YPCo in Bikini Bottom, How I Loved This Show

I had an absolutely joyful experience at the Invited Dress Rehearsal for Neptune Theatre School’s Youth Performance Company production of The SpongeBob Musical on Tuesday evening. The entire run has been sold out for weeks, but there are a very few tickets available for an early morning matinee on Wednesday. Grab them quickly; I think Haligonians in the middle of March would really benefit from a trip to Bikini Bottom!

The musical was originally directed and co-conceived by Tina Landau, with a book by Kyle Jarrow, and music by an array of illustrious songwriters. The show opened in June, 2016 in Chicago and moved on to Broadway, and it is based on the hugely successful Nickelodeon cartoon series and meme favourite SpongeBob SquarePants. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but a poignant exploration of the way fear during catastrophic times tears communities apart definitely wasn’t on my SpongeBob Bingo Card. Truly, I laughed, I cried, I was extremely moved, and very proud of the terrific young ensemble who brought this story to life with so much heart and polish. 

The show begins on an ordinary day in Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob SquarePants is disappointed to be told by his boss, Mr. Krabs, that he is unlikely to receive the promotion to manager that he has been dreaming about. Yet, later that day the residents of the town receive the terrifying news that the nearby volcano, Mount Humongous, is about to erupt, threatening everyone’s safety. As panic sets in the community begins to turn on one another: citizens turn on the politicians, the media exacerbates the hysteria, and angry mobs begin looking for scapegoats (or a scapesquirrel in this case). The most corrupt members of the town, Mr. Krabs, the capitalist, and Plankton and Karen, the supervillains, look for ways to use the catastrophe to their advantage. It is up to SpongeBob, Patrick Star, and Sandy Cheeks to save Bikini Bottom with science, bravery, and teamwork. Will they succeed? 

The YPCo production is directed by Julia Topple with choreography by Stephane Gaudet, and musical directed by Geordie Brown, and this team has really done an exceptional job showcasing the strengths of these young performers, and creating a really beautiful and dynamic evening of entertainment. I was especially impressed with how sharp and precise the dancing was, even in a dress rehearsal, the movements were all crisp, and clear, and deliberate. This musical has a very strong and ever-present ensemble and the whole cast works really well together to make the world of Bikini Bottom feel so alive and immediate. 

Nelanga Mtshali as the Mayor of Bikini Bottom and Emma Toope as Perch Perkins, the field reporter, both give really slick performances parodying how politicians and media moguls feed off one another in contemporary society to manipulate legitimate fear and anxiety to serve their own agendas. Daniela Calina and Vera Dunlop Vallaincourt shine as the more overt villains of the piece, Sheldon J. and Karen Plankton; they relish beautifully in their evil plans, but also struggle to cooperate. Calina especially has massive stage presence and absolutely commands every space she’s in. Bridget Carrigan plays Pearl, the daughter that Mr. Krabs continually overlooks, and she knocks her part of “Daddy Knows Best” out of the park. Solène Gadbois plays Patchy, the pirate character who smashes through the fourth wall, and seems to only adjacently belong in the story, but in such a hilarious fun way, it really works quite cleverly. Gadbois then not only has to sell her character, but the entire conceit of why she’s there, and she does so with arrrrrrdent panache. Cameron Boulter is very funny as the money hungry Mr. Krabs and Tennessee Toombs gives a very nuanced performance as cantankerous Squidward, who is simultaneously over SpongeBob and Patrick’s shenanigans, but also hoping for one last shot at stardom before Bikini Bottom is destroyed. 

Bikini Bottom’s three heroes are the very smart Sandy Cheeks, a Squirrel immigrant to the community who grew up in Texas, played by Annika Murray, Patrick Star, played by Kalan McKay, who is shocked to acquire rabid sardine fans just before the apocalypse, and SpongeBob SquarePants, played by Neve Lohnes, whose unfaltering belief in his friends ensures that they try valiantly to save their home from impending disaster. Murray, McKay, and Lohnes all give beautiful performances, and they have real chemistry with one another that makes the deep bonds of their friendship effortless to believe. Murray’s accent is really great and she has impeccable comedic timing, McKay has a gorgeous voice and really captures Patrick’s slow-witted humour, and Lohnes beams with all the light and optimism and pure-heartedness as SpongeBob in an extremely sweet, but never saccharine performance.  

I really loved how Helena Marriott designed the costumes, alluding to their cartoon counterparts, but just subtly. It amazed me how Neve Lohnes was immediately recognizable as SpongeBob and yet she wasn’t even really wearing yellow. Lucas Arab also adds some great projections that add to the cartoon spirit of the piece. In all, the cast did an amazing job of honouring and playing homage to the iconic cartoon characters they are playing, while still working to make them uniquely their own, which is a hard balance even for adult actors! 

I wouldn’t have known it before I saw the show but The SpongeBob Musical was exactly what my heart and soul needed in March in Nova Scotia. Its message was relevant when it premiered in relation mostly to the Climate Change crisis, but it has an even more gripping immediacy now at this stage of the pandemic. It’s a really comforting and fun way to open up conversations with your kids about living through scary times, and it can open the doors for reflection and discussion among adults as well. There are just a very small handful of tickets available for Wednesday March 22 at 10:30am. If you are able to make that work with your schedule, I very much recommend that you go! Otherwise, the rest of the run is sold-out! 

Congratulations, YPCo, you’ve really outdone yourselves!