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Friday, December 11, 2020
TikTok ‘Ratatouille’ Musical Snares Broadway Producer For Benefit
Deadline: More than 200 million TikTok users can hum along to selections from Ratatouille: The Musical, a statistic all the more impressive considering there’s kinda really no such thing as Ratatouille: The Musical.
I am one of the people who thought TikTok was something dumb that only kids did and I would never download the app. Then around June I finally had seen so many fun videos that came from the app that I had to get it. Now I spend probably as much time every day on TikTok as much as other social media.
I think that all the people who needed a creative outlet found this app for the same reason that people starved of live entertainment jumped on board. The quality of content on the app is so surprising when you remember that it is mostly people in their homes with no professional tools.
The Ratatouille musical has been all over and shared a ton. I hope that the content creators are the ones who would be used in this online event. It would be a major boost to the content creators as well as exposing them to a larger audience. I am afraid that professional performers would be brought in to make the show "higher quality" that Broadway audiences are expecting. I hope they don't squeeze out the people who put in the time and effort to create this unique experience.
This brings me so much joy. I downloaded TikTok early in the pandemic, mainly just so I could claim my handle that I use across social media, but while unemployed this summer I did spend too many hours scrolling through that app curating a “for you page” that was the perfect intersection of my interests. So, a few weeks ago, when Ratatouille the Musical videos started popping up, I was incredibly excited. A lot of people have put a lot of passion and hard work into concept art just for the chance to create. While this has brought a lot of people joy, I think this actually has the potential to reshape how theater is developed. Obviously with this being a Disney IP, there’s no real hope for this actually going to Broadway with the songs written for TikTok, but if this community support was centered on a public domain IP then this has then TikTok and Zoom can become key elements to how new theater work is workshopped in the future.
It's amazing to see articles about Ratatouille: The Musical and that it's getting traction and recognition, as I have seen parts of this journey over the last few weeks. What really bothers me about this article is that it doesn't really talk about how much influence this musical has had on TikTok and how it has showcased parts of theater that normally gets overlooked in media, choosing to focus more on the Actors Fund for a little more than half the article. People were making models, creating dance numbers, and even do mock calling of the show. As someone who has seen a lot of this first hand, not seeing it mentioned in the article is really a let down because it's not just a gimmick to raise money, it's been a huge collaborative process between small and big creators on the app. There are parts of the more creative designs in the video attached, but it is very minimal and not a good representative of a lot of the work that has been done and created, and people who read the article might not click on the video.
I wrote about this not long ago and am actually blown away that this is (somewhat) coming together for a real performance! Like Victor said above, with Disney being Disney I thought that they wouldn't ever let this get anywhere, and while they may not let it develop into a full Broadway production this benefit is a perfect landing strip for the collaborative tik tok musical. What I love about this project is that it has had almost zero organization, and that everything that has been created happened organically. Sure, there is no cohesive theme, so much so that there is almost unanimous consensus that the original song by Emily Jacobson wouldn't function in a full production, but it still feels like a real broadway show. Furthermore, I think that a benefit like this is a great medium to present the contributions. Not only does the structure of a concert support the eclectic nature of the songs, but this musical has given a lot of light during a time when the theatre world is dark. The Ratatousical continues to give joy to the theatre community, and I'm excited to see it give back even more!
4 comments:
I am one of the people who thought TikTok was something dumb that only kids did and I would never download the app. Then around June I finally had seen so many fun videos that came from the app that I had to get it. Now I spend probably as much time every day on TikTok as much as other social media.
I think that all the people who needed a creative outlet found this app for the same reason that people starved of live entertainment jumped on board. The quality of content on the app is so surprising when you remember that it is mostly people in their homes with no professional tools.
The Ratatouille musical has been all over and shared a ton. I hope that the content creators are the ones who would be used in this online event. It would be a major boost to the content creators as well as exposing them to a larger audience. I am afraid that professional performers would be brought in to make the show "higher quality" that Broadway audiences are expecting. I hope they don't squeeze out the people who put in the time and effort to create this unique experience.
This brings me so much joy. I downloaded TikTok early in the pandemic, mainly just so I could claim my handle that I use across social media, but while unemployed this summer I did spend too many hours scrolling through that app curating a “for you page” that was the perfect intersection of my interests. So, a few weeks ago, when Ratatouille the Musical videos started popping up, I was incredibly excited. A lot of people have put a lot of passion and hard work into concept art just for the chance to create. While this has brought a lot of people joy, I think this actually has the potential to reshape how theater is developed. Obviously with this being a Disney IP, there’s no real hope for this actually going to Broadway with the songs written for TikTok, but if this community support was centered on a public domain IP then this has then TikTok and Zoom can become key elements to how new theater work is workshopped in the future.
It's amazing to see articles about Ratatouille: The Musical and that it's getting traction and recognition, as I have seen parts of this journey over the last few weeks. What really bothers me about this article is that it doesn't really talk about how much influence this musical has had on TikTok and how it has showcased parts of theater that normally gets overlooked in media, choosing to focus more on the Actors Fund for a little more than half the article. People were making models, creating dance numbers, and even do mock calling of the show. As someone who has seen a lot of this first hand, not seeing it mentioned in the article is really a let down because it's not just a gimmick to raise money, it's been a huge collaborative process between small and big creators on the app. There are parts of the more creative designs in the video attached, but it is very minimal and not a good representative of a lot of the work that has been done and created, and people who read the article might not click on the video.
I wrote about this not long ago and am actually blown away that this is (somewhat) coming together for a real performance! Like Victor said above, with Disney being Disney I thought that they wouldn't ever let this get anywhere, and while they may not let it develop into a full Broadway production this benefit is a perfect landing strip for the collaborative tik tok musical. What I love about this project is that it has had almost zero organization, and that everything that has been created happened organically. Sure, there is no cohesive theme, so much so that there is almost unanimous consensus that the original song by Emily Jacobson wouldn't function in a full production, but it still feels like a real broadway show. Furthermore, I think that a benefit like this is a great medium to present the contributions. Not only does the structure of a concert support the eclectic nature of the songs, but this musical has given a lot of light during a time when the theatre world is dark. The Ratatousical continues to give joy to the theatre community, and I'm excited to see it give back even more!
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