The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage, Featuring Broadway Cast, to Air on Nickelodeon

Following a Tony-nominated run on the Great White Way, members of the Broadway cast of SpongeBob SquarePants will reunite this winter to film the show in front of a live theater audience. Nickelodeon will air the performance, titled The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!, this December, with the announcement of an exact date to come. Tina Landau will repeat her Tony-nominated work as helmer of the musical, with Glen Weiss serving as the production's TV director.

"I'm so thrilled to be able to revisit the show in a new light and with our original cast members," said Landau. "The whole creative team and I are excited to go back into the world of Bikini Bottom and discover its new life in TV broadcast form. But above all, I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to share the joy and spirit of our show with a wider audience. That's what matters most to me—the joy."

Cast members taking part in the filmed performance include Tony-nominated original stars Ethan Slater as SpongeBob and Gavin Lee as Squidward, Danny Skinner as Patrick Star, Brian Ray Norris as Eugene Krabs and Wesley Taylor as Sheldon Plankton, with Christina Sajous appearing as Sandy Cheeks.

Based on Nickelodeon's celebrated cartoon, the musical is set in Bikini Bottom as SpongeBob and his community of friends face the total annihilation of their undersea world. Chaos erupts, lives hang in the balance and just when all hope seems lost, an unexpected hero rises up and takes center stage.

With a Tony-nominated book by Kyle Jarrow, SpongeBob SquarePants features a Tony-nominated score comprising original songs by Cyndi Lauper, Sara Bareilles, John Legend, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Yolanda Adams, Jonathan Coulton, Alexander Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady Antebellum, Panic! at the Disco, Plain White T's, They Might Be Giants and T.I., with a song by the late David Bowie. Jonathan Coulton provides additional lyrics.

SpongeBob SquarePants played its final Broadway performance at the Palace Theatre on September 16, 2018. A national tour is currently underway.

Gear up for Nickelodeon's airing with a look back at the Broadway musical below.