Does Stephen Sondheim make you want to throw ass? Does the score of Sunday in the Park with George make you want to hit the dance floor? Do Annaleigh Ashford’s vocals make you want to serve <*#+ on TikTok? To most theatre fans—even the most diehard Sondheim nerds—Sunday in the Park with George might not be the most obvious choice to create a TikTok dance trend for but, for Tay Marquise, Sondheim may as well be Cardi B.
Actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, and content creator Tay Marquise is the mastermind behind the “Sunday in the Park with George” dance trend currently sweeping through the theatre world. Inspired by Marquise’s April 22, 2024 TikTok in which he serves up a particularly spirited dance to Annaleigh Ashford’s “Sunday in the Park with George” from the 2017 Broadway revival, casts of Broadway musicals such as Hadestown, The Outsiders, & Juliet, and Back to the Future have posted backstage videos in costume hitting the dance challenge. While the trend is far from viral (with only 2,788 unique videos as of this writing), the proliferation of musical theatre performers recreating Marquise’s dance speaks to how even a small TikTok trend can bring people together.
Tay Marquise’s mission is to be a light of positivity in every space he enters. TikTok is no exception. Marquise has 618,000 followers on the platform. He’s no stranger to virality, having choregraphed mega popular dance challenges and amassing videos with other 18 million views. Even his “Sunday in the Park with George” video has 1.2 million views. And, like his other content, his goal was never to go viral. He wasn’t trying to create a dance trend. He just picked a showtune that he liked, propped up his phone, and danced. The video is complete with Marquise’s signature facial expressions. The video is infectious. So infectious that other musical theatre lovers wanted in on the fun.
Tay Marquise doing the “Sunday in the Park with George” dance trend on TikTok.
“I think it’s pretty cool seeing so many people dancing to a song that they might not have thought to dance to,” notes Marquise, adding, “I love how it’s reaching so many people in the theatre community.” Although Marquise hasn’t always been credited in these videos, seeing his dance on social media does bring him joy. He admits: “To me, I’ve done my job.”
To the casual observer, the whole “let’s make a TikTok dance to a Sondheim song” thing might sound unusual, but it’s far from it. The dance fits into TikTok’s idiosyncratic and silly culture by marrying hip hop dance moves with a serious piece of very un-hip hoppy musical theatre. These two things don’t go together. People don’t expect people to throw ass to Stephen Sondheim. They just don’t. And so these videos inevitably “stop the scroll,” or get viewers to stay on a video, increase their engagement, and boost the video’s algorithmic reach. This helps more people see iterations of the dance which, you guessed it, encourages more people to post their versions of the dance.
The recurring popularity of musical theatre dance trends on TikTok shouldn’t be surprising. As I write about extensively in my book, TikTok Broadway: Musical Theatre Fandom in the Digital Age, showtunes and musical theatre at large have been thoroughly ingrained in mainstream TikTok culture since the early days of the platform in the United States in 2018. By mid-2019, it was nearly impossible to scroll through TikTok and not encounter trends using the cast recordings of Beetlejuice, Heathers, and Six. As TikTok continued to grow in popularity, becoming the most downloaded app in the US in 2020 and 2021, musical theatre also grew on the platform. While the most noticeable examples of this phenomenon are perhaps Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical and Bridgerton: The Musical, there have also been countless micro trends that have fully penetrated the musical theatre community. Dance challenges have been paramount to these micro trends. TikTokers have recreated choreography from A Chorus Line, Sweet Charity, Hairspray, Newsies, and Legally Blonde in a supportive, musical theatre-forward online community that holds the likes of Michael Bennett and Bob Fosse with as much regard as Beyoncé and Mariah Carey. Tay Marquise’s original choreography set to “Sunday in the Park with George” falls within this lineage. Although the trend isn’t replicating an existing, well-known piece of musical theatre choreography, the dance, nevertheless, benefits from TikTok’s larger dance culture that encourages users to hit the challenge—learn the dance and post their unique version.
The “Sunday in the Park with George” TikTok dance trend.
While Marquise’s “Sunday” dance is still highly contained within the theatre world, it has still left its mark on the theatre community. As casts of Broadway musicals recreate the trend, the dance further becomes a challenge linking the various casts of Broadway musicals currently playing The Great White Way.
Marquise recognizes how the dance brings musical fans together: “It makes them even closer than they were before. And it encourages collaboration and joy when it comes to learning and posting the dance. People feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves.”
The “Sunday” dance trend may sound simple or even insignificant, but this small gesture brings these casts together. It brings musical theatre fans together. It brings Sondheim fans together. And that ain’t a bad thing, folks.
This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.
This post was written by Trevor Boffone.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.
