Review: THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES OPENS IN KANSAS CITY AT THE COTERIE THEATRE

The Coterie Theatre made a big splash with the opening of its world premiere of THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES on November 4th at The Coterie Theatre located in Crown Center in Kansas City, MO. The new version of THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES has never been seen before and is adapted from the animated series, which has entertained children for the last 17 years. Though entertaining for younger audiences, I found the musical tedious and the constant screaming annoying. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had grown up during the SpongeBob era.

The town of Bikini Bottom is the setting for the musical adapted from the award-winning Broadway hit, THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL FOR YOUNG AMERICANS. The high-energy version features pop-infused scores written by some of the Top 40's biggest names. SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends discover that their way of life is threatened when they learn Mt. Humongous will erupt and obliterate their hometown within the next 48 hours. When hope is lost, SpongeBob saves the day teaching the townspeople that optimism can save the world.

Jeff Church and Zach Faust co-direct THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES with Anthony T. Edwards and Delano Mendoza providing musical direction and choreography by Marc Wayne, and with book adapted by Kyle Jarrow. Original songs are composed by world-renowned artists Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, David Bowie, and Brian Eno among others.

Georgianna Londré Buchanan designed the costumes. Generally, her designs are right on the mark, but for this show, I thought costuming was unacceptable, characters could not be identified by the costumes they wore. The costume for SpongeBob reminded me of Erkel from the 1989-1999 television show Family Matters. Patrick Star wore a tee-shirt and shorts, Mr. Krabs wore two baseball gloves instead of having claws. The best costume of the night was that of Squidward Q. Tentacles. Instead of trying to copy the Broadway Show more imagination should have been given to costuming.

Tyler Fromson gave the best performance of the night as SpongeBob SquarePants. Nik Whitcomb appears as Patrick Star, Amari Lewis as Sandy Cheeks, and another fine performance was given by Noah Lindquist as Squidward Q. Tentacles. The show included Chris Owen, Bob Wearing, Maggie Hutchison, Enjoli Gavin, and Ava Wolesky.

THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL brings The Coterie back indoors and to the main stage and runs through January 2, 2022. Due to the pandemic, recent performances have been produced at outside venues. This is a masked event requiring staff and audience members to properly wear masks for each show regardless of age. Additional Covid-19 safety protocols, online ticket purchases, and additional information for patrons are available at www.thecoterie.org.

Photos courtesy of The Coterie Theatre by Jordan Rice

Photo Credit: Katherine Lee

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