Anyone Can Cook, Anyone Can Create

Abstract

Abstract This chapter unpacks how TikTok enables fans to crowdsource new musicals. By means of the algorithm, TikTok allows anyone to create. Aspiring musical theatre artists from composers and designers to actors and dancers joined the #RatatouilleMusical community by creating TikTok videos, using the appropriate hashtags, dueting with each other, commenting on one another’s videos, and the like. The typical process of building a musical was flipped on its head. Ratatouille was something new, something different, and throughout the leadup to the benefit concert, the musical theatre community took notice. What was this recipe that was changing musical theatre creation at a time when musical theatre development had all but ceased? Ultimately, as Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical illustrates, the question is not can a TikTok meme-musical become a fully fledged Broadway musical, but, how does TikTok make this form of fandom a reality?