#ratherthepoint

WHAT DID THEY ANNOUNCE??

It wasn’t an official CR announcement, but they signal-boosted a scoop from comicbook.com. Link: HERE. 

(2/2) I watched Travis for a while after to see if he looked upset. Not only did he not seem upset, but her repeatedly looked over in your direction and made heart motions and thumbs up (I wasn’t sure if you saw those) to reassure you that it wasn’t a problem. I think it was unexpected but all in good fun!

So this show starts performances on Broadway Nov. 6, 2017 and occasionally I’ll see posts about it with questions about its quality or this and that (and send asks to people put these things in their tags, so shout out to @ratherthepoint for being interested in what I had to say about this), so here’s contribution of my thoughts on the show as someone who can maybe kind of sort of answer these questions, so here are my opinions:

This show is pretty darn good. I think it's gonna play especially well with 20-somethings who grew up with the show. Cause it’s not written like a show targeted at little kids. It’s mostly family friendly with a few things that are definitely going over kids’ heads, but it’s also kind of self-aware of how ridiculous it can be, acknowledging it, and then just playing in that space and having a great time anyway. It’s not a flawless, sophisticated, high-brow show. And it’s not trying to be that. However, the cast is amazing and the design aspects are stunning. You can tell this show was put together and is performed by people who really love and care about what they’re doing. That sincerity lets the show’s heart come through in both the cheesy and emotional points throughout, so more than anything, this show is a joy to watch, and I honestly enjoyed it every time I saw it.

(I worked at the theater where the show had its Chicago run last summer and through the job saw the show eight times. Never got sick of it, and still miss it every now and then.)

On a slightly more critical note, there are some parts I’m not crazy about. There are a couple of subplots that don’t really land for me, and a couple of songs that aren’t my favorite, but as a credit to the production, even those parts are interesting to watch at least once because of the staging/actors/choreography/etc. Plus, given the amount of time between the Chicago run and its Broadway opening, there could very well be some changes that make a difference in those bits.

Personal highlights:

Ethan Slater: That boy is crazy good. There are so many aspects of his physicality and mannerisms that go into his Spongebob, not to mention he is such a triple threat. Just. I want all good things for him. And I love how he performs Spongebob’s “I want” song very much. (I also just really like that song)

Gavin Lee: In general, Squidward is great in the show, but Gavin Lee has the timing and delivery down to a tee, and does great things in the background during the show. Plus his tap dance number (with four legs) is my favorite bit of the show.

The Ensemble: All so good! I love how the ensemble works in this show! Stephanie Hsu (Karen) and Jason Michael Snow (Patchy) are stand outs for me, both had some great improv moments throughout the run.

The friendship between Spongebob and Patrick: I just really liked how this is written. And both actors play off of each other really well.

Wrap up:

I really like this show! I think it’s quite good! On “the scale of Spider-Man Turn off the Dark to School of Rock in terms of “ridiculous musicals with powerhouse creators that could turn out really good”” (as someone who hasn’t seen School of Rock yet), I’d say it’s in a similar realm as Shrek the Musical, but I like it even better than I like Shrek. Is it worth seeing on Broadway? If you’ve got the money for it, go for it. I’d say listen to the album when it comes out (they’ve already recorded it, and are supposedly releasing it around the time they open on Broadway), and if that sounds pretty good, look in to getting tickets. I imagine they’re going to have some sort of rush/lotto situation and that’d definitely be worth it. I will say, this is a show where having really good visibility from your seat matters because a lot happens outside of the actually stage area if staging remains consistent, so keep that in mind when choosing seats.

LISTEN OKAY so in the movie it’s one of the guy newsies who says “so’s the bronx” and this girl next to me just fuckign audibly goes “what the fuck???” so what im trying to say is SNIPER’S DEAD

They WHAT