TikTok Ratatouille Musical Raises $1M For Charity

While many were just counting down the days for 2020 to finally end already, thousands of TikTok users were taking to the platform to collaborate and crowdsource ideas for an unofficial fanmade Ratatouille musical. This seemingly random celebration bringing together total strangers--including many musical theater professionals--to pay homage to the 2007 Disney Pixar film is a perfect example of all the potential for good the internet has, and on New Year's Day, this was all further heightened by an affiliated charity fundraiser that raised $1 million for The Actors Fund.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt's Titus Burgess and Queen singer Adam Lambert were among the stars who performed virtually, surreally singing fanmade songs that were recently written and uploaded by (incredibly talented) teenage fans. On Twitter, Glee actor Kevin McHale correctly called the musical and the resulting fundraiser "one of the best things to come out of 2020."

Around this new community, word is spreading that the next step will be to--from quarantine--record a cast recording. A New York Times article on this surprising development profiles many of the scattered collaborators, who first took to this idea as an open "Ratatouille musical challenge." Although there is no formal, completed show that has resulted from these collective efforts, lots of catchy songs, detailed production ideas, and even casting selections have been uploaded to TikTok.

The journey of this going from TikTok to the edge of Broadway last year is quite the interesting one, and Buzzfeed recently dived into that, just so you can wrap your mind around the process. But the real short version is that a New York schoolteacher and theater lover had a melody come to mind while she was vacuuming. She sang some lyrics in a TikTok video, and tons of people followed suit.