staying creative in a global pandemic: from broadway jackbox to ratatouille: the tiktok musical
It’s been about a year now since the first cases of COVID-19 appeared here in the US. What started as a small handful of cases in the Pacific Northwest spread almost impossibly fast across the country, and New York eventually became the epicenter for the virus.
The virus has obviously shut down all kinds of industries and businesses, but I can’t help but feel like the live entertainment industry was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic. On March 12, 2020, the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway/theatre industry, along with New York’s governor Andrew Cuomo, suspended all performances for the next month. As the pandemic rages on they have extended this suspension multiple times; as of this writing, Broadway’s 41 houses are shuttered until May 30, 2021, and it’s likely the shutdown will be extended again to the fall.
The uncertainty of the theatre industry’s future has left many, myself included, wondering how we will recover from such a prolonged absence, if we will even recover at all - Broadway didn’t even stay shut down this long during the 1918 flu pandemic. A handful of shows have already felt that loss, many announcing that they will not return when Broadway reopens, some of which never fully opened. This uncertainty has caused many performers to find new ways to stay creative and stay above water.
It began with Broadway Jackbox. Former Dear Evan Hansen co-stars Andrew Barth Feldman and Alex Boniello wanted to do something to raise money for The Actor’s Fund, an organization that provides aid to theatre industry professionals. They got a group together and played The Jackbox Party Pack, a series of party games designed for groups to play remotely, and streamed their games live on Twitch for an audience, who were encouraged to donate to The Actor’s Fund. This quickly caught on, and over the course of one campaign they raised over $50,000. The success of these streams have led many theatre folks, including Boniello, to start their own Twitch channels and start streaming video games. Their viewers can then subscribe to their channel for a small monthly fee, giving fans a way to support their favorites during this weird time we’re in.
As the pandemic has worn on, more and more people have found ways to make virtual theatre: that is, theatre that people can watch from the comfort of their couch. While almost everyone who had access to a Disney+ account watched the filmed production of Hamilton when it was released this past July, a much more fascinating case study of how virtual theatre can actually work and be successful got its start on TikTok.
In October 2020, TikTok user Emily Jacobsen posted a video singing a song she improvised about Remy, the rat protagonist of Pixar’s 2007 film Ratatouille. Jacobsen’s song went viral, and before too long, the pieces for a full hypothetical production of Ratatouille: The Musical started to fall into place. Stage managers “called” cues. Choreographers added moves to Jacobsen’s song, which had since been expanded and re-arranged as a big Act 2 finale number by composer and fellow TikTok-er Daniel Mertzlufft. Graphic designers came up with logos and other art, set designers showed off models of what the stage might look like, and other creators wrote songs to submit as their entry to the “Ratatousical”, as it’s affectionally called. The trend swept the app, and eventually caught the eye of Disney’s official social media channels.
After months of submissions and collaborations, the folks at Seaview Productions worked with Disney and the many collaborators who helped make the trend what it was and made Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical a reality. The live-streamed event starred Tituss Burgess in the title role of Remy, and also featured the talents of Andre DeShields, Adam Lambert, Wayne Brady, Ashley Park, and Mary Testa, among many others. Patrons bought tickets for the show (a minimum $5 donation to The Actor’s Fund) on TodayTix, the popular ticket broker for Broadway and across the country, and could stream it on their website for a 72-hour period. Overall, the show has raised over $2 million for the organization. It’s also said that the number of people who watched the show could fill a Broadway house for a year.
The current state of the world has been tough to say the least, and it’s kept us from doing much of anything, leaving us to wonder what could possibly be next. While we won’t know for certain what’s next until we’re actually on the other side of this global health crisis, perhaps it’s helpful to remember that there will always be an opportunity for collaboration. If we learn anything from this, hopefully it’s that even if we have to think outside the box to do it, art will always find a way to bring people together, no matter how far apart they are.