David Bowie, the Flaming Lips + More to Write Songs for SpongeBob SquarePants Musical

SpongeBob SquarePants is getting a reboot and it's in a form you probably didn't see coming.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the beloved Nickelodeon cartoon will be reimagined as a Broadway musical with original songs by David Bowie, the Flaming Lips, Dirty Projectors, John Legend, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Lady Antebellum, Panic! at the Disco, Cyndi Lauper, They Might Be Giants and the Plain White T's.

Of course, this isn't Bowie's first foray into Bikini Bottom: In 2007, he voiced the role of Lord Royal Highness of Atlantis in the made-for-TV movie, SpongeBob’s Atlantis SquarePantis. 

Director Tina Landau, who co-conceived of the musical, said in a statement that the upcoming production will be using the source material liberally. "We’re taking our leads from the TV show but this is an original story, with an original design approach, and original songs written just for the occasion by an amazing array of songwriters," she said. "We will present the world of Bikini Bottom and its characters in a whole new way that can only be achieved in the live medium of the theatre. We’re bringing the show’s fabled characters to life through actors — not prosthetics or costumes that hide them — and we’re deploying some unconventional stage craft that will prove that anything can happen in Bikini Bottom.”

SpongeBob Squarepants the musical will make its debut in Chicago from June 7 to July 3, 2016, before heading to New York for a Broadway run in 2016 and 2017.

 David Bowie – 'I'm Afraid of Americans' (Official Music Video)