#sb is like.... awesome and cool and pretty mean and closed off but still helps people if he has to

[defokelore-13]

snowcoin is just bfdi sonadow aaaaand send

[reallyhardy]

ok, i gotta get it all down before i forget (but could i really ever???) so here is an extremely long, very spoiler-iffic

loren’s spongebob-musical-sperience

i attended the 8pm performance on friday, 24th nov and it was....

AMAZING!!!

i have never ever had such a wonderful time at a theatre. so first off i was on the front row mezzanine toward the left with my bestie and my sister, so we were at a really, really good vantage point. we...we very very enthusiastic, possibly verging on obnoxious...but being so close to that barrier...well. we were basically hanging right over.

i’m just gonna go through the numbers. obviously i have seen the chi boot so i was comparing what i could to what i’ve seen. if you’ve seen the thanksgiving performance it was mostly that beyond what we’re familiar with with spongebob going through and meeting all his friends around town, and like. oh man, that new newsies choreography was AH-MAZING! it was all so funny, ethan’s little spongebob walk and the way danny sort of...rolled into his appearance when he gets introduced. then of course there’s the new krusty krab set which was SO nice (and gets even cooler later!) but there was a scene with squidward and spongebob getting a lot more into that dynamic from the cartoon, and this hilarious little bit where SB puts his hand down on the stove and then, when he notices that it’s burning...he flips it over so he can cook that hand nice and even on both sides. and there’s a part where he hangs his spatula on squidward’s finger while he sings a new and improved and even more emotional ‘please be proud of me dad mr krabs’ part.

so the order was different from chicago because it goes bikini bottom day -> no control -> B.F.F. whereas the previous order was B.F.F. before no control. no control isn’t a fave of mine but it was VERY fun to watch and ethan did extra little contorty gymnasticy bits along with his split :’) but at the end... so the crowd screaming melts away leaving patrick screaming in the middle in his house before SB finds him -- that was absolutely hysterical. danny had a lot more opportunities to shine as a comedian, so many more jokes for patrick and he was so, so, soooo funny. but anyways - B.F.F. was very lovely - though i noticed no best friend handshake this time around as i’d seen from the rehearsal footage. the new painted cardboard letters were so fun and cute looking and it was just a really fun number - plus ethan and danny’s harmonies at the hand were so lovely!!!

then there’s a bit more of everyone freaking out before we get to going get tough which was!!! mind boggling!!! i did not think at first that wesley could rap because the first verse started and seemed quite slow, and it sounded particularly empty without karen’s beatboxing. but then. oh BOY. it suddenly became amazing. first, he did a big ol’ dance break with the plankton puppet attached to his shoe and a little spotlight on him to make you focus on watching him dance and then-- and THEN. OH. MY GOSH. THE SUPER FAST RAP VERSE. ABSOLUTELY ASTOUNDING. my sis, pal and i were losing. our. minds up there. it absolutely blew us away. i need to just say that wesley is absolutely fantastic as plankton, and clearly love love loves getting to play him. his voice is almost a dead ringer for mister lawrence and his whole manner is just. hilarious. absolutely brilliant.

okay! the next number is simple sponge! i didnt notice any lyric changes but i did think it was absolutely hysterical the way krabs slowly backed up while quietly echoing ‘simple sponge, simple sponge’ - too funny. he stood at the back on the higher balcony in front of the neon krusty krab sign and really hammed it up for the ‘you are still a simple sponge’ parts. and the neon sponge dance, oh my lordy!!! it looked so so SO good live! they adjusted the shape for gary so he is more obviously a snail. and they did a little belt around SB’s waist at the ‘own dojo’ line. and boY!!! that ethan slater!!! absolutely slaying!!! he didn’t go for the super super high note but what he did do was still awesome and super powerful. love love love that boy. plus, he kept up using it as a way of pepping himself up, so on his way to different locations he was chanting ‘i am not a simple sponge’ to himself.

okay, next up was daddy knows best. so, by now we probably all know that jai’len absolutely SLAYS as pearl. honestly, the whole audience was completely losing it every single time that girl opened her mouth. she was utterly, utterly PHENOMENAL. i never heard a voice like that!!! but okay so first SB comes up to the krab trying to tell everyone that they don’t have to leave town because he’s got a plan. krabs is busy packing and pearl is trying to decide what to wear to the benefit concert. she brings out two pink prom style dresses, a long and a short, but krabs tells her she’s not going (this is an interesting dynamic to them that i prefer from the chicago - it seems less like krabs is uncaring and disinterested in pearl and more like he’s an overprotective dad - still well meaning despite his blunders. i also noticed he did not say ‘yeah’ when pearl asks ‘is money more important than me?’ in act 2 which made me feel a bit better.) ANYWAY. spongebob takes the dresses and slips the shorter one’s hanger over his head so it looks like he’s wearing it and it is adorable. then when the song is going on, krabs instructs SB to cover his eyes (and he does so, for the rest of the number) while krabs cracks open all the doors and set pieces and to reveal all of where he’s hidden his money, so it’s all this seriously shiny gold coinage and it’s absolutely brilliant!!! i did notice that this time around pearl did not do any overdramatic sobbing, which was a little disappointing, but her amazing amazing singing made up for the little lack of comedy. then it got SAD because pearl sits own on the corner of the stage, genuinely upset, but there’s a very sweet moment where SB sits down with her and tries to comfort her a little bit. it. was. precious, and made me think of all the times SB helps pearl out in the cartoon because. he’s the best big(little) brother ever.

and then... HERO IS MY MIDDLE NAME! oh boy. okay. so, when sandy’s running from the mob, holy heck. the theme there on racist commentary is...oh. my god. every time this was brought up i could not stop crying. so sandy walks into the centre of the stage and on the right, a couple fish spray paint the words ‘LAND MAMMAL GO HOME’ and!! god!!! it was absolutely heartbreaking, lilli’s acting at this point had me full of tears. she said in this quiet voice -- i thought this was my home and MAN. SO SAD. then it goes into the song and...patrick did not carry spongebob in this time around, so, bummer, and i noticed there’s a lot less physical interaction between the team of tres than before - spongebob doesn’t extend his hand to sandy and sandy knocks out a bunch of plus squirrels in cowboy hats instead of striking pat and SB - both are pretty dang funny though so its all good. during this performance sandy did not sing the new verse heard at the playbill preview event, so i was a lil disappointed in that too, but all the fun little moves and dances were still really good - and the team of tres high-five handshake from bikini bottom day happened again, except this time with sandy in the middle. would have been cool if they full circled it at some point with patrick in the middle, but it ain’t no big thang. anyway - hero is my favourite song and it was so fun to hear live -- again the harmonies were absolutely fantastic!!! PLUS. SO SO BADASS, and this made me cry too -- patrick and spongebob hold up the board that ‘mammal go home’ had been sprayed on, and sandy kicks it to break it in half, they cheer, and then the boys toss the board away. SO. GOOD.

and now! SUPER SEA STAR SAVIOUR! this one was AH-MAZING. the new costumes for the sardine followers are absolutely gorgeous and i massively prefer them, and the new choregoraphy. wow wow WOW. okay. so they added this dance break to it where they all bust out tambourines and patrick does a hamboning thing with the tambouring like in the first movie. i did not expect at all that this would be a thing because in chi during dance numbers danny was typically at the back but here!!! WOW!!! he has clearly improved so much as a performer and this lil tambourine dance was SO GOOD. and then of course his singing was amazing, he was nailing those high notes, and and and!!! he did this funny little thing where he blessed all the sardines by sort of karate chopping their heads a lil bit, and the whole thing was. so phenomenal.

then of course there’s the breakup scene, where they acted a bit... spongebob did not seem as much hurt and sad as hurt and angry, and they insulted each other a bit first - ‘at least i dont live in a fruit!’ ‘at least im not pink!’ (hysterical) before they go fine, fine, fine! and then...well. then spongebob gets sadder, and he sits right down in ‘defeat corner’ much like pearl did earlier after daddy knows best. then it goes into tomorrow is, which was absolutely as beautiful as i’d hoped -- lilli and ethan’s voices together are my absolute favourites and!!! it got so very emotional. again i noticed that krabs sticks very close to pearl in a protective way here, although i was again a lil disappointed that plankton and karen don’t emerge very obviously post-coitus... they still dont seem to have quite reached that point this time around. THEN ANYWAY INTERMISSION TIME.

this was where i freaked out a little, talked to a friend, wiped my tears, freaked out a little more, and then by the time i was done talking and freaking, patchy had hurried back onto stage.

so it seems jon rua cannot play the accordion, but they got around this by having him have written some sheet music he’d come up with on a piece of very piratey parchment, which was passed along down the on-stage band who pretty much just passed it along with no regard. nothing was really different about the poor pirates number beyond patchy not having the accordion, it was still very fun but over quickly enough that we could get back to the action.

then its bikini bottom day reprise which is much like in chicago, except allan k. washington now plays gary, so he sat off a little ways to the side on stage to do the meows whilst visible on stage. i have no strong feelings on this - i think its kinda fun i guess!

BIKINI BOTTOM BOOGIE WAS FANTASTIC. i never loved it that much as a song on its own and didnt enjoy it that much in the chi boot - i liked it a bit more on the cast album but HOLY HECK. ON STAGE. so of course pearl is singing along and that gives jai’len another change to shine shine shine, and holy HECK. okay. there is a part where kyle matthew hamilton does a skating trick on TWO SKATEBOARDS. STACKED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER. again -- i freakin lost my mind!!! it was unbelievable!!!

chop to the top was pretty similar to chi, a couple of lyric changes but they did much the same stuff - it seemed a bit slicker and all put together better than in chi, and there were a couple more projections to give the boxes more of a lava-y effect. the harmonies between ethan and lilli again -- absolutely a m a z i n g.

now we get to another part that made me very emotional but i held in my tears this time. it leads in with patrick and the sardines but this time around they make it more obvious that he’s thinking about spongebob when he recounts the memories of his stretchy couch, because he says ‘spongebob and i this, spongebob and i that...’ and when they ask him what more do you need he repeats it in this hearbreaking little way. yeah. what more do i need? before he goes into the song. its just as emotional as on the album, but on stage ethan and lilli do a little bit more miming that they’re climbing the mountain while danny’s singing. then there’s no dailogue lead into spongebob’s verse, he just goes into it. there’s something about danny’s face when he sings this song, he just looked like his heart was breaking. he’s so, so good. the emotion breaks just a little at the end - sandy sounds a bit more impatient than before when she says ‘come on spongebob, this mountain won’t climb itself’ and SB goes ‘unless--’ ‘no it WON’T, spongebob!’ so i ended up giggling there in a bit i didnt before. not a bad thing, but i did kind of want to cry during that number all the same.

anyway. THEN WE GO INTO THE SHOWSTOPPER. NOT A LOSER. it looked pretty much the same as in chi BUT. SO SO SO AMAZING TO SEE LIVE. nothing to really say except that it was utterly perfect, and so, so so very very sparkly and beautiful. and the audience applauded for AGES. gavin just stood there holding that final post as we cheered and cheered and cheered. so so so amazing!!!

then its back to spongebob and sandy on the mountain. they added a little thing for plankton and karen where they use an ‘avalanche maker’ which makes them the reason spongebob gets knocked out on the mountain, and. oh, holy goodness, okay, here we go. before i get to the reunion, let’s spin back to plankton and karen. who...so ppl have probably already talked about this but. big guy. big guy. he gets her to call him big guy, moans every time, and then they have this BIG DAMN MAKE-OUT. there’s this bright, glittery projection of hearts and sparkles as they do so, and it’s just. oh my god. losing my mind yet again. SO much cheering from the audience.

right, and back to the mountain. the audience reaction to patrick flying down on the jetpack. glorious. we were all loving it. and then the reunion, oh my gosh! very very heartfelt, they changed the dialogue so the boys say a lot more emotional and genuine stuff to each other before they hug (though it was quite a brief hug) (and they did not do the ‘we are back’ dance, they just did the ‘best friends’ dance which i dont think was quite as funny but okay.) then...then we have the final part with the volcano. it was especially funny here because both ethan and lilli did cartwheels, and then danny lifted his arms like he was going to do one too...and then just kept on running. brill. then spongebob climbs the mountain and my sis and pal were all holding each other in fear because at one point it really felt like ethan might fall. obviously he had his harness but still. TERROR. then when he threw the interruptor. BLINDING! but awesome.

okay. hurrying along to the best day ever. i started crying right during the speech and continued to weep on and off ‘til the end at this point. i noticed perhaps due to tiredness or maybe real feeling but ethan kind of dropped out of the spongebob voice and delivered the really powerful speech in a voice more like his own which....ahhh. it had me weeping. plus, sandy took on a little bit of the speech at the start, and i just love the demonstration of spongebob and sandy’s strong loyalty to each other in both songs, dialogue and action. anyway. then of course the song starts and i absolutely adore how they staged it -- spongebob has a little interaction with almost every character and a lot of the time tailored to who they are -- so he joins in with a sardine’s hand motion, obviously shakes the mayor’s hand very officiously, and brings a lot of the characters together before they all join hands -- and SB was stood between pat and sandy when i saw it, which i like better than when he was between sandy and the mayor because...agh!!! what if that was it for them!? the whole thing of the best day ever absolutely has me bawling almost every time i listen to it, because they all come together to be joyful one last time before they thing they could all just...die.

god, i wish there was a way i could re-live the end when they all celebrate though, because i could not take in everything. i noticed that pearl and krabs hug, and sandy and SB hug each other before patrick runs in to join them. and. OKAY. SO THE RACISM THING COMES BACK AGAIN HERE AND. BY JOVE.

so the whole time, it’s been jenkins that lead the charge against sandy, which is horribly fitting as he represents...every old white man running the world right now, so how important and monumental that he is also the one to tell her you saved us. but then...god... they ask what happens now and sandy says -- i guess i’m leaving. and jenkins asks her to please stay, reminds her that in their town everyone should be welcome. and she says--

she says-- i don’t know if i can trust you, these people, anymore.

cue TEARS. i was absolutely sobbing here. i mean, you’d think, right? in spongebob, it’d be easy. she’d just be like ‘okay, you’ve convinced me’, but she didn’t. it was such a raw and real moment and lilli absolutely killed it. SO emotional. and then ethan steps up and, again, in not such a spongebobby voice, in a much more mature tone, he begs her to give the town another chance, and the whole time he’s been reminding her that she never deserved it but he understands if she wants to go -- he tries one last time and the town comes together ‘til sandy agrees to stay.

then or course, the town makes their own band. this was SO lovely because sandy takes the second line instead of krabs, and all the instruments were painted and decorated to be super bright colourful, it was so gloriously chaotic and wonderful. then of course the theme song!!! me and my squad screamed out lungs out and waved and cheered like crazy and ethan totally caught our eye!!! big, blessed moment.

at the stage door...almost every cast member we spoke to was like ‘i saw you three up on the mezzanine!’ stephanie hsu was very VERY lovely and me and hailey spoke to her about the art we gave her, she told us it made her so happy which made us so happy, we talked to oneika phillips about her cool hair and her very cool wig and makeup, lauralyn mclelland noticed my blue eyebrows that matched hers, and kelvin moon loh. oh my god. he gave me a little 20 cent wahlgreens print he’d made of a fanart i’d done for him that he’d set as his twitter and facebook pics -- he said he’d made copies for his family, signed them all...then went back inside to his dressing room to get me one.

i managed to give some badges and fridge magnets i made to lilli, danny (i slightly brushed his hand with mine and!!! got embarassed but he was sooooo lovely) (on his way out he held the starfish magnet up for me to see like yeeeah!) and also to ethan, who came out last when a lot of the crowd has dispersed, so he was the only cast member we snagged a pic with.

but the real highlight!? TINA. FREAKING. LANDAU. was also there. she was just stood behind me in the crowd looking out for ethan to make sure he got through okay. i got a bit giddy and emotional trying to tell her how much the show meant to me, and we shook hands but...it was no simple handshake, no. she took my hand in both of hers and gosh!!! i’ve never felt more blessed.

it was honestly. the best, best, best day ever. i left with a t-shirt and a streamer worn as a scarf and a stack of rescued playbills, and everything was absolutely wonderful.