“Remy, the Ratatouille, the rat of all our dreams. I praise you, my Ratatouille, may the world remember your name.”
Before “Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical” hit small screens this weekend, the song — originally posted as a TikTok audio in early August by Emily Jacobsen (@e_jaccs) — hit smaller screens across the world as it totalled millions of views on the video-creation platform.
The audio was the first of many ingredients jam-packed in the bisque of humanity, novelty and song that is “the first crowd-sourced musical,” cooked up during quarantine by TikTok users claiming the hashtag #ratatouillemusical.
The musical, directed by Lucy Moss and choreographed by Ellenore Scott, premiered virtually on Jan. 1 and is available to stream on demand until Jan. 4.
Tickets to stream the musical are available through TodayTix on a “contribute what you can basis” with a minimum donation of $5. The musical has already raised over $1 million for The Actors Fund, which has provided creators with upwards of $18 million in emergency grants since the start of the pandemic.
The musical’s star-studded cast spans from popular TikTok creators like JJ Neimann (@jjneimann), to high-profile stars like Tituss Burgess, a Broadway and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" alumnus who plays Remy, the “rat of all our dreams.”
Clad in a skin-tight gray turtleneck and his characteristically humorous flamboyance, Burgess’ soaring tenor carries viewers from his home in the sewers of Paris with rodent brother Emile (Adam Lambert) and father Django (Wayne Brady) to the kitchen of recently passed Chef Gusteau, played by Tony Award nominee and "Jessie" alumnus Kevin Chamberlin.
There, our vermin friend pursues his culinary dreams under the (literal) hat of misfit Alfredo Linguini, played by Andrew Barth Feldman of “Dear Evan Hansen," and the wing of chef Colette, played by Tony-nominated Ashley Park of Broadway's "Mean Girls."
The show’s virtual production pays tribute to its TikTok origins through everything from screen arrangement (cast members, though physically apart, are placed side by side as they would be in stitch or duet) to Generation Z humor (Remy screams, “Trigger warning: vulnerability!” to the audience before an emotional scene).
