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SpongeBob Musical Stars Dive Into the Recording Studio

Cast members including Ethan Slater, Nick Blaemire, and Lilli Cooper lay down the music of Sara Bareilles, David Bowie, and more.

The stars of The SpongeBob Musical are all smiles as they record their cast album.
The stars of The SpongeBob Musical are all smiles as they record their cast album.
(© Seth Walters)

The stars of recent world premiere musical The SpongeBob Musical, which debuted at Chicago's Oriental Theatre, reunited in New York City to create a cast album. In a three-day session from August 8-11, SpongeBob's Ethan Slater and his costars recorded the music from artists ranging from Sara Bareilles to Cyndi Lauper and David Bowie.

The cast album, recorded on the Masterwoks Broadway label, will be released when the show moves to Broadway. A timetable for a New York engagement is still to be announced.

Inspired by the Nickelodeon animated series, The SpongeBob Musical is co-conceived and directed by Tina Landau, with a book by Kyle Jarrow, orchestrations, arrangements, and music supervision by Tom Kitt, and choreography by Christopher Gattelli.

The cast included Ethan Slater as SpongeBob SquarePants, Gavin Lee as Squidward, Nick Blaemire as Plankton, Lilli Cooper as Sandy Cheeks, Carlos Lopez as Mr. Krabs, Danny Skinner as Patrick, Gaelen Gilliland, Juliane Godfrey, Curtis Holbrook, Stephanie Hsu, Jesse JP Johnson, L'ogan J'ones, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Mark Ledbetter, Kelvin Moon Loh, Lauralyn McClelland, Vasthy Mompoint, JC Schuster, Allysa Shorte, Jacob Smith, Abby C. Smith, Jason Michael Snow, and Allan K. Washington.

The score features original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton (who also provides additional lyrics), Dirty Projectors, Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, John Legend, Lady Antebellum, Cyndi Lauper, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T's, They Might Be Giants and T.I., and a song by David Bowie.