Bobby dazzler

"A LOT of people could ask me that question. It’s a Marmite thing, you either love him or hate him,” admits Consett actor Chris Coxon who is one of the first people on the planet to attempt to become a real-life version of cult animated character Spongebob Squarepants.

“I absolutely love the character. I’ve been a fan since watching the animated series as a teenager,” says 21-year-old Coxon of bringing one of the weirdest of roles, in a show subtitled The Sponge Who Could Fly! A New Musical, to the Sunderland Empire as his North- East professional debut.

Spongebob is celebrating ten years of fame and Coxon is delighted to be taking TV’s cartoon hero to new audiences with the story of the yellow undersea occupant facing further adventure of wanting to fly with jellyfish.

“Once he’s got this idea into his head he’s determined to do it. So he tries all manner of things to fly, but the townspeople are having none of it. You’ll have to see the show to find out if he achieves his dream,” jests Coxon who is expecting a large group of family and friends to snap up tickets for his unusual week-long run next week.

The biggest difficulty for a stageshow is to recreate the underwater world of Bikini Bottom with a cast of ten. “It was one of the hardest things when we first started rehearsals.

You’ve got to create a cartoon in real life and create a character that’s quite fluid. The costume designs are really quite clever and the underwater effects are well thought out,” he explains.

Coxon is pleased that he’s quite visible as Spongebob rather than being covered up inside a giant sponge. “It’s not skinwork like Scooby Doo. The cast look like the characters, but you can still see our faces. That’s the trouble with skinwork, you don’t get the humanity of facial expression.”

He heard about the project through talking to the director, Alison Pollard, after the two met when he was working on Monty Python’s Spamalot, in the West End.

“I just wanted to know more about it because I loved Spongebob so much. Then I got a script for an audition and heard some of the music on the website which was written by the same guys (Steven Banks and Eban Schletter) who do the TV show.

There’s every different style you can think of including the sea shanty from the show,” Coxon says of a musical which has only played to Far East audiences previously.

Spongebob is that rarity of young entertainment that still has something to interest parents. The risque element includes the hand-holding side of Spongebob with best friend Patrick, which has led to accusations that the cartoon has a gay agenda.

“The official line is that it’s been denied, but my view is that the TV show is camp and silly. Camp isn’t homosexual, there’s a difference. I don’t really think it matters. It’s about friendship. He’s an innocent character, he’s not a sexual character at all. Apart from anything else he’s a sponge, he’s asexual ,” says Coxon who admits to being quite an authority on sponges – “people keep handing me stuff about the biology of sponges”.

Coxon got into acting through amateur dramatics and performed at Sunderland Empire, aged 12, in the musical Anything Goes before attending Newcastle College for Performing Arts and the Arts Educational School in London. “I’m really looking forward to performing in the North-East. I didn’t tell anyone at first I got the role, but I told my sister and she blabbed it to everyone.”

Was he concerned at all that his first big role was such a quirky one?

“Yes, a little bit, but I love the challenge. You can’t just create this character. You have to stick to a brief, but I like this character and it is something I wanted to recreate. Within the design of the costume there is space for some of the slapstick you have in animation. The clowning around looks a lot scarier than it actually is. A lot of people get concerned for my well-being, but I’m fine. I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t safe. I’m injury-free at the moment, but performing is about taking risks. That’s why being in a live performance is a risk because anything could happen,” says Coxon, who will be 22 during the Sunderland leg of the tour.

At the moment he admits he’s of “no fixed abode” having given up renting in London while he tours.

“Officially, I’m living in Durham with my mum. A different production company is talking of taking on a tour of Spongebob next year and I wouldn’t rule it out for myself,” says the young actor who is convinced that a lucky yellow jumper bought in Brussels for one euro played a part in landing the role.

“I think that was a good investment,” he says.

■ Spongebob Squarepants: The Sponge Who Could Fly, Sunderland Empire, Wednesday- Sunday. Box Office: 0844-847- 2499 sunderlandempire.org.uk