The SpongeBob Musical, UK Tour Review

★ ★ ★ ★

Reviewer - Clare & Emmie

*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review.

The UK Tour of SpongeBob Squarepants The Musical invites us all to dive deep down into the depths to visit a pineapple under the sea and all of its inhabitants in this new production of this all-singing, all-dancing stage show.

Having not been of age where it was on the telly, I had no idea what to expect from this show apart from the main character himself, SpongeBob. The music in the show has been written by some of the great and good of Pop and Rock such as Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Cyndi Lauper and Sara Bareilles as well as additional lyrics by Jonathan Coulton and additional music by Tom Kitt. I really enjoyed this element of the show as there was such a variety of genres throughout the show, all of them are brilliant earworms! You’ll be streaming the songs for months afterwards.

The musical, based on the show by Stephen Hillenburg, and written by Kyle Jarrow has been brought to life by the strong creative team. Led by the direction of Tara Overfield Wilkinson and choreography of Fabian Aloise, who together have put together a seamless show, complete Aloise’s creative and diverse choreography which ranges from contemporary to hip hop to an excellent tap number in act two.

The Costume design by Sarah Mercadé and Set Design by Steve Howell cleverly use recycled elements in their designs, with both being bright and colourful but also a clever reminder that plastics and other recyclables can be the downfall of the natural world if not reused or disposed of properly. It definitely delivers a new and important conversation around the sustainability of touring theatre moving forward. The highlights for me in costumes were Sheldon J Plankton, with his large boots with a tiny Plankton attached and Squidward’s fantastic four-legged trousers.

Lewis Cornay leads the fabulous ensemble cast excellently in the titular role, SpongeBob. His character’s distinctive voice was lovely to the homage to his cartoon alter-ego and his work alongside his friends and sidekicks Patrick Star (played by Irfan Daman) and Sandy Cheek (played by Chrissie Bhima) was excellent to watch.

Squidward Q Tentacles played by Gareth Gates (with the role being played by Tom Read Wilson at some venues) has his moments too, including the recurring gag that he wants to be a star but his song keeps getting interrupted by different disturbances and Davina De Campo’s role of Sheldon J. Plankton has a very strong pantomime villain feel to it in the best way possible, with their super speedy rap during When the Going Gets Tough being a moment that blew me away.

De Campo’s work with onstage “wife” Karen the Computer played by Hannah Lowther was excellent as they bounced off each other with evil scheme chemistry to produce some of the greatest silliness of the show with Lowther also taking on various other roles alongside the rest of strong and hard-working ensemble cast Sarah Freer (Pearl Krabs), Richard J Hunt (Eugene Crabs), Reece Kerridge (Old Man Jenkins), Theo Reece (Larry the Lobster), Rebecca Lisewski (Mayor), Eloise Davies (Mrs Puff) as other characters as well as other marine life such as sardines and anemones and even live sound effect dubbers, which was a very clever idea and I will never see a dog toy in the same way again.

Having not known what I was coming into with this show I was amazed at the cleverness and madness of it all. It was funny, family-friendly and feel good, I think that it would be impossible to leave the show without a smile on your face. Treat yourself to the Best Day Ever and grab yourself a ticket to this joy of a show when it swims around the UK on Tour.