Ethan Slater’s Breakout Role as Broadway’s SpongeBob Started with Casting Director Saying ‘I Think You’re the Right Shape’

Ethan Slater auditioned for Broadway’s The SpongeBob Musical after receiving a strange note from a casting director. 

The Wicked star, 33, participated in an interview at his alma mater Vassar College on Dec. 10, where he revealed details about landing his breakout role as the titular sea sponge in the musical based on the hit Nickelodeon animated television series.

Slater explained that he first auditioned for a production of Romeo and Juliet in New York City with casting director Erica Jensen of Calleri Casting. After he was offered a part in the show, he received a call from her colleague, Paul Davis, about a workshop they were casting. 

“I was sitting on a beanbag chair and I was holding a SpongeBob plush doll, and I was looking at a poster of all the faces that SpongeBob makes…” the actor shared. “And [Paul Davis] called me and he said, ‘We’ve got a workshop that we’re casting. I can’t tell you what it’s called, but I think you’re the right shape.’ ”

“I was like, ‘That is so hurtful,’ ” he added, before saying he was then sent the audition information for an untitled project.

The audition, Slater recalled, required him to read a scene and create a physical comedy routine based on a couple of options. He ended up performing a popular scene from the television show where Squidward baked a bomb into a pie that SpongeBob had eaten.

“SpongeBob doesn’t know, and Squidward does know, and the sun’s setting, and he knows that at sundown, SpongeBob’s going to explode,” Slater said, describing his audition scene.

“It’s not Eugene O’Neill. I’m kidding, it’s better,” he joked, referring to the famed playwright. “So we were doing the scene and I was like, ‘I’m just going to play it super, super real.’ ”

At the end of the scene, the actor did a restrained laugh that was unlike the title character, to which playwright and director Tina Landau allegedly responded, “You need to try the laugh. It’s really important. Why don’t you come back in a week, have a callback, practice the laugh.”

Slater recalled watching “a ton of SpongeBob” to prepare for his callback, which required him to put together another physical comedy routine. He described his next audition as “a three-minute dance to Billie Jean, but a bee was attacking me.”

“That’s maybe one of my proudest auditions of all time, my Billie Jean dance,” the actor admitted. 

Slater eventually landed the role and starred in the show’s 2016 world premiere in Chicago. He continued playing the famed character when the musical transferred to Broadway the following year. 

The SpongeBob Musical was co-conceived and directed by Landau with a book by Kyle Jarrow. The score includes songs written by various musical artists, including Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Cyndi Lauper, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco and Plain White T’s.

Alongside Slater, the Broadway cast also featured Danny Skinner, Lilli Cooper, Gavin Lee and Stephanie Hsu. 

The show received 12 Tony Award nominations, including one for Slater for Best Actor in a Musical. Since its premiere, the show has embarked on a national tour, a United Kingdom tour and even aired a television special. 

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Slater, more recently, starred in the movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Wicked and its sequel. The actor also co-wrote and will star in the upcoming play Marcel on the Train, which is set to make its Off-Broadway debut in February 2026. 

Vassar College named Slater as the recipient of the Young Alum Achievement Award in 2024, which honors inspirational graduates within the last 10 years.