A musical adaptation of Disney’s Ratatouille has managed to raise more than $1 million for The Actors Fund to help support those in the performance industries during the coronavirus pandemic.
Composed using content from hundreds of fan-made clips on TikTok, Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical now exists as a full-length theatre production with professional singing, choreography, and stage direction. A pre-filmed performance of the show debuted on New Year’s Day, and is now available for purchase on-demand.
“I am thrilled that we’ve begun the New Year with this seismic event that is clearly providing so much joy,” Joseph P Benincasa, president and CEO of The Actors Fund, said in a statement. “Our gratitude goes to the producers, creators, performers and everyone in the TikTok community who came together so quickly to make it all happen so wonderfully.”
It all began with the short clip above from Em Jaccs, who started the trend, and soon hundreds of young creatives were making a musical version of the original film (about a rat trying to become a top French chef) in lively 60-second segments. Spoiler alert: Disney’s Ratatouille is not a musical, so every song in the TikTok version is an original creation, as are the dances, set designs, make-up looks, and puppets.
The professional adaptation stars American actor Tituss Burgess in the lead as Remy the rat, as well as several Broadway stars, including Tony Award winners André De Shields (Ego) and Priscilla Lopez (Mabel), and Tony nominees Ashley Park (Colette), Owen Tabaka (Young Ego), and Mary Testa (Skinner).
Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, the first crowd-sourced global musical theatre production, also features the 20-piece Broadway Sinfonietta orchestra and can be streamed in full here.
