SpongeBob SquarePants Will End Its Broadway Run

Broadway's SpongeBob SquarePants will end its run at the Palace Theatre on Sunday, September 16. It will have played 29 previews and 327 regular performances.

The closing is due to "previously planned theatre renovations beginning in mid-September," according to spokespeople for the production. School and youth group licensing rights for the musical will be available beginning in early 2019, with professional licensing to follow. A North American tour will kick off in fall 2019, with dates and cities to be announced.

Based on the popular Nickelodeon cartoon, the production is described as follows: "Stakes are higher than ever before as SpongeBob and all of Bikini Bottom face the total annihilation of their undersea world. Chaos erupts. Lives hang in the balance. And just when all hope seems lost, a most unexpected hero rises up and takes center stage."

The cast includes 2018 Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Award winner Ethan Slater as SpongeBob SquarePants, Drama Desk winner Gavin Lee as Squidward Q. Tentacles, Lilli Cooper as Sandy Cheeks, Danny Skinner as Patrick Star, Brian Ray Norris as Eugene Krabs, and Wesley Taylor as Sheldon Plankton.

The ensemble includes Brandon Espinoza, Alex Gibson, Gaelen Gilliland, Juliane Godfrey, Jordan Grubb, Kyle Matthew Hamilton, Curtis Holbrook, Jesse JP Johnson, L'ogan J'ones, Jai'len Christine Li Josey, Kelvin Moon Loh, Lauralyn McClelland, Vasthy Mompoint, Oneika Phillips, Catherine Ricafort, JC Schuster, Allysa Shorte, Abby C. Smith, Robert Taylor Jr., Allan K. Washington, Brynn Williams, Matt Wood and Tom Kenny as the French Narrator.

Conceived and directed by Tina Landau, SpongeBob SquarePants features original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alexander Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the Flaming Lips, Lady Antebellum, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! at the Disco, Plain White T's, They Might Be Giants, T.I., and songs by David Bowie, Tom Kenny, and Andy Paley. Coulton also contributes additional lyrics.

The show includes a book by Kyle Jarrow, music supervision, orchestrations, and arrangements by Tom Kitt, and choreography by Christopher Gattelli.