Spongebob the Musical

And so, as on many occasions before, Julia's big Christmas present was tickets to see a Broadway show. In this case, Spongebob the Musical.

When we bought the tickets, the show had been shown in previews off Broadway, but hadn't opened yet. Preliminary reviews were good. So tickets in the 12th row were bought and off we went...

Waiting for the Show to Begin

The show was in the Palace Theater, right on Times Square, and when Amp and I were looking at this, we realized that this was the same theater in which we had seen An American in Paris back in the fall of 2015, on an anniversary trip. Our experience with this older theater was that being higher up was like looking down an elevator shaft at the stage. So we used Citibank access codes to buy seats in the 12th row of the floor level. Which turned out to be great seats...

The Band Begins to Play

The show itself was entertaining, with some catchy songs, good performances, and a nice staging. Having at least some familiarity with the world of Spongebob from the cartoon series, it was easy to follow along with the characters and what was going on, in terms of tying things back to the show. If you weren't familiar with the cartoon series, it might have been less fun to watch.

Spongebob!!!

A very obviously kid-oriented show, but we all like it quite a bit. I thought it was worth the money and the day in New York. Julia loved it. Grace liked it. The Broadway community apparently liked it as well, as it would subsequently be nominated for 12 Tony awards, winning only 1. Ethan Slater as Spongebob was especially good, and I thought the casting overall was very good.

Ellen's Stardust Diner

After the show we intended to get back in the car and head out, but as we were leaving the theater, we were all hungry. Grace had not been to Ellen's Stardust Diner previously (the rest of us had), so we decided to wait in the not-overly-long line and have an early dinner before heading home. Grace thought the singing waitstaff was silly and fun, which about sums it up.

Another good Broadway gift for Julia...

Postscript: It was announced on July 8 that the show would close on September 16, after a run of less than a year. Low box office grosses compared to comparable shows are generally believed to be the reason, but the official reason given by the production team was that the Nederlander organization is closing the Palace Theater for renovations, leaving the show homeless. Both, I'm sure, are true. I'm glad we saw it when we did. It was well worth it.