The SpongeBob Musical Review
I went to see The SpongeBob Musical on opening night. Before watching the show or the preview, I thought the musical was going to be very corny and not very exciting. After watching Rent from last year’s production, I didn’t believe The SpongeBob Musical could be as great. The comparison of the two musicals were so drastically different that I felt The SpongeBob Musical was not going to perform as well. However, after watching the preview at Town Hall, my expectations rose drastically.
During the forty-minute preview, I was able to watch three songs being performed. Every actor fit their role perfectly, the music and choreography was complicated yet cheerful, and the props on the stage were designed beautifully. Micah Parness ‘25 was the perfect fit for the role of SpongeBob. He was able to imitate SpongeBob’s voice incredibly while having a cheerful personality. The entire set design wasn’t yet complete so there were times of confusion as to where the actors were looking or referring to. However, the actors still performed incredibly with what they had. After the preview ended, I found myself very excited to see the entire production.
On opening night, the set design was completed and even more detailed than before. For a musical as humorous as SpongeBob, there were points in the show that became very suspenseful. I was impressed by how a children’s musical was able to have intense moments where the audience was sitting at the edge of their seats. From Spongebob and Patrick (Alex Hogan ‘25) having a fallou in their friendship to Spongebob and Sandy (Peyton Hunter ‘23) climbing the mountain, I found myself the most engrossed in the show.
The set design was some of the most detailed sets I’ve ever seen. There were multiple crafted signs to show the audience where the setting of the play was located. Some even contained blinking lights as amazing finishing touches. There were also minute details such as the sound effects which made the show that much more comedic. My favorite part of the set was the mountain that Spongebob and Sandy climbed; it was made of three main components and was able to rotate. Seeing the actors climb and act on the platform as it was rotating made me very nervous, however they performed confidently.
If I had to pick a favorite aspect of the show, it would be the choreography sequences. All of the dances looked very complicated; in addition to all of the actors singing while dancing, they were able to pull off the difficult task flawlessly. One of my favorite performances was the Squidward tap dancing act led by Ben Campbell ‘26. Campbell was able to accomplish a lot with his character; his impersonation of Squidward was spot on and he was able to do a complicated tap dance sequence while wearing an extra pair of legs. Aside from the tap dancing, the costumes, stage background, and singing pulled the whole performance together.
Overall, The SpongeBob Musical was one of my favorite Galloway productions performances that I’ve ever seen. The show included everything from comedy, suspense, amazing acting, creative dancing, and incredible singing. This production was able to change my initial opinion of it immensely and proved my doubts wrong.
By Kayla Beasley