Lower Macungie Middle School Theatre invites you to welcome spring with some vibrant entertainment as they present “The SpongeBob Musical” 7 p.m. March 19 and 20 and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. March 21.

Get ready to dive into this underwater adventure with an array of your favorite characters, colorful costumes, high energy music and dancing that will engage an audience of all ages.

With a cast and crew of 114 students under the direction of Patrick Campbell, the story comes alive under the sea as high-spirited characters come together to try and save their home from an erupting volcano. It is up to SpongeBob and his friends to save their underwater world. Can they do it before their home is destroyed?

“The SpongeBob Musical” was created by Stephen Hillenburg and features a book written by Kyle Jarrow, with original songs by Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alexander Ebert of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady A, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants and T.I. and songs by David Bowie, Tom Kenny and Andy Paley. Additional lyrics are by Jonathan Coulton, with additional music by Tom Kitt. The musical production was conceived by Tina Landau.

Ariana Martinez’s role is one of the security guards and she said her favorite part of this show is “how much fun music we have, all the colors and props, along with different music that shows a lot of emotion. We have highs and lows, cool stunts and props,” she said.

She began acting and singing when her friends told her about what an amazing theater community it was with the opportunity to be on stage and perform for people. “I love that I get to contribute to Patrick’s scene. Come see it; I feel our productions are so unique because we have such a good team and Mr. Campbell always finds the best people for the best parts and always chooses very interesting musicals so it always turns out amazing! We always have cool special effects that you don’t typically see in other schools, special lights and props. Overall, we just have a lot of amazing people here and very talented people.”

Ariana hopes the audience understands the message SpongeBob is trying to say, “You should never give up, and keep trying; be yourself, no matter what others tell you.”

Addie Speakman has been acting and singing in theater since sixth grade. She describes her character, Pearl, as “shy at first trying to get her dad to listen to her but finally lets it out and I kind of like that about her. Pearl has confidence, she’s a strong person, she’s confident in herself and beats to her own drum.”

Addie “hopes the audience has fun; just be yourself don’t give up, don’t let anybody tell you (that) you can’t do something.”

Olivia Harlacher plays the part of Patchy the Pirate. She said her character “has a conflict; he really wants to meet SpongeBob because that’s his favorite person ever. I like making his noise and he’s really a fun character to play.”

Olivia began theater after her friends joined. She hopes the audience “gets some funny moments and some wholesome moments.” She would like to continue theater in high school.

Ben O’Hara is enjoying the role of Gary the Snail, SpongeBob’s pet, who helps SpongeBob with references and other things later in the show. Ben said his dad encouraged him to try theater; “He was in a lot of theater and told me how much fun it was.”

Ben is having fun. “The best part is probably at the end when you’re getting the applause and people cheer you.” He likes theater and hopes to continue in high school. “The best part of theater is acting and how you’re able to put your own spin on things plus the director’s views.” He hopes the audience sees him and his character and later recognizes him and says, “Hey that’s Gary!”

Liam Raimundo is multi-talented, playing three roles: Pirate, Cowboy Fish and a sardine. When asked how he does that he responded, “Learn your timing; you kind of use your peers a little bit, you communicate with each other when to do this and when to go change.”

Liam credits his mom for his interest in theater. “She told me to always try new things. I’m a sports kid and never thought of theater that much but I’ve made so many friends along the way, its just awesome to be here.”

He said his mom and dad are the smartest people. He described his character roles as, “They can do anything, no matter if the scene is happy or sad, my characters can just adjust and play anything. I feel so proud to be all of those things.”

Liam has fun with all the emotions and facial gestures. “It’s fun, I think it’s awesome, I mean me personally, I’ve never watched SpongeBob in my life, and I love this, its amazing! One of my friends, I’m from New Jersey, tells me you can never be anything but happy in something this big. Really fun.”

To anyone considering theater, Liam’s advice is to, “honestly, try it. It doesn’t matter how good you are; if it’s your first time singing, if it’s your first time acting, if you just give it a shot I promise you, you’ll have fun. Even if you don’t make it, you’ll just have fun learning the music and being part of something this big.”

Liam hopes the audience sees them and thinks, “Oh wow, that’s such a good funny group, I’m gonna get a couple of laughs and I hope they are just part of ‘Bikini Bottom’.” He hopes to continue theater in high school.

As practice ends for the day, Campbell directs the students, reminding them,” A lot of people kind of know about SpongeBob and how it works but about 99% of people coming to the show do not know the plot of the show. We have to make sure we are delivering to them that dialogue, the lyrics, lines or songs; we really need to feed them, ‘Hey this town is great, oh no volcano, friendships fall apart, Plankton wants to kidnap you, benefit concert,’ but it all works out, so they can follow the story. We can sing, dance, have colors, costumes, props but again, in the end we have to tell the story.”

The story, while very entertaining for sure, includes an array of colorful characters, costumes, props, music and dance and as the students said, “a fun time.” It also gives a meaningful message when these characters come together in community, teamwork and friendship, working together for a good cause.