It was another fabulous Cunard event. A sword swallower, jugglers and acrobats transformed New York's Brooklyn Cruise Terminal into a circus-like affair—fitting for a movie about the life of P.T. Barnum.
And there's a strong Cunard connection.
Barnum crossed the Atlantic many times on Cunard liners like Etruria—not just as a passenger but also performing mesmerism (hypnotism) and sleight of hand. When he brought the 'Swedish Nightingale' Jenny Lind over for a US tour, 40,000 people turned out to meet the ship.
Also, parts of 'The Greatest Showman' were filmed in the historic Cunard Building in lower Manhattan and in Brooklyn, Queen Mary 2’s US homeport.
For the publicity launch 20th Century Fox invited a group of partners symbolizing 'the greatest things'—Bloomingdale's, where the flagship store's holiday windows are aglitter with circus sets and millions of Swarovski crystals, Moët & Chandon Champagne and 'the greatest ship,' Queen Mary 2.
P.T. Barnum is in Cunard's archives and 'the more we delved into [the history], the more excited we got,' said Josh Leibowitz, SVP Cunard North America. Events like this raise the brand's profile and create tens of millions of impressions that help travel agents sell Cunard, he added.
The premiere shows 'the types of experiences Cunard affords guests—to make history,' said Arnold Donald, president and CEO, Carnival Corp. & plc.
Some 1,500 bottles of Moët & Chandon Champagne were brought on for a party in the Queens Room, which sported a 150-bottle Champagne tower, ice sculptures and huge bouquets of red roses. There, family and friends of the cast and crew mingled with VIP guests like Stacey Snider (head of 20th Century Fox), Vogue's Anna Wintour, model Maye Musk (Elon's mom), Auli’i Cravalho (the voice of Disney's 'Moana') and Darren Kriss ('Glee').
'Just to see the ship and the New York City skyline with "The Greatest Showman" written in lights was really spectacular,' director Michael Gracey told the gathering. There were fireworks, too.
Oscar- and Tony-winning musical duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Emmy Award-winning costume designer Ellen Mirojnick and the film’s writers Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon were also there.
Mirojnick is showing the costumes and lecturing on the crossing to Southampton. 'I'm so excited. I don't know what to expect, between this film and the costumes and the glory of being on [Queen Mary 2},' she told Seatrade Cruise News. Creating 'The Greatest Showman' costumes was the biggest challenge of Mirojnick's career as she sought to capture 'a period of time that is timeless' and to convey 'a man's ideas, hopes, wishes and dreams.'
Cruise industry celebrities were on hand, too—besides Leibowitz and Donald, they included Stein Kruse, CEO, Holland America Group and Carnival UK; Christine Duffy, president, Carnival Cruise Line; Josh Weinstein, president, Carnival UK; Simon Palethorpe, SVP sales & marketing, Cunard; and Capt. Peter Philpott, master of Queen Mary 2.
The liner's grand atrium, fed by two dramatic staircases already carpeted in Cunard red, served as the venue for the stars arriving on the red carpet in an event that was livestreamed on the Facebook pages of Yahoo, Yahoo Entertainment, AOL, Huffington Post and MovieFone. Andrea Feczko of 'Vacation Creation' on ABC and Kevin Polowy of Yahoo Entertainment did the interviews.
Other movie premieres aboard cruise ships have included 'Puss in Boots' with Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas on Allure of the Seas in 2011 and 'Jerry Maguire' with Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger and Cuba Gooding Jr. on Celebrity Cruises' Galaxy in 1997.
'The Greatest Showman' opens in theaters Dec. 20.
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