That Ratatouille TikTok musical raked in the dough for The Actors Fund
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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