Stars get all the best things: free gifts despite having the money to buy almost anything they want, fancy galas and events to dress up for, and now it would seem, they get to watch The Little Mermaid live-action before any of us! We can’t help but be a little jealous as we common folk still have a few more weeks to wait before we get the same privilege.
According to one of the writers over at Variety, the film’s director Rob Marshall and his husband, producer John DeLuca, held their own private screening of the final film with roughly 80 people in attendance. The director’s friends and colleagues gathered at the New York Whitby Hotel to watch the live-action adaption of the classic 1989 film, with the guest list including Emily Blunt and husband John Krasinski, Matt Damon and his family, Emily Mortimer, Ben Platt and his Parade co-star Micaela Diamond, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Bob Balaban and Lynn Grossman, Diane and Brian Sutherland, and Scott Ellis.
Also invited were those responsible for perhaps the most important part of the film, the music, with the film’s composer Alan Menken in attendance along with Lin-Manuel Miranda, who co-wrote three new songs for the movie. According to Variety’s source, each musical number was greeted with applause, and guests appeared to have thoroughly enjoyed their private viewing, and “continued to rave during a post-screening reception.” The event took place whilst there was thunderous rain outside, which only added to the atmosphere with Marshall apparently having joked that they felt “under the sea.”
The rest of us will just have to wait until May 26, when The Little Mermaid finally crashes into theatres.