That Ratatouille TikTok musical raked in the dough for The Actors Fund
Aux Features great job internet
Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking into the future, and it turns out that this year isn’t all that different from the last. Who could have predicted that the state of the world would not shift dramatically at the behest of the Gregorian calendar? But it’s not all bad! It turns out that one of the best things on the internet in 2020 is also one of the best things on the internet in 2021. That would be the Ratatouille TikTok musical, a delightful absurdity that’s not quite so absurd anymore, given that it’s raised over a million dollars to support The Actors Fund.
What began as a bunch of Extremely Online music theater nerds joining forces, one video at a time, to create a crowd-sourced musical adaptation has reached its (possibly) final form: a remote concert production, featuring some serious Broadway heavyweights. Titus Burgess played Remy! How can you not love that?!
As of this writing, organizers say the streamed concert has raised over $1.5 million dollars for The Actors Fund, a national human services organization that has done a hell of a lot to support out-of-work artists at a time when theaters are shuttered. We spend a lot of time talking about the hellsiteishness (that’s a technical term) of many social media platforms, but this is capital-G Good, and not just because it raked in the cash for people who need the support.
Even if you don’t love musicals (and we know you secretly do), the fact that a collaborative joke-meets-musical-exercise became such a force of good during a dark time has got to warm even the most hardened hearts. And hey, the New York Times called it “a silly, multi-layered delight.” Not bad, TikTok. Not bad at all.
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8 Comments
If you cut open Josh Gad, this is what you would find inside.
Titus Andromedon playing Remy in an off-off-off-Broadway Zoom musical adaptation of Ratatouille is 100% a Kimmy Schmidt plotline.
If there’s one thing I hate it’s national human services organizations.
This is amazing on so many levels.1) Someone messing around on TikTok accidentally kicked this off with a 10 second theme.2) The crowd sourced show is actually quite good. The songs are strong, especially the Tango for Collette and Linguini 3) Disney let them do it, and didn’t squash it.4) A slew of Tony winners and talented people signed on. 5) And a good organization got a ton of cash to help performers in need. The amount of things that had to line up just right to pull this off is insane. Congratulations to all involved!
When I last counted there were 3 nominees and 2 winners plus a variety of Emmys and Grammys.
I expected Disney to squash it. I’m so happy that they actually didn’t.
So after yesterday there’s no legal way for this musical to ever be viewed again and it’s essentially vaulted, which is concrete proof that Disney doesn’t know what to do with a good thing if that good thing walked up and slapped them in their damn faces.
I was extremely, and pleasantly, surprised at how good this turned out to be. Andrew Barth Feldman in particular was pitch-perfect as Musical Linguini.The appetite the public has had for this – along with the response to Disney+ showing Hamilton – should (but won’t) kill the whole idea of a “Broadway Blackout” off for good. We’ve basically proven that there is a huge market for streamed/filmed stage performances without it affecting the appetite for live theater – but I’m sure that the moratorium on bringing Broadway shows to video will continue apace because of fossilized industry thinking.