TikTok Funds Its First-Ever Broadway Musical

In classic "every influencer for themself" fashion, Landon attempts to reach musical theater fame and fortune, ultimately abandoning his friends in the process. According to FYP's creator, Daniel Mertzluff, who is also responsible for the viral Ratatouille musical in January, the storyline is resolved by creators coming together to write a beautiful show based off of Paige’s favorite YA novel, and ends with a holistic message of "everything is better with friends."

Mertzluff’s first attempt at a TikTok-meets-Broadway hybrid was with the creation of Ratatousical the Ratatouille-themed musical that lit up everyone’s screen and Times Square billboards during the pandemic in 2020. It was the first virtual musical filmed piecemeal and composed from videos of singers and dancers harmonizing across the app, not IRL. The cast was directed by Emily Jacobsen and included Broadway icons like Adam Lambert, Tituss Burgess, Andre De Shields and Kevin Chamberlin. Ratatousical was the first award-winning musical from TikTok, now coming in close second to the Unofficial Bridgerton Musical which took home a historic Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album last Sunday.

For You, Paige will be performed live on Broadway starting April 14, or can be streamed solely through the TikTok app. The project is sponsored, of course, by TikTok, with proceeds going towards Project Broadway, an Arts Education Scholarship Fund. The cast is made up of creators including Sri Ramesh as the titular role and Roman Banks as Landon, with songs by Mertzel and composed by Macy Schmidt.

Lots of BTS footage can be found on Mertzel’s page, where he has been posting sneak peeks since January ahead of the show’s debut.

Photos via TikTok