News: Ratatouille: Remy Makes His Broadway (ish) debut
Image Courtesy of Playbill
I think we can all agree that 2020 was a mess. Just truly a complete dumpster fire of a year that none of us saw coming. But if anything good has come out of these abhorrent last several months, it is the creativity that has blossomed because we had nothing else to do while we were all stuck inside. I never thought I would say this, but in a time when we are all mourning the loss of theater and everything that means for both the industry and everyone involved, Tik Tok has somehow become the thing that has helped (at least in part), bring theater back.
Disney Pixar’s “Ratatouille” has been well loved by audience’s since its release in 2007. But in November, the slightly frightening and rather unexplainable phenomenon that is Tik Tok did its thing, and we somehow ended up with the beginnings of a “Ratatouille” musical. What started as a few users creating songs they had written for a fake musical has since become a fully casted and filmed (virtual) production in just a few weeks. “Ratatouille: The Tik Tok musical” will feature the original work of Tik Tok users that helped write it’s music, and will stream on January 1, 2021 at 7pm ET. The musical will be available to stream for 72 hours following its release, and all proceeds will benefit The Actor’s Fund.
Click here to meet some of the creative minds behind the quarantine musical that became what musical dreams are made of.
By November 21, the crowd-sourced musical had scored its own Playbill.
Directed by “Six” co-creator Lucy Moss, Ratatouille stars several big name Broadway stars, including Andrew Barth Feldman (Dear Evan Hansen) as Linguini (having already taken part in the viral frenzy) and Tituss Burgess (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as Remy. The rest of the cast includes Wayne Brady (Kinky Boots) as Django, Tony nominee Kevin Chamberlin (Netflix's The Prom, Wicked) as Gusteau, Tony winner André De Shields (Hadestown) as Ego, Adam Lambert (American Idol) as Emile, Tony winner Priscilla Lopez (A Chorus Line) as Mabel, Tony nominee Ashley Park (Mean Girls) as Colette, Owen Tabaka as Young Ego, and Tony nominee Mary Testa (Oklahoma!) as Skinner. Rounding out the company are Cori Jaskier, Talia Suskauer, Nikisha Williams, JJ Niemann, John Michael Lyles, Raymond J. Lee, and Joy Woods (playbill.com)
Casting announcement via Andrew Barth Feldman’s official Instagram account