“Ratatouille” The TikTok Musical: From TikTok To Triumph

In October 2020, Daniel Mertzlufft posted a video on TikTok. This wasn't new to him. Mertzlufft's "Grocery Store: The Musical" had gone viral earlier that year and his channel was filled with comedic, mostly musical theater-themed, videos.

But this one – the big finale number for a made-up Broadway musical adaptation of the 2007 Pixar film "Ratatouille" - caught on. Other creators joined in, supplying other songs, choreography and even set design ideas. That's when Seaview Productions took notice. Seaview, a Tony-winning Broadway production company known for "Slave Play," "Seawall/A Life" and "A Gentleman's Guide to Love And Murder," turned Daniel's minute-long TikTok video into an hour-long streamed musical which debuted in January 2021 and raised over two million dollars for the Actor's Fund.

After winning critical praise everywhere from The New York Times to our own site, "Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical" is eligible for ten Emmy Awards, in categories like "Outstanding Variety Special." Also eligible is "Ratatouille's" director Lucy Moss, best known for co-writing and co-directing the West End and Broadway smash-hit musical "Six." Four members of the musical team - Music Supervisor, Arranger and composer Mertzlufft, Lyricist Kate Leonard, co-music director Emily Marshall and co-musical director, orchestrator and conductor Macy Schmidt.

Schmidt, who has a long resume of work, including Broadway's "Tina" and Chelsea Clinton's "She Persisted," is also the founder of The Broadway Sinfonietta. The Sinfonietta, "an all female-identifying, majority women-of-color orchestral collective designed to uplift the existence, excellence, and equity of female BIPOC musicians in the Broadway industry," provided the orchestral score for "Ratatouille" as well. 

I like many others, watched "Ratatouille" back in January with no knowledge of the TikTok movement that sparked it or the unique and incredibly fast production timeline.

Now, with the Emmys coming up this fall, I wanted to learn more about how this show came about, so I spoke with Moss, Mertzlufft and Schmidt about their process and how a one-minute video became a two-million-dollar viral sensation. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

WHAT WAS THE IMPETUS FOR THE ORIGINAL TIKTOK VIDEO?

Daniel Mertzlufft [DM]: Emily Jacobson sang this little ode to Remy that did really well, everyone was using the sound, but no one talked about it being a musical. I gave it a listen and was obsessed. Immediately it just shouted Disney, end of Act 1 vibes. I decided to give it the full Disney treatment with classic Alan Menken/Danny Troob orchestrations. I posted it thinking it would do pretty well, but never did I think that it would launch this entire "Ratatouille" movement or to go [outside TikTok]. Later, I got a call from Seaview Production saying, "Hey, we got the okay from Disney Theatrical to do a concert production that benefits the Actors Fund." That was always a big thing, we all were excited to raise money for the Actors Fund, but I don't think any of us realized that it was going to be over two million dollars, which is the singularly largest fundraiser that has ever happened for the Actors Fund. It was such a short timeline. I was contacted on December 3rd and the performance was on January 1st. From the first day I opened Finale to put a note down until being in the studio with an orchestra was 13 days. It was very, very, very, very fast.

HOW DID YOU, LUCY AND MACY, COME ONBOARD?

Lucy Moss [LM]: I just got an email with the title "Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical" asking if I wanted to direct it. I wasn't on TikTok; I knew nothing about it. I just knew the title and the book writers. I'd seen this amazing virtual production by Michael [Breslin] and Patrick [Foley] called "Circle Jerk." I was the biggest fan in the world and I fangirled them over Instagram. When I saw that Michael and Patrick were involved, I was like, "sign me up." Then obviously, I did a deep dive on TikTok. 

Macy Schmidt [MS]: The night that I heard from Seaview, I was visiting my mother. I brought up [the "Ratatouille" TikToks] and we watched through the evolution of all those videos together. A couple of hours later, I walked back into the living room and was like, "Mom, I just got a call about the 'Ratatouille' musical," and she knew exactly what I was talking about. I had founded the Sinfonietta earlier in the fall and Greg [Noble, the producer] had seen my work in that way. When I first launched the orchestra, it was a dream to work on a project where I could orchestrate and then also use the Sinfonietta to record the score. That was a five-year goal. To get to do that on "Ratatouille" was really, really special. I think I got a call on December 4th. We just dove in absolutely immediately. It was like this massive trust fall.

WHAT WERE YOUR ROLES LIKE FOR SUCH A UNIQUE PROJECT?

LM: It was deciding what the project was going to look like. We have this material, we have this team, what are we going to make? My key guidepost was responding to the TikTok creators and thinking about how we could put that across with the resources and time we had. The content was so aspirationally Broadway with the capital B. I was using "Circle Jerk" as a guide for how things can be inherently theatrical, even when filmed in people's homes. A lot of my job was then navigating the casting and rehearsing on Zoom with the actors. I made very detailed shot lists of how it would be arranged on screen for the actors, video editors and music team to make sure that all the moving parts came together. I'd been hyper-ambitious.


DM: I had a bunch of different roles. As a songwriter, we realized that two spots were missing songs. We knew Kevin Chamberlin's "Anyone Can Cook" would be the opening number, but we needed new material to introduce Remy as a narrator. I worked with the brilliant lyricist Kate Leonard to create what we called "Remy's Introduction." I also wrote "Remember My Name," Remy's I Want song. As a music supervisor, I worked with the book writers, producers and director to figure out what songs from TikTok were going to be included. It was mostly what were the most interacted, shared and liked songs. But then we also had to make sure that all the beats were filled. As an arranger, a lot of the songs were one minute long, so I had to take them and expand upon them.


MS: The first 13 days were spent almost exclusively orchestrating. We had to do one song per day to stay on schedule. You didn't go to sleep until that song was finished. A song would be transcribed and then sent to Dan. He would arrange the song that day and he'd send it to me. I'd orchestrate it and I would send it to our copyist who would format parts that day. Then we'd send it to the drummer and she'd record her part. It was like a conveyer belt.

HOW DID THE CASTING PROCESS WORK?

LM: I had this central guiding thesis about it, which was that we just had to try and cast it as iconically as possible. We were like laughing to ourselves, daring to suggest that these actors like Titus would want to be involved. Who's going to be the iconic Broadway performers that everyone loves and would get excited about?

HOW DID YOU CONNECT SONGS WRITTEN BY 14 COMPOSERS INTO A COHESIVE WHOLE?

DM: That was an integral and difficult part of everything that we did. [Macy and I] both love Disney and we know those scores like the back of our hand. I tried to take the tropes that each of these songs were representing and find cohesion in that. There's also a lot of underscoring where I was tying themes from throughout the rest of the show so that you were hearing these themes throughout, as if one person had written the score and not fourteen. 

MS: As an orchestrator, the most fun thing is burying Easter eggs, whether it's a character's theme from earlier in the show or the theme from a character from a really different show has a related arc. After it aired, we discovered YouTube videos like "every musical theater reference in the opening number" or "every orchestration reference in 'Remember My Name.'" It's an orchestrator's dream to have people who care enough to search for those Easter eggs. It was the most moving thing in the whole world and I watched every single one of them.

DM: We also worked on various levels with each of the composers. Some of them wanted to be really involved, some of them we just didn't have time to connect with. All of them were involved, credited and compensated.

CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE PROCESS FROM REHEARSAL TO FILMING?

LM: It was all very one-on-one and tailored to what the individuals could do. I essentially sent a very detailed spreadsheet with, "we need this bit the script filmed this way. Portrait-mode here, looking here, this person's here." It was this terrifying document. I sent them that, then I'd have one-on-one Zooms about the characters and the show's tone having this irreverence, but taking the material really seriously. That was really important to me. It was more letting them off to do the things they do. 

DM: They all were a pleasure to work with. It was very funny to see who was aware of what they had signed up for. Andrew Barth Feldman is a youth, so he was totally involved with everything going on. But André De Shields had no idea. He'd never seen "Ratatouille," he had no idea with TikTok was. Wayne Brady's daughter was obsessed with the TikToks. I just cannot speak highly enough about everyone, but Wayne was one of my favorite people I've ever worked with on anything ever. Everyone except for Titus and André filmed remotely. Titus had way too much to do on his own and, I love André De Shields more than life, but I could not imagine him setting up a green screen and an iPhone and recording himself.

MS: Alongside orchestrating a musical in 13 days, I also had to hire an orchestra and coordinate a recording session in the middle of COVID. We recorded the rhythm players at home mostly because of the quality of gear people had. It was really important that no one was priced out of participating because they didn't have expensive studio gear at home. We did a bunch of COVID testing and the players who could wore masks. We recorded the whole score in a day, but we actually recorded the whole score four times in a row. The string section would record the whole thing and then the brass would come in, then the woodwinds. It didn't really feel responsible to put more than four or five people in a room together. Then the next few days were spent with me and Dan and our mixer Angie going over mixes and making notes.

LM: For editing, I just created this very, very detailed list with every single shot. I tried to make it have that live theater feel. I think we got all the material in on Christmas Eve and we had four days to edit it all together. It was all very complicated and involved me only seeing small snippets of stuff until the morning of the 31st. It was like 7 am my time [in London]. I was like, "wait, this actually works." We had some last-minute edits, otherwise, it all worked out. 

THE SHOW WAS A HUGE HIT AND RAISED A LOT OF MONEY, WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO THE AMAZING RESPONSE IT GOT?

LM: It was so fun. I've been so stressed about it. When it worked, I was relieved. Seeing how much money it raised was mind-boggling. It felt like really good vibes to start the year with.

DM: I am still in awe that we made it happen in a short amount of time with this quality. December felt like a black hole within the black hole of a pandemic. But most importantly, the fact that we did write to every person on TikTok. Yes, my video and Emily's video started this movement, but there were hundreds of thousands of people who interacted with it and created videos. Every single one of those people are just as important to the movement as anyone else. I'm just so happy that we were able to honor them. The fact that we are able to be considered for the Emmys now is just insane.

LM: It's probably a bit cheesy, but ultimately the message is "anyone can cook" - anyone can create. It's really cool to have something put that into practice. People over the world wrote something in their bedrooms that got sung by Broadway stars. Anyone with passion and excitement can get involved and should be able to get involved. 

HOW DO YOU THINK PLATFORMS LIKE TIKTOK DEMOCRATIZE THE THEATER INDUSTRY IN TERMS OF WHO CAN GET INVOLVED?

MS: I think it's been significant in bursting open the gates of access. There's this notion that if you want to be a musical theater writer at the Broadway level, you move to New York City and put yourself through hell for ten years. The fact that we had writers from all over the world contributing to this project who might not have otherwise had such a direct route speaks to a lot of the conversations our industry is having around access and inclusion.

LM: It's definitely given me more of a sense that it's possible to democratize the theatrical process and not have it just be always the same people making the same stuff. I'm hoping to do something along these lines in the future. What made "Ratatouille" so successful is that it was already a story that had very clear characters and the beats were already musical theater-y. One thing that I am interested in and grappling with is the creation of an original story or something that isn't an adaptation. What would that be? Because the kind of show I like is usually a wacky idea that just works. I feel like there's potential for that to come about via TikTok. 

ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS?

LM: Well, I've been working on lots of things, none of which I can mention. But I do have a show that will be in London in August called "Hot Gay Time Machine."

DM: I'm really excited about is a piece called "Breathe," led by best-selling author Jodi Picoult and Tim McDonald. It's five short stories written through the pandemic and each has its own musical theater writing team. That is streaming right now on Overture+ and the album is available on Apple Music or Spotify. I also collaborated with Nickelodeon and Nina West to create a song for Pride called "The Meaning of Pride." It was so exciting to write a song that I wish I had access to when I was a kid.

MS: I orchestrated the theater adaptation of "It Came From Outer Space" in Chicago and I'm currently working on my first West End show. The Sinfonietta has some big things around the corner that I'm very excited to share with the world soon. I know that Dan and I are both getting to create some new projects for ourselves, the opportunities of which really stem from the "Ratatouille" of it all.

You can learn more about “Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical” on their website.