Ethan Slater on the Lessons of SpongeBob SquarePants & His Killer Assassins Research

Before the COVID-19 pandemic closed theater doors, Ethan Slater was set to appear in Classic Stage Company's revival of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's 1990 musical Assassins in the dual roles of Lee Harvey Oswald and The Balladeer. Now that the show has suspended rehearsals with rescheduled performance dates not yet announced, Slater is staying connected through Classic Stage Company's new initiative, Classic Conversations. The Tony nominee stopped by Broadway.com's #LiveatFive: Home Edition to reflect on his time leading SpongeBob SquarePants and how co-star Steven Pasquale made him cry.

The star-studded cast of Assassins was only two weeks into rehearsal when they were forced to halt their process. "I knew the show casually before getting cast in it," Slater said to Paul Wontorek. "I had listened to the albums and knew the music, but never had gotten to have that level of intimacy with it. I was excited about the cast and working with John Doyle. The opportunity to like play guitar in a John Doyle musical was a really terrifying prospect, but then actually rehearsing it made me fall more in love with it. I'm really hopeful people get to see it."

Playing both Lee Harvey Oswald and the Balladeer, the show's narrator, Slater had some heavy lifting to do. "I knew a bit about Lee Harvey Oswald, just from history classes, and have Oswald's Tale, which is this massive novel that I was reading," he said. "I'm diving in that way and trying to immerse myself in the popular culture of Lee Harvey Oswald and what that means. There's also just so much in the text to learn, the [Assassin] book is so well-written. I have to say, though, the thing that's been most impressive about the two weeks that we worked on Assassins was how good every actor in that room is at like making these roles incredible. There's a lot of responsibility when it comes to Sondheim, especially to interpret it well. I'm getting a new appreciation of the music and it's been a really amazing learning experience for me so far. "

Not only does Assassins reunite former SpongeBob SquarePants co-stars Slater and Wesley Taylor, it also allows Slater to work with Steven Pasquale, who once made Slater cry just by singing. "This is embarrassing, but the only time I've ever cried solely because of someone's voice was when I saw Bridges [of Madison County]," he said. "I was sitting in the very last row and all of a sudden [Steven Pasquale] is singing "It All Fades Away" and I didn't know what was happening to me, I was just sobbing. That's never happened to me before or since. And so now that I get to have this amazing scene with him in Assassins, it's just crazy."

Slater earned a Tony nomination for his turn as the title character in SpongeBob SquarePants and recently visited Bikini Bottom once again so Nickelodeon could film the production and release it for all to enjoy. "Returning to the show made me realize things in a new way," he said. "It's a little too prophetic for comfort. It sort of freaked me out, I was thinking through the plot points and I was like, 'Oh my goodness.' The message is so important that at the end of the day we need to come together for the good of everyone. The thing that made me so proud about SpongeBob was the way that it was crafted and the way the story that was told with so much love but also politically-driven in some way. It's always felt incredibly relevant and re-watching it on Nickelodeon really hit me in a surprising way. I'm glad it's out there and available for people to watch." Sounds like tonight is a good night to check back in with our favorite Bikini Bottom residents.

Watch Slater talk all about his special Tony night encounter with Norbert Leo Butz and more in the full episode below!