The Spongebob Musical

Wales Millennium Centre

Cardiff

To June 10, 2023

WHO lives in a pineapple under the sea? Absorbent, yellow and currently premiering in his UK tour of theatrical performances? Spongebob Squarepants!

The Spongebob Musical is at the Wales Millennium Centre, and to my honest surprise, it was very enjoyable.

I would usually expect shows like this to be aimed to the younger audience, but I think this musical captured the nature of the TV show, and that came across on stage.

Yes, you could argue the show itself is pandering but I guess you either like Spongebob or you don’t.

The first thing I noticed when walking to my seat was the lower-than-normal ages in the crowd. I don’t mean the children (that’s a given), I mean people in their 20s and 30s who must have grown up with the TV show. They were the ones, including me, who were laughing the most. It really did feel like I was watching a feature-length episode.

Well, almost. It didn’t feel so much like I was seeing the characters I recognised, more seeing people do a really good impression of them while in a sort-of casual fancy dress.

But it worked.

More so than if the actors were in full costume - not only would they have passed out from heat exhaustion, but it likely would have come across like one of these holiday park, distract-your-kids-while-you-hit-the-bar, type shows, which it definitely wasn’t.

The cast performed very well. The acting was animated and the many song and dance numbers were fast, varied in genre, and let you know what was going on and how the characters felt about it.

Prop usage was another plus, and while the set itself wasn’t very dynamic, you could see the band performing all the way through the show, something I'm a big fan of.

It’s about as Spongebob as a musical can be, so if you like that, I would advise you see it.

The Spongebob Musical is running at the Wales Millennium Centre from June 6-10 2023.

Ollie Barnes