PLAY REVIEW: PSST!'s 'SpongeBob' floats true to cartoon

Jun. 4—PLAY REVIEW

VALDOSTA — "Finding Neverland," a 2004 movie about the creation of Peter Pan, includes a scene where an audience of fusty adults are watching the play with confused indifference.

Until ... a group of orphaned children are sprinkled through the audience. The youngsters are delighted with Peter Pan, and through the eyes of the children, so are the adults.

Consider this advice for anyone old enough to be unfamiliar with SpongeBob SquarePants cartoons before attending Peach State Summer Theatre's "Nickelodeon SpongeBob The Musical."

Take a child or grandchild, who watches the long-running cartoon, with you to see the show. Or even take a young adult who grew up watching the animated adventures of SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Krusty and crew. If you're an older adult who raised children who regularly watched "SpongeBob SquarePants," you will also know what to expect.

SpongeBob cartoons are irreverent, silly, chaotic, buoyant, redundant, amusing, baffling, ironic, funny and exasperating.

So is the live show.

Director/choreographer Barbara Hartwig brilliantly captures the essence of SpongeBob with this lively show, filled with songs composed by numerous pop stars. It is not the refined production that audiences may expect from Peach State Summer Theatre but it's no less professional. The show is true to the spirit of the cartoon. It brings the wildly manic world of Bikini Bottom to frantic life on the Sawyer Theatre stage.

The entire creative crew and cast recreate SpongeBob's world at the bottom of the ocean. A world threatened by a volcano ready to erupt and a ticking clock of doom that literally hangs over the characters' heads.

The much-maligned SpongeBob who is more than "(Just A) Simple Sponge," his best friend Patrick the starfish and pal Sandy Cheeks, a scientist squirrel who chooses to live underwater, must save the day. The spot-on performances of Cedar Jacob Moore as SpongeBob, Justin Emmanuel Parker as Patrick and ZaKeyia Lacey as Sandy bring these characters to life.

Stephen Chambers as Sheldon Plankton and Jenna Najjar as Karen the Computer are malevolent fun in their roles as super villains.

Daniel Grest has a show-stopping song with "I'm Not a Loser." Grest plays the four-legged Squidward Q. Tentacles and embarks on a wonderful four-footed tap dance odyssey with this number.

Peach State Summer Theatre is to be applauded for seeking newer musicals to present to audiences.

"SpongeBob" is a kids show that has plenty for adults, too, but again for adults who have brought children to see the show or adults already familiar with the cartoons. The show is two and a half hours with intermission so it may be too long for very small children.

So, if you're a regular PSST! fan, and you can't answer the question "who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" — you need to ask a grandchild, niece or nephew who is either growing up watching or grew up watching SpongeBob.

And if you ask them who, indeed, does live in a pineapple under the sea, don't be surprised if they shout back, "SpongeBob SquarePants!"

Peach State Summer Theatre presents "Nickelodeon The SpongeBob Musical" continues 3 p.m. Sunday, June 4, then returns 7:30 p.m., June 16, before continuing on various dates through July 21, Sawyer Theatre, Valdosta State University Fine Arts Building, corner of Oak and Brookwood. "Mahalia: A Gospel Musical" opens June 9; Monty Python's "Spamalot" opens June 23. More show times and dates, reservations and tickets, etc: Visit www.valdosta.edu/psst.

The review is based on the opening night, June 2 performance.