Backstage at Birmingham’s Hippodrome, Gareth Gates, the former runner-up in the first series of TV show Pop Idol in 2002, is relating fond memories of playing Dublin’s Point Theatre. His return to the Irish capital will, however, be a first, as he takes to the stage with specially adapted trousers in the role of Squidward Tentacles.
“I’ve never tap-danced before,” says Gates. “My daughter tap-dances so she was able to help me. She’d go through it all at the end of each rehearsal day and tell me what I was doing wrong. She saw the show last week and was kind of proud of daddy’s progress.”
In 1999, against a Slim Shady-soundtracked backdrop of Y2K hysteria, Furbies, and WWE feuds, various landmark television shows – including The Sopranos, The West Wing, Futurama and Who Wants to be a Millionaire – debuted, to roaring acclaim.
None of these programmes, however, could match the longevity or cultural impact of a crazy candy-coloured cartoon introduced that same year by a portrait of a pirate with moving lips.
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By season two, SpongeBob SquarePants was a sensation. A 2002 limited edition Barbie sported an “I love SpongeBob” T-shirt and cradled a replica of the undersea trousers-wearer. Some five years after SpongeBob debuted on Nickelodeon, a 700-strong group calling themselves the Church of SpongeBob began meeting for services in New York, Texas and California, with the aim of promoting “simple things like having fun and using your imagination”.
Who Lives in a Pineapple under the Sea? Absorbent and yellow and porous is he
More than 20 years, 14 seasons, numerous spin-offs, two movie adaptations, 40 video games, one Superbowl appearance, theme-park rides and much nautical nonsense later, SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most widely distributed franchises in the world, earning some $13.7 billion (€12.4 billion) and entertaining native-speakers on Cúla4: “Cé chónaíonn in anann l mbun an aigéin?”
Ruth Sarlin, the former vice-president of brand marketing at Nickelodeon, understandably once called the custard-coloured icon ‘’a marketer’s dream come true”.
According to industry analytics, the chipper hero, as created by the late marine biologist-turned-animator Stephen Hillenburg, is currently gaining in popularity thanks to streaming, Covid comfort-viewing, a legion of fan communities and internet memes.
Following in the path of animated teapots, royal lions and a mononymous ogre, SpongeBob was adapted for the stage in 2016 and opened on Broadway to rapturous notices and Tony wins in 2017. It premieres in Dublin in May.
“I was working over in New York a couple of years ago when it was right in the middle of its run,” recalls Marcus Carter-Adams, musical director of the touring version of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical. “I had not really seen anything about it. I took a gamble with a seat that was way up in the gods and I had the best time. I had no expectations. And honestly, it was two and a half of the best hours I’ve had in a theatre. It was just so much fun. The colour, the vibrancy and the music. The variety of artists who wrote the music. There’s no one style throughout, which is really appealing as a musician. I knew it was probably going to come to the UK at some point. And I really wanted to be a part of it.”
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The new musical obviously concludes with a rousing rendition of “Who Lives in a Pineapple under the Sea? Absorbent and yellow and porous is he” – following on from a score by an eclectic bunch of hit-makers including Aerosmith, They Might Be Giants, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, The Flaming Lips, Sara Bareilles, Panic! At the Disco, Lady Antebellum and David Bowie.
“The songs are all written by huge artists in the music business,” says Gates. “To be able to sing all those songs is really quite incredible.”
Bowie was one of several notable celebrity fans – a constellation that also includes Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, Scarlet Johansson, LeBron James, Sigourney Weaver and Victoria Beckham – who appeared in the cartoon series.
The late British singer made history in Spongebob’s Atlantis Squarepantis, the first musical TV movie of the series. “I’ve hit the holy grail of animation gigs,” Bowie said of his cameo role as Lord Royal Highness, the king of the fabled underwater kingdom of the title.
No Control, a song originally written by Bowie and Brian Eno for the 1995 concept album Outside is the production’s third musical number, as the ever-pigeonhearted citizens of Bikini Bottom discover that a nearby volcano is about to erupt.
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Bowie was additionally a reference for costume designer Sarah Mercadé, specifically for perennial bad-guy Plankton, as hilariously performed by Ru-Paul’s Drag Race star Divina de Campo.
“Sarah has done the most amazing job,” says de Campo backstage at Birmingham’s Hippodrome. “We had a real conversation about it. With the director or the choreographer. Everyone was in on it. The style was the most difficult thing to come up with. And I said: how about glam rock? And everybody said yes, yes, yes. I’m really glad too. Because I get to wear amazing comfortable shoes. It’s a nice little nod to Bowie, as well.”
Creator Stephen Hillenburg once observed: “Our characters act silly… and most of our jokes don’t come out of pop cultural references… everyone can laugh at basic human traits that are funny.’’
Certainly, cultural references are atypical of SpongeBob’s jolly, uncontaminated world. But over the years several grown-up-friendly gags have cited Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, FW Murnau’s Nosferatu, and – most bizarrely – the theme tune from the 1980s BBC sitcom Terry and June.
“We also had Ren and Stimpy in our house,” laughs de Campo. “SpongeBob is the nice, friendly version of Ren and Stimpy. There’s a lot of stuff in there for everyone. That’s the thing with really smart cartoons. They are operating on multiple levels. SpongeBob is very much like that. And thankfully, that has carried into the show.”
There’s a magical energy bouncing from the audience. The reactions at the stage door have been really incredible
— Gareth Gates
That idea is definitely stamped through every joyful moment of SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical, a production that marries rock music, audience singalongs, prize-giving pirates and bubbles.
Writing in 2011′s SpongeBob SquarePants and Philiosophy: Soaking Up Secrets Under the Sea, Nicole R Pramik outlines how SpongeBob embodies Aristotle’s ideas of happiness, uniting (albeit imperfectly) the qualities of self-control and endurance.
Kyle Jarrow’s rip-roaring script does likewise. The plot sees tirelessly buoyant fast-food worker SpongeBob (Lewis Cornay) teaming up with dim best pal Patrick (Irfan Damani) and brilliant squirrel scientist Sandy Cheeks (Chrissie Bhima) to save Bikini Bottom from an erupting volcano. Not all of the town’s inhabitants are out to save the day. Elsewhere, the nefarious Plankton (de Campo) schemes along with his computer wife Karen, SpongeBob’s penny-pinching boss Mr Krabs hopes to capitalise on the impending apocalypse, a bizarre spiritual cult forms around Patrick’s laissez-faire attitudes, and Squidward (Gates) aims for a star-making slot at a volcano-aid charity extravaganza.
“It’s bonkers,” says Gates. “But we know from the start it’s bonkers. We all come to the stage smiling, all the songs are uplifting. Everyone is happy, There’s a magical energy bouncing from the audience. The reactions at the stage door have been really incredible.”
Looking at the diversity of the autograph-hunters and the audience at the Birmingham performance, one is reminded of SpongeBob’s vast and loyal following among the intellectually disabled and those on the autistic spectrum.
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“I’ve had people say “I didn’t know if my kids understood words until I heard him laughing at a SpongeBob episode,” Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, said in a 2017 interview; “It’s really heavy… this show that’s just trying to be funny.”
Writing in The Journal of Popular Culture in 2009, Jonah Lee Rice expanded on Stephen Hillenburg’s suggestion that: “[SpongeBob is] a cellulose sponge. Sponges are a colonial animal, which basically means they’re a bunch of cells who work together in order to survive.”
“I think it transcends boundaries,” says Carter-Adams. “There’s a line in the show that says all are welcome here. I think that message runs all the way through. As we go on a journey with the character, as we discuss different aspects of the real world. It’s really accepting of everyone. We have a squirrel who is an outsider. We’ve got battling between rival interests. We look at how group mentality affects the wider community. And I think the bright colours, the sounds, the fabulous music, the engaging characters help to bring everyone into this musical. And that’s important at a moment when there’s so much discourse about participation.”
The SpongeBob Musical is at Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from May 9th to 13th
