with our coverage of the new show THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL.

Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Gattelli has taught Siamese kings how to waltz (THE KING AND I) and striking newspaper carriers the moves to fight corporate power (NEWSIES). With THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL, he is tasked with showing a four-legged, bitter squid how to tap dance.

And Gattelli couldn't be more happy.

"I'm a huge fan and have been for a long time," Gattelli says. "Once I met with Tina (Landau, the show's director and co-conceiver), heard of the approach she was taking and how I could contribute as a choreographer, I jumped at the opportunity. You just don't get the chance to choreograph to music from a diverse group of people including Aerosmith, Cyndi Lauper and David Bowie in one show. It opens up a lot of opportunity for me to flex all my muscles as a choreographer. It seemed like so much potential for fun."

The musical is based "SpongeBob SquarePants," the popular children's cartoon that also has a cult following among adults. The title character is a plucky, eternal optimist who "lives in a pineapple under the sea" in a little water hamlet called Bikini Bottom.

"The biggest challenge has been to capture the essence of what the show is," Gattelli says. "It is all about non sequiturs and the kind of wit that comes at you seemingly from out of nowhere and yet feels exactly right. The biggest challenge/opportunity was to figure out how to retain that."

Tina Landau's approach was also a big draw, he says. Chiefly, in translating the cartoon to the stage, there are no foam costumes or African tribal masks as in THE LION KING.

"I am constantly surprised by Tina's inventiveness and her creativity," he says. "She has created a world where anything is possible and everything is accessible. She welcomes any idea. This is something I have never experienced before. When I did KING AND I and NEWSIES, I had to sort of stay in those worlds. In this, it is so varied and so different, you have to bring 100 percent more to the table."

The balance, he says, is finding a way to put his mark on things while retaining everything that everyone loves about the show.

"When you go into something like this, you have to honor what it is, what has come before and yet take it to a different level in a new form like the stage where it hasn't been done before," Gattelli says. "I get to play with the silhouettes of characters, how they move, how they walk and translate that into dance."

And that includes a second act showstopper for the character Squidward Tentacles.

"For the whole show I do have a pair of spare legs stickin' out the back of me," says Gavin Lee, who plays Squidward in the show. "Looking at myself in a mirror in the rehearsal room I just have to move and it's hilarious."

"The opportunity to choreography a tap number for a four-legged squid is one of those once-in-a-career moments that it's unlikely you will ever get the change to do again," Gattelli says with a laugh.

"It's all Broadway - lights - there are SO many sequins in my number," Lee adds. "It's Squidward's dream!"

The pre-Broadway World Premiere of The SpongeBob Musical will begin performances on Tuesday, June 7 at the Oriental Theatre (24 W. Randolph St., Chicago, IL) in a limited engagement through July 10, 2016. - See more at: broadwayinchicago.com/the-spongebob-musical/world-premiere-of-broadway-bound-the-spongebob-musical-in-chicago.

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