Yesterday evening at Hollywood’s famous TCL Chinese Theatre (more famously and historically known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre), Disney+ held a world premiere event for the highly anticipated new The Beach Boys feature-length music documentary from producer and co-director Frank Marshall. I had the wonderful opportunity to attend this event, and below I’ll share a brief recap of my experience along with some photos taken by myself and provided to Laughing Place by Disney.
Photo via Disney
I arrived at the Chinese Theatre to check in and found the red carpet in the forecourt decked out with key art for The Beach Boys, as one would expect. Sadly I was ushered into the theater before I could spot any celebrities.
Thankfully Disney sent us over some great shots of the red-carpet arrivals by the band members and filmmakers, plus our old pals John Stamos and current CEO Bob Iger!
Photo via Disney
Photo via Disney
Photo via Disney
Photo via Disney
Photo via Disney
Next it was time for everyone to head into the Chinese Theatre’s auditorium for a Q&A with Beach Boys Mike Love and Al Jardine, plus co-director / producer Frank Marshall and his fellow co-director Thom Zimny. The moderator was film critic and entertainment journalist Scott Mantz, and the short discussion focused on the reasoning behind the timing for the new documentary, how The Beach Boys first got started, and why the band’s music has remained popular for more than six decades.
But the biggest moment of the night came at the end of the Q&A, when Frank Marshall announced that the legendarily reclusive musical mastermind behind The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, was also in attendance. Wilson was then brought out to a rousing standing ovation from the crowd and seated next to his fellow surviving band members for the screening.
It was personally very surreal to be seated just a few rows in front of Brian Wilson and the rest of The Beach Boys during the movie, but it was also quite heartwarming to feel and hear the audience’s support for the group and each of its individual members.
Attendees of The Beach Boys event, which was simulcast to theaters around the country, received a very cool collectible mini-poster (pictured below) in promotion of the documentary. As for my thoughts on the film, a full review will be published at the end of this week right here at LaughingPlace.com.
The Beach Boys will debut this Friday, May 24th, exclusively via Disney+.