Tony-nominated director Tina Landau has been to Broadway before, with the musical revival Bells Are Ringing and with the play Superior Donuts. Now, she has earned her first Tony nod with the creation of SpongeBob SquarePants, The Broadway Musical—and the zany creation seems to include all of the imagination, creativity, and sincerity of Landau herself.
“I knew first what I didn't want it to be, which was representational and a theme park show,” she says in the video above. “I thought, ‘If I can go in and create something that feels like a carnival and a rock concert and an art installation and a party with a good story and heart, that would be the goal.’”
Read: HOW TINA LANDAU FOUND THE BROADWAY MUSICAL IN SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS
Landau recruited a top-notch team to help her meet that goal, and the musical has earned 12 nominations, which is the thing that makes her proudest. “The number of nominations... It's about a team, and when you see so many people from our show nominated, to me that's the greatest validation, [because] yes it took every one of us to build this thing."
