The Spongebob Musical - Nine Lives Theatre (12.04.2025)

If you're familiar with the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon, this wacky musical production is every bit as ridiculous, bizarre, and funny as you might imagine.

Led by Billy Garner in the title role, whose embodiment of Spongebob was both impressive and endearing, this was a show where subtlety was in short supply, with comedy, colour, and cartoonish performances taking prominence.

When a production is based on a popular TV series, particularly one where the characters have such distinctive voices, there is an element of expectation that actors will perform impersonations. Happily, the three leads playing Spongebob, Patrick (Lizzie Bryant), and Squidward (Claudio Keita), did a fantastic job with their characters, making them instantly recognisable through voice alone.

All three actors, along with Laura-Jayne Cook as Sandy, were able to demonstrate their beautiful vocals on plenty of musical numbers, although the highlight (for me, at least) was the surprisingly tender duet between Spongebob and Patrick, with their solo parts initially impressing, but then were elevated to an even higher plane with their gorgeous harmonies.

Elsewhere, there were a number of eye-catching performances among the sizeable cast. Wesley Harper was commanding and memorable as Plankton, even if some of his work was slightly hidden on the far side of the stage. The dance teams, led by the hardest working ensemble performers I've ever seen in Eva Mason and Annie Larkin, were superb, adding an extra layer of colour to the already lively numbers.

Supporting the wonderful live band was Katrina Mason as the show's foley artist, adding a nice touch of extra detail with random sound effects from her booth in the corner of the stage. Katrina also played the French narrator and did a sterling job interacting with the audience both prior to the show and during the interval.

With a cast of 60-odd (a wild guess there), this was a show that looked to be a logistical challenge, but the production team's hard work paid off as the cast delivered a well-drilled performance. A special mention also to the fantastic projection design, which helped to set the scene and add extra bits of humour here and there. Credit must also go to the set design team, not only for some ingenious pieces of set (an extending sofa that also doubles as a bathtub!), but also for extending the colour to the auditorium which really helps to immerse the audience in the production.

All in all, it was a wild, chaotic trip to Bikini Bottom, but a fun one that's for sure. Nine Lives Theatre Company is next in action in October with their musical production of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - do keep an eye out for details via ninelivestheatrecompany.co.uk