If someone had told me this time last year we would have a professionally produced digital concert of Ratatouille the Musical, I would have laughed in their face. What started as a viral trend, cooked up by TikTok users, has ended up being the world’s first crowd-sourced musical. Theatres turned their lights off in March last year with no confirmation on when they will be able to reopen. But in this dark age for theatre emerged artists experimenting with digital mediums to express their creativity. And so Ratatouille the Musical was born!
(Forgive me for using lyrics from the songs in all my subheadings)
“ANYONE CAN COOK” UP A MUSICAL ON TIKTOK
Let us rewind back to August 2020 when TikTok user Emily Jacobsen posted a comedic “Ode To Remy” – a tribute to the tiny star of the Pixar’s movie ‘Ratatouille’. Other users then remixed this version, added to it, and created choreography. Suddenly we had a full production going on with new songs, make-up ideas, scenic designs, and even Playbill art.
By November users of TikTok had practically scraped together everything they needed for a show, without having an actual show. It’s a remarkable example what can be created in such a short space of time by a group of determined creators. The trend was so big within the theatre community that even Playbill and BroadwayWorld were writing articles on it.
TURNING TIKTOK VIDEOS INTO “A PRESENTATION LIKE NO ONE’S EVER SEEN”
Hearing the announcement of a TikTok phenomenon being staged as a digital concert felt almost unreal. Tickets went on sale through TodayTix, with all profits going towards the Actors Fund. Whilst the final result lacked the feeling of a completed show (it’s only an hour long), it was definitely still enjoyable. For the first time, in a long time, the theatre community had new musical content to enjoy.
Something I think deserves a shoutout is the way the overture was put together. First of all, the show opened with the dreamy acapella “Ode To Remy” that started this whole craze which led into the orchestrations. Intertwined with footage of the Broadway Sinfonietta performing the score, were videos from various TikTok creators. These were people who were imitating stage managers at the top of the act, or the music director conducting the title song. It was a gorgeous tribute to the work that goes into a show behind the scenes. Not only that, but it was a great way to include the TikTok users who had contributed to the viral craze with humorous content that couldn’t be included in the actual story.
“PRESENTING THIS ENSEMBLE” OF BROADWAY STARS
Despite humble beginnings on TikTok, they managed to scrape together quite a star-studded cast. Andrew Barth Feldman portrayed an adorable Linguini, and even has a slight likeness to the animated character. Ashley Park is a goddess and I couldn’t think of anyone better to portray the ambitious and opinionated Collete.
Broadway actor Kevin Chamberlin, who wrote the song “Anyone Can Cook” for Gusteau, also then starred as the character too. Tituss Burgess took on the titular role of Remy, but personally I felt like he was miscast for the sole reason that I imagine the character as being younger. But there’s no doubt he slayed Remy’s ‘I want’ solo.
“MAY THE WORLD REMEMBER” HOW CREATORS ON TIKTOK WROTE SONGS ABOUT AN ANIMATED RAT
Not every song created for the musical on TikTok made it into the benefit concert stream. But thankfully my favourite “I Knew I Smelled A Rat” made the final cut. They even added a tap dancing break like the composer had envisioned in her original video. Another song that was one of my personal highlights from TikTok was “Trash Is Our Treasure”, which was really brought to life by Wayne Brady’s warm vocals. The catchiest moment of the musical belongs to Adam Lambert performing “Rat’s Way Of Life” that will forever be playing in my head. The score overall really seemed to embody the story and its characters.
Many musical fans also probably noticed the little tidbits of musical references woven into the show. Most notably in the opening song where there were references to Sweeney Todd and Cats that made me chuckle. Later on I also noticed references to A Chorus Line, Les Miserables, Joseph and Six. Whilst the “Kitchen Tango” wasn’t an actual reference to ‘9 to 5’, it had similar vibes as “Around Here”. If anyone was able to pick out any other musical references, let me know!
“WATCH THE MAGIC GROW”: FUTURE TIKTOK MUSICALS?
Is it even a musical concert if you don’t have a curtain call? Of course not! They blessed us with such a fun and upbeat digital curtain call, giving full credits to all the TikTok creators who contributed and made this happen. The benefit performance raised more than $1 million for The Actors Fund – an organisation that has been fundamental to supporting workers in the arts through this difficult time. If you have any spare cash lying around, please consider donating!
In other news, I have recently noticed a new trend involving creating a TikTok Bridgerton musical. I am obsessed with this idea, and would love to see them eventually create a digital concert of this. Maybe to benefit arts workers in UK theatre? There’s already choreaography and Playbill art floating around on TikTok. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned on that one!
Did you watch the benefit concert? If so, which were your favourite bits?
I watched this and i was happy that i could watch a performance
Yeah it was just so exciting to have new musical content after all this time!