The SpongeBob Musical makes its way to the Schrott Center for the Arts at Butler University.

The SpongeBob Musical makes its way to the Schrott Center for the Arts at Butler University.

By: Kevin Vickery

Are you ready, kids?

Aye-aye, Captain!

I can′t hear you!

Aye-aye, Captain!

Ooohh..

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

SpongeBob SquarePants!

Absorbant and yellow and porous is he.

SpongeBob SquarePants!

If nautical nonsense be something you wish,

SpongeBob SquarePants!

Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish!

SpongeBob SquarePants!

Ready?

SpongeBob, SquarePants!

SpongeBob, Square Pants!

SpongeBob, SquarePants!

SpongeBob….. SquarePants!

Ok, now that I have your attention… I should tell you that I didn’t grow up on SpongeBob.

During my childhood we watched Looney Tunes classics like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Hanna Barbara standards like The Flinstones, The Jetsons and Yogi Bear as well as Tom & Jerry, Tennessee Tuxedo, Hong Kong Fuey and many others.

By the time marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg had created SpongeBob SquarePants for Nickelodeon in May of 1999, chronicling the adventures of the title character and his aquatic friends like a starfish named Patrick Star, a squid named Squidward Tentacles, and a science genius squirrel from Texas named Sandy who lives alongside the others using a specialized suit to help her breathe in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom, I was already nearly 30 years old without children.

I was aware of the show’s presence but never really paid any attention to it until I became a late-in-life father when I was 40 years old when my first daughter was born and then again when my second daughter was born when I was 44.

For whatever reason, my oldest started enjoying SpongeBob at the earliest of ages. As soon as she was old enough to zone out to the TV while having a bottle before nap-time, SpongeBob was seemingly always on the TV.

I didn’t mind because by then the show was 12 seasons deep and I had never seen any of it so we watched… and we watched… and we watched until by the time my second daughter came along in 2015 I had seen every single episode and was ready to start over. We even watched all the other bonus episodes and the four different full length SpongeBob movies.

Personally, over the years I’ve grown to enjoy the mindlessness of it all while my kids and I have bonded while watching it.

SpongeBob SquarePants is the longest-running American children’s series as of 2025 and has generated over $13 billion in merchandising revenue. The show has won a variety of awards including six Annie Awards, eight Golden Reel Awards, four Emmy Awards, two BAFTA Children’s Awards, and a record-breaking twenty-two Kids’ Choice Awards.

There’s even a whole theory out there that the characters of SpongeBob SquarePants

represent the seven deadly sins in the following matter:

SpongeBob = Lust

Patrick = Sloth

Mr. Crabs = Greed

Squidward = Wrath

Plankton = Envy

Sandy = Pride

Gary = Gluttony

While I can see some of that in the characters, I’m not really sure that I buy into the fact that their development as part of a children’s cartoon is really that deep. Even if it is true, it doesn’t make me any less of a fan or change my opinion either way. Frankly, I like the Hawaiian steel guitar sounds and general beach vibe of the whole thing.

So with that in mind, when I heard that the traveling version of “The SpongeBob Musical” which originally appeared in Chicago in 2016 and then on Broadway in 2017 was coming to the Schrott Center for the Arts at Butler University in Indianapolis, I knew I had to take the girls to check it out.

As usual, we took our friend and my fellow columnist, Blaise (The Baker) Doubman along despite the fact that he openly admitted to having never seen even one complete episode of the hit TV cartoon series. I don’t know how that’s possible unless he himself has been living in a pineapple under the sea.

While he did enjoy the show, he found himself confused as he was under the impression that the characters would all be in full-mask costume similar to the characters you would see at Disney World or Chuck E Cheese.

My kids and I had done enough research to know better than that but I’ll admit that I thought we were going to see a traveling cast offering the production before moving on to the next town to set up and do it all over again for another week. After reading the playbill I learned the real truth.

This show was in fact part of the local Summer Stock Stage program whose mission is, “to enrich our community through theatre by inspiring young people to learn, connect, and perform”.

The cast which featured Jaivean Wilson as SpongeBob, Ariyana Johnson as Sandy, Taylor Smith at Patrick, Michael Washington as Squidward, Madison Fleener as Pearl, Simon Allen as Mr. Crabs, Lewis Claxon as Plankton, Gracie Navarro as Karen and the rest of the ensemble cast was comprised entirely of local students from schools like Franklin Community High School, Noblesville High School, North Central High School, Ben Davis High School, Brownsburg High School, Cathedral High School, and Pendleton Heights High School.

These kids were great and the four of us had no idea that we were watching such young, talented actors until reviewing the playbill later. The show also featured an 18 piece orchestra hidden in the pit and and an additional 13 member production team operating behind the scenes.

The musical follows SpongeBob SquarePants and Sandy’s attempts to avert a volcanic eruption that could potentially wipe out all life in Bikini Bottom. Their efforts are complicated by Plankton and Karen’s efforts to cause an avalanche on the volcano to stop them while the rest of the town attempts to put together a fundraiser concert to finance the building Plankton’s escape pod with hopes of escaping but the proposed pod is actually a machine to hypnotize them all into liking the subpar food that he serves at his restaurant, The Chum Bucket.

Michael Washington as Squidward with ensemble cast members

Being a musical, of course if featured some great songs and I was surprised to see some of the big names that had composed them. The show included numbers like, “BFF” by The Plain White T’s, “(Just A) Simple Song” by Panic At the Disco, “Hero Is My Middle Name” by Cindi Lauper and Rob Hyman and, “Tomorrow Is” by The Flaming Lips in Act One as well as “Bikini Bottom Boogie” by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, “Chop to the Top” by Lady Antebellum, “(I Guess) I Miss You by John Legend and, “I’m Not a Loser” by They Might Be Giants in Act Two.

I hadn’t been on the campus of Butler University in decades and had never even heard of the Schrott Center for the Arts which is a very cool and intimate theater located next to the more famous Clowe’s Hall. I look forward to returning there for more events in the future.

I was able to get my youngest daughter, Delia’s thoughts on the show and she said, “I really liked the whole show, but especially when the guy playing SpongeBob was doing back flips and stuff – It was really cool.”

I would wholeheartedly agree and advise anyone who is a fan of SpongeBob or of musical theatre in general to take in “The SpongeBob Musical” if you get a chance.