Darren Criss warms up for The Little Mermaid with Disney sing-along

Disney’s The Little Mermaid In Concert is set to be performed at the Hollywood Bowl on June 3, 4 and 6. The musical revival stars singer Sara Bareilles as Princess Ariel, Darren Criss as Prince Eric, Rebel Wilson as Ursula, John Stamos as Chef Louis and Tituss Burgess as Sebastian. Apart from the star-cast, it will also include an orchestra of 70 musicians and a chorus consisting of 12 singers.

To warm up for the show, Darren Criss decided to treat his fans to a live Disney sing-along on his Facebook. The actor took requests from his viewers who asked him to sing classic Disney songs such as ‘A Whole New World’ and ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’.

Criss also talked about the upcoming The Little Mermaid performance and shared his excitement about the cast. He revealed that he will start rehearsals on Thursday, June 2 – just one day before the concert. However, judging from his live session, we’re sure he’ll be fabulous!

So far, he’s been overwhelmed by the response to the revival. He said, “Of all the things I’ve ever done, whether it was a show on Broadway or a tour, I have never in my short career had my email, phone and all my connective tissue to the outside world be so saturated and blown up as the day that thing got announced.”

Although Prince Eric didn’t have any musical numbers in the original Little Mermaid film, Criss will perform numbers added in the Broadway musical.

The animated musical from 1989 will be transformed into a live musical event. Producer, Richard Kraft, told Ocregister.com that “it’s a new art form. It isn’t a movie. It isn’t a live score play-through of the movie. It isn’t a concert. It’s a multimedia event that will hopefully be a version that has its own energy and excitement.”

It’s no secret that Darren Criss is a huge Disney geek. Before his career took off, he uploaded YouTube videos of himself singing Disney songs. In 2007, he uploaded a video where he sang Ariel’s song from The Little Mermaid, ‘Part of Your World’.