The SpongeBob Musical? I’ll admit I went in with one eyebrow slightly raised. Did we really need a song-and-dance adaptation of a kids’ cartoon about a nerdy sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea? By the end of the show, I was nodding “yes”, singing along with the theme tune with hundreds of others, and thoroughly won over by its exuberant and contagious positivity.
I doubt I’m the only sceptical convert in the seven years since this surprise hit premiered. When it first transferred from Chicago to Broadway in 2017, The SpongeBob Musical was the first stage show based on an animated kids’ programme to make it to the Great White Way. It was a critical hit, too; tied with Mean Girls, it was the most-nominated show at the 2018 Tonys with 12 nods.
