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“Good morning world, and all who inhabit it!” Dan’s voice is higher than his real voice. For right now he isn’t Dan Howell. He is Dan Howell as SpongeBob SquarePants on the west end. It’s the first show of the musical’s run on the west end and if all goes well it’ll become a main stay. Dan feels strange in this role, on this big stage with a spotlight on just him. So few people have played this roll professionally currently. He feels as if lost in this role, which he loves. Being someone else for the night feels incredible when you’re someone with a mind like Dan’s. This role is so different from his actual personality he quite nearly fainted when he found out he got the roll over the bubbly golden retriever guy that had gone in after him in the auditions.
Being on a big stage like this has always been Dan’s dream. He was lucky enough to have that fostered from a young age, going to a drama club at his local theatre every Sunday. The best part? No one at school had to know. He met so many friends and found that he really did have a talent when it came to acting and singing. This wasn’t his first major role. He’d been in plenty of student and amateur productions whilst in university getting his bachelor’s in musical theatre. Then he landed an ensemble in the 2013 UK/Ireland Wicked tour, after just finishing his degree. That lasted until 2015, and with that on his resume + his degree he’s been booked up since. The biggest role before this one being Evan Hansen on the West End (sometimes having a baby face was actually a good thing). Now he’s SpongeBob for the next year at least.
Dan is singing his heart out through his first real solo of the show, (Just a) Simple Sponge and suddenly his spotlight is halfway across the stage, he doesn’t notice for a moment but then he suddenly tries to play it off as if that’s just what was supposed to happen during the number. Years of being on stage have taught him how to play off a tech hiccup in his sleep, yet every single time the same thought pops up “I’m going to kill whoever is leading tech”. He’s never followed through on that thought… yet. He thinks he might if that had been any bigger of a hiccup. Now, Dan isn’t one of those entitled actors who think tech have it easy, one look at the panel in the tech room upstairs and he nearly died thinking about operating that every night. Without a stage manager to give you cues too? Oof. But if this run didn’t go well, it would look really bad for him and the musical itself to the big bosses of the London West End. A tech mishap in the first show? Yeah, that didn’t look good.
Thankfully, his playing it out seemed to work and he continued on with the number without anyone in the crowd knowing that he actually wasn’t supposed to cartoonishly stride across the stage during that number. Unless someone in the crowd was a The SpongeBob Musical superfan that they wouldn’t be any the wiser.
Dan had gotten through most of the musical now. Currently, they were at the climax of the story and Dan was singing the reprise of his earlier song, which had been cursed with a lighting issue. This song was probably the hardest in the musical for him. With a lot of belting and high notes, it was a true solo song too. No other character, not even the ensemble, had any lines in the song. Only him. This would be a horrible time for another lighting mishap, right? Yeah, well thankfully the lighting was fine! Oh… but Dan’s mic did cut off halfway through, so he really had to increase his volume, which is rather difficult when you’re belting out notes at the very top of your voice range. He was really mad now. The crowd definitely noticed that one. They still applauded at the end all the same, but Dan knew. He just hoped those at the back of the sold-out theatre could still hear him.
Dan was sweating profusely as he stepped backstage after his bow. He had to do the rest of the show with no mic. He had no clue how he’d be able to sing again tomorrow night. He collapsed into his dressing room with people surrounding him with congratulations. He needed to shower immediately. It was a well-known fact about Dan that he did not do stage doors. The only time he had done that was the final night of the Wicked tour. He was swarmed and he did not like it, he was just ensemble there, he didn’t even want to think about how many people there would be around him as the lead.
After ushering everyone out of his dressing room, he walked up the stairs to the tech booth. He had decided that the shower actually could wait and he wanted to make sure he caught the asshole that fucked up his debut. He was still covered with sweat from his performance, though his strawberry blonde wig had been cast aside and his blue contacts removed. He still found it ridiculous that he had to wear those; no one could see his damn eyes from the stage. He was met with congratulations all the way up the stairs from the tech crew, but he was looking for one tech in particular. The lead tech. He wanted to go straight to the head guy. He waved off the congratulations as they came before finally stopping in front of the tech booth's door, he didn’t knock. He just took a deep breath and opened the door.
Inside the tech booth there was only one man left. A tall man, though not quite as tall as Dan, he had blue eyes and messy bleach blonde hair. Dan could tell that he didn’t just roll out of bed like that though, that guy put time and hairspray into having such messy hair. He had pale skin and was hunched over some panel with flashing lights and millions of buttons. Dan cleared his throat, and the man spun around, slightly startled and his gaze met Dan’s for a moment. The pale skin of his cheeks flushed a rosy pink, and Dan immediately assumed it was out of embarrassment because this man knew that he had done. The man started speaking, “Congrats on the amazing performance, man!” Dan was shocked. He thought the guy would be bit more bashful than that. “Uh… yeah. Not really here for you to inflate my ego though.” Dan sneered. “Oh, then why are you here?” Phil questioned and Dan just scoffed. He paid no mind to how the man standing across from him studied his features. He was too annoyed right now. “Oh, come on! I thought I was supposed to be the actor. The spotlight? My mic cutting out at the WORST possible time!” Dan complained. He was very clearly showing his rage at the situation, but the slightly shorter man just sat there and flushed more with a bit of a smile on his face before he was brought back to reality by Dan snapping his fingers. “Sorry!” The blonde yelped. “That was completely my fault… I’m so sorry. I got a little distracted.” The tech lead explained sheepishly. Dan had to scoff again, “Yeah well next time don’t! I don’t need you ruining this show because you get distracted.” Dan spat but the man standing across from him seemed distracted. “Unbelievable!” Dan sighed rather dramatically before leaving.
Dan practically sprinted back down to his dressing room, attempting to avoid any more congratulations. He had heard the pale man call out after him, but he didn’t care. Maybe storming out would send his message. God, how did that man get head of tech?