Review: THE SPONGEBOB MUSICAL at Texarkana Repertory Company

Written by Guest Writer Dawn Parker

Nickelodeons' SpongeBob the Musical put on by the Texarkana Repertory Company, 2500 N Robison Rd, in Texarkana, was a full-on concert experience. And the concert actually started before the curtains parted on a Bikini Bottom Day. Gabe Lohse as Patchy the Pirate encouraged the audience to sing along at the top of their lungs before he was chased off the stage by "area police" and SpongeBob took center stage with the Foley Guy played by James Rickett. 

Tommy Tye was a pleasant surprise as SpongeBob. It's difficult to be a consistently happy person without sounding cynical but he played the part perfectly and nailed every bright song SpongeBob sang. My favorites were the BFF song (from the Plain White T's) between SpongeBob (Tommy Tye) and Patrick Star (Michael Wells), and the Hero Is My Middle Name song (by Cyndi Lauper & Rob Hyman) where SpongeBob and Patrick team up to encourage Sandy Cheeks the Squirrel (Alyssa Rickett) to save Bikini Bottom from world ending disaster. 

The idea is that Bikini Bottom is about to be destroyed by a volcano and they only have days to come up with a plan to save the people in the community. They lack the funds to mass evacuate everyone and plan to hold a concert on by the "Electric Skates" (Joji Peck, Brandon Loe, Benjamin Rickett) to raise the money to buy a vehicle large enough for everyone. Sandy Cheeks believes that she has an invention that, if deployed correctly into the volcano, will stop the lava from overtaking Bikini Bottom. 

Not all of the songs were happy and bright. The musical dealt with a few serious topics also, like bullying. As the world grew closer to ending, Sandy Cheeks for example, had to deal with Old Man Jenkins (Colin Perry) stirring up the community and blaming her as an outsider for the coming volcanic disaster. She was also teased endlessly about her scientific studies leading to her not wanting to climb the mountain to deploy her invention to save Bikini Bottom. 

The songs also dealt with greed in the form of Mr. Eugene Krabs (Tom McElroy) and price gouging almost causing him to lose his daughter because he was so blinded by his desire to make money that he ignored her (Pearl Krabs, London Edwards) aspiration to become a famous singer. And Pearl Krabs can sing! She had a moment in Act 2 with the Electric Skates singing Bikini Bottom Boogie (by Steven Tyler & Joe Perry of Aerosmith) that had the audience on their feet cheering. 

You can't have SpongeBob without an arch nemesis, and I found myself laughing out loud at the shenanigans of Sheldon Plankton (Austin Alford) and his very cunning computer, Karen (Nikita Isham) as they hatch a plan to brainwash all of Bikini Bottom into choosing Plankton over Mr. Krabs when they all move to their new home. The rap by Plankton and The Town, When the Going Gets Tough, (written by Clifford Harris, Jr., Domani Harris, & Darwin Quinn) was the most surprising performance in the entire musical. The audience hooted and hollered after the rap was finished. 

Like all SpongeBob stories, we had a happy ending. All the wrongs were righted. Squidward (Chris Polson) was able to perform on a big stage like his mom promised him as a child. SpongeBob, and Patrick reunited after Patrick left to be a cult idol. Rock, pop, country, rap, boogie, and did I mention there were pirates? And Bikini Bottom was saved. I would go see it again, and again. They di

d an amazing job. 

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