While quarantine has been a time where most film and broadway productions have been on a halt, some people have been busy with creating new content despite this. What began as a one-off video on TikTok suggesting the idea of the Disney classic “Ratatouille” as a musical quickly skyrocketed into a socially distant broadway-level production. Strangers on TikTok began the project by producing song ideas and/or choreography and posting the videos to the app, and each of these productions got a high number of views since so many people were interested in the idea. The rich cast got filled with many famous faces: Adam Lambert as Emile, Kevin Chamberlin as Gesteau, Tituss Burgess as Remy, Wayne Brady as Django, and many more.

A really big concern at the start of quarantining ourselves and the peak of the COVID-19 stressors was “How will we adapt to this complete change in lifestyle?” While a lot of classes and lectures shifted over to zoom, the more social industries, like the arts and media industries, went on a halt. Many TV shows and movies that had already been filmed and directed were put on hold and their release date was pushed back; the companies in charge decided to do this because the quarantine would cause no one to visit the films in theaters, and would cause the films to have less success on the market. Some examples of this was the second season of HBO series “Euphoria,” Disney’s live action remake of “Mulan,” and the most recent James Bond film. Music releases were also delayed, with there being a period where little new music was coming out. All of this was pretty unnerving for consumers of music and film media, as there was a long dark period with little activity.

The production of the Ratatouille musical showed that there were strong possibilities for adaptation despite the distance between us, all over the world. Technology is an amazingly strong tool of communication and production, so the way that many different songs were produced and filmed from inside the musical actors’ homes was a strong signifier of this time period. Despite the short length of the musical, which didn’t have as many songs as a standard broadway one, it showed how creativity will never falter and people will continue to produce, even the general people and not just celebrities. Musicians and film actors have come back into the industry and have been producing new releases safely, despite the state of the United States and it’s high COVID cases.

You should continue to strengthen your skills and communicate with the world, despite the distance. Go out and produce a song—or whatever is your calling—and share it with the world. Just because we are still in the pandemic doesn’t mean that creativity has to stop, and the TikTok musical is proof of that.