As someone who was hoping and praying for the idea of a Ratatouille musical to come to fruition, I was absolutely ecstatic when I found out that our dreams were going to be made into a reality! I immediately got myself a ticket, and decided to share my thoughts about the musical with everyone who was unable to see it for themselves!
The orchestra at the beginning was FANTASTIC, these musicians are extremely talented, and the composers who were able to create sheet music for an introduction song to this musical in such a short amount of time need more credit! And I cannot tell you how over the moon I was to hear the iconic line from TikTok at the beginning of the musical, "Remy, the Ratatouille, the rat of all our dreams!"
Remy's opening number has a clear influence of the actor portraying him, Tituss Burgess, which just makes Remy's sassy and snarky attitude that much more fun!
And Wayne Brady never ceases to amaze me, even in a role that was more glossed over in the Ratatouille musical, as Remy's father Django.
Before I continue, can we just talk about this CASTING??? Tituss Burgess as Remy, Adam Lambert as Emile, Wayne Brady as Django, and Kavin Chamberlin as Chef Gusteau?? YOU'RE KIDDING. It was incredibly done, especially considering restrictions with COVID-19 and that each of the actors filmed their own pieces, and they were edited together to create the absolute masterpiece that was this Ratatouille musical, or should I say, Ratatousical! And the ensemble was geniously done with a handful of actors who used TikTok filters to create the illusion of more performers! The actors are able to show off their flairs and put their own spin on the characters' performances, which gives it a unique bit of individuality, which I think is fantastic!
Something that never occurred to me was how the creators of this musical were going to portray Chef Gusteau as he appears to Remy as a ghost, and they did a great job of showing Kevin Chamberlin with an echo effect on his voice and video!
I thought it was great of the creators to re-use the melody from the introduction number in the song where Remy finds Gusteau's kitchen after realizing he has been in Paris the whole time!
I love the dynamic of using multiple screens and split screens to show multiple characters in the same scene at the same, and the idea of using TikTok filters to add a little bit of ~spice~ to the musical numbers!
One of the numbers that I mentioned in my previous article on the Ratatouille musical, "I Knew I Smelled A Rat," which is sung by Chef Skinner, was actually one of the pieces used in the musical! For a TikTok musical about a rat, it's actually a total bop!
Towards the end of the performance, they included clips from dozens of TikTokers who had danced to the Ratatouille theme song, or who had choreographed pieces that they thought could go into the musical! It truly was a collaborative effort that included and shared the voices of hundreds of content creators across TikTok's platform.
And of course, the final number included the entire cast singing a reprise of the original introduction number, "The Rat of All Our Dreams!"
In the credits, all of the original TikTok creators were featured and mentioned for their contributions, like @blakeyrouse, @fettucinefettuqueen, @fozzyforman108, @sophiajamesmusic, @katiejoyofosho, @rjthecomposer, @e_jaccs, @danieljmertzlufft, @dannykbernstein, @chamberlin_kevin, @phisherpryce, and @siswij, and the score to the musical was performed and recorded by The Broadway Sinfonietta!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and re-watch this musical for the third time!
