Ethan Slater: How a high-school wrestler became SpongeBob

Audiences — and critics — love attention-getting debuts, and Ethan Slater certainly delivers in his first Broadway gig, bringing to improbable life the title role in “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical,” which opened at the Palace Theatre last month.

The show, based on Nickelodeon’s animated TV series, made various critics’ Top 10 lists for 2017 (including ours), due to the audacious staging of its director, the inventive Tina Landau. But much of the credit also belongs to Slater, whose appealing, athletic performance is already generating early Tony buzz.

Slater, 25, was just a sophomore at Vassar College back in 2012 when he booked the role for the show’s first workshop, where Landau explained he wouldn’t be wearing a big yellow sponge costume but would need to embody the character’s zany spirit and indefatigable optimism. With his red hair, wide grin and muscular, compact frame, he seems tailor-made for the task.

A native of Washington, D.C., Slater is engaged.

The physical requirements of this role are considerable — you do a back flip, climb ladders, sing upside down. You even manage a split.

I was a wrestler in high school and that was one of my go-to defensive moves, pushing back into a split. I worked with a contortionist in preparation for this show, so I could do it reliably . . . while singing. One of my favorite things about the role is how physical it is.

Theater and wrestling — um, the two don’t often go together.

[Chuckling.] That’s true.

Is there anything you learned in wrestling that’s useful as an actor?

The most basic thing was discipline. The need for hard work. I also learned how to be aware of your body. Wrestling is a small, intimate sport. You have to know where every limb is, and how it relates to [your competitor], anticipating his moves. In sports, it’s a competition — you’re trying to be quicker than the other person. In theater, it’s teamwork — you’re anticipating the other person so you can complement them. So those two activities actually work well in tandem. It’s also worth noting — my wrestling team was incredibly supportive. I was team captain for three years and my entire team showed up at every play or musical I was in. And my cast mates came to wrestling matches. So I felt supported by both communities in a way that I think is uncommon and really special.

That’s great. That reminds me — we have someone in common: Jim Mahady, of Georgetown Day School.

My high school acting teacher!

Small world, huh? He’s a friend, and told me he recalls meeting you at the start of your freshman year, when he found you pacing outside his classroom. You explained you were about to take his acting class, and wondered what books you should read to be better prepared. It struck him — not many students ask for more books to read.

That’s funny. I don’t remember that specifically, but I believe it. I was really excited about his class.

Did you know you wanted to be an actor back then? Or are you just . . . a serious kind of guy?

Well . . . [He laughs.] I didn’t know I wanted to do this as a career. Then in college, after booking this . . . I realized this was more than just a thing I liked to do — it was the thing I wanted to make my life. But I guess . . . I’ve always been somebody who sort of throws himself, you could say, obsessively into whatever thing I’m passionate about. So I guess you could call that serious. I dunno. [He pauses.] Sometimes serious, in frivolous ways.

How’d you meet your fiancee?

We met at summer camp when I was 13. I went to camp with her brother and she came to visit. At one point he went off to play basketball. I’m rather short — not so conducive to basketball — so I volunteered to show her and her father around.

Was it love at first sight?

I cannot say that sparks flew. We spent hours together, but I’m not sure we said more than two words to each other. [He chuckles.] We became friends in high school, and by senior year were constantly getting in trouble for chattering in the back of class. We started dating a couple of years into college.

And now you’re engaged. These days, it’s perhaps a bit on the early side. Especially for an actor, whose life can change so radically at this point in a career. Did you consider waiting?

No. We’ve been together a while and know each other well. She’s in graduate school now. It just . . . feels right. There’s no doubt for me. And, career aside, I know she’s the person I want to be my teammate in this.