Ratatouille the TikTok Musical

Ratatouille the TikTok Musical originated during the COVID-19 pandemic as a crowdsourced project on TikTok, a platform where users could collaboratively build content using short-form video tools. It began in August 2020, when Emily Jacobsen, a 26-year-old schoolteacher living in New York, filmed a TikTok of herself singing a song about Remy (a fictional rat, the protagonist in the 2007 original animated film Ratatouille produced by Disney/Pixar) in a squeaky high-pitched voice and went viral. Other TikTokers joined in and shared their own original songs following the trend. In early December 2020, Seaview Productions announced a formal digital production which premiered online on January 1, 2021, starring many prominent musical actors like Tituss Burgess, Ashley Park, Andrew Barth Feldman and André De Shields. The performance was a benefit for The Actors Fund and raised over $2 million, offering support to entertainment workers affected by the pandemic shutdown.

The final version of the musical consisted of 11 songs, 10 of which originated directly from TikTok contributors and were developed further by a 20-piece orchestra. The format was a recorded concert rather than a fully staged show, with performers filming their parts separately, often from home. The segments were edited together using visual elements that mimicked or referenced TikTok’s aesthetic—split screens, direct-to-camera performance, special effects, and basic virtual backgrounds. The project emerged at a time when live theatre had been almost entirely suspended, as Broadway shut down in March 2020, and many performers and artists were left without work or platforms for expression. Ratatouille the TikTok Musical becomes a creative and economic outlet. Its format—completely virtual, user-generated, and socially distanced—aligned with the public health constraints of the time, showing how performance could adapt to new conditions. More than just entertainment, the project exemplified how artistic expression can provide emotional support, foster resilience, and build digital communities during times of crisis.