In the nearly three weeks since Bridgerton’s debut on Netflix, the adaptation of Julia Quinn’s novels has introduced viewers to what romance novels have to offer as Netflix is boasting that it will become the streaming platform’s fifth most-watched original series. But TV isn’t the only medium where Bridgerton is taking over—it’s also now the basis for a TikTok musical.
Over the past few days, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear have teamed up to create a series of songs on TikTok that imagined what a Bridgerton musical would look like. The songs, which range from internal monologues to sweeping duets and declarations of love as a musical arrangement swells in, showcase just why Bridgerton works so well in a musical genre as well as television: Bridgerton lives for the drama, so it’s the perfect showcase for a big showstopper.
The first song from Barlow and Bear is “Ocean Away,” a song that begins from the perspective of Bridgerton season 1 heroine Daphne Bridgerton. After the success of the first one, Barlow and Bear added more lyrics and eventually introduced a second verse of the song for Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, turning the song into a duet between the ton’s premier couple, whose love story began as an exercise in fake dating.
A second song, titled “Burn for You,” is another duet between Daphne and Simon on their wedding night at the end of episode 5 that echoes much of the dialogue and sentiment shared between the couple, each of whom fears that the other was trapped into a marriage they didn’t want.
While Barlow does the vocals for both Daphne and Simon in the initial recording of the video, she posted another version of the song and invited other TikTok users to make a duet with her and record Simon’s part.
Nick Daly’s version of the song caught on and went viral, even getting a shoutout from Netflix’s official account, creator Chris Van Dusen, and one of the show’s stars.
Even Lady Whistledown is a fan.
What any musical needs is a song where one of the characters looks wistfully on at everything around here, and the Bridgerton musical delivers that in the form of a number centered around Penelope Featherington.
Days after her first video went up, Barlow provided an update for fans and thanked them for their support for what might end up being a full-length project. In a previous TikTok video, Bear has noted that “Both me and Abigail haven’t been this inspired to write something in a LONG time.”
“It’ll probably end up being a concept album that maybe possibly for pitch when theaters open back up?” she said. “Who knows, I’m writing something new every day.”
It’s not the first time that a TikTok has made it big, given the success of Ratatouille, which went from a beloved Pixar film to a TikTok musical to a benefit concert.
