Sara Bareilles isn’t going to write you a love song, but she is going to write one for SpongeBob. The Waitress song writer is one the latest artist who have signed up to pen an original song for the upcoming SpongeBob Musical.
According to Playbill, Sara Bareilles, Yolanda Adams, Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros) are the latest names to contribute to the musical.
The SpongeBob Musical features original music from a variety of artist including”Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton, Dirty Projectors, The Flaming Lips, John Legend, Lady Antebellum, Cyndi Lauper, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T's and T.I.
An additional song by the late David Bowie will also be featured in the show with added lyrics by Jonathan Coulton (NPR’s Ask Me Another).
Tina Landau co-conceived the show and will serve as director. The book for the musical is provided by Kyle Jarrow with Tom Kitt serving as music supervision.
Landau spoke about the show in press statement found on Broadway in Chicago’s website:
“I was drawn to this project not only for its wild theatrical possibility, but also because I felt SpongeBob, at its core, is a layered and hilarious ensemble comedy. SpongeBob himself is of course its center and beating heart–the eternal innocent in a sea of cynics. He’s also the classic underdog hero, and so our production sets him on a hero’s journey with real stakes, all the while retaining the show’s trippy humor and irreverence. We’re taking our leads from the TV show but this is an original story, with an original design approach, and original songs written just for the occasion by an amazing array of songwriters. We will present the world of Bikini Bottom and its characters in a whole new way that can only be achieved in the live medium of the theatre. We’re bringing the show’s fabled characters to life through actors--not prosthetics or costumes that hide them--and we’re deploying some unconventional stage craft that will prove that anything can happen in Bikini Bottom.”
SpongeBob the Musical open June 7 at the Oriental Theatre (24 W. Randolph St., Chicago, IL) for a limited run which is scheduled to end on Sunday, July 3, 2016 before heading to Broadway.
