He is also known for his work in musical theater for Broadway and elsewhere. Some of these works are based on his Disney films, but other stage hits include Little Shop of Horrors (1982), A Christmas Carol (1994), and Sister Act (2009).
Alan Irwin Menken was born on July 22, 1949, at French Hospital in Manhattan, to Judith and Norman Menken. His father was a boogie-woogie piano-playing dentist, and his mother was an actress, dancer and playwright.[3] His family was Jewish.[4] Menken developed an interest in music at an early age, taking piano and violin lessons. He began to compose at an early age.[5] At age nine, at the New York Federation of Music Clubs Junior Composers Contest, his original composition "Bouree" was rated Superior and Excellent by the judges.
Menken noted that "Before college, I was writing songs to further my dream of being the next Bob Dylan. A lot of guitar songs – I was composing on piano before that."[6]
Menken recalled: "First, I was pre-med. I thought I'd be a dentist like my dad. Finally, I got a degree in music, but I didn't care about musicology. It wasn't until I joined BMI Workshop ... under Lehman Engel, and walked into a room with other composers that I knew this was it."[7]
Career
Early career
After graduating, Menken's plan was to become either a rock star or a recording artist. His interest in writing musicals increased when he joined the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Musical Theatre Workshop and was mentored by Lehman Engel.[10] From 1974 to 1978, he showcased various BMI workshop works, such as Midnight, Apartment House (lyric by Muriel Robinson), Conversations with Pierre,[10] Harry the Rat and Messiah on Mott Street (lyrics by David Spencer).[citation needed]
According to Menken, during this period, he "worked as a ballet and modern dance accompanist, a musical director for club acts, a jingle writer, arranger, a songwriter for Sesame Street and a vocal coach". He performed his material at clubs like The Ballroom, Reno Sweeny and Tramps.[11]
In 1976, John Wilson reported for The New York Times that members of Engel's BMI Workshop began performing as part of the "Broadway at the Ballroom" series: "The opening workshop program ... featured Maury Yeston and Alan Menken, both playing their piano accompaniment and singing songs they have written for potential musicals."[12] Wilson reviewed a performance at the Ballroom in 1977 where Menken accompanied a singer: "In the current cabaret world, a piano accompanist is no longer expected to merely play piano for a singer. More and more, pianists can be heard joining in vocally, harmonizing with the singer, creating a background of shouts and exclamations or even doing brief passages of solo singing."[13]
Menken contributed material to revues like New York's Back in Town, Big Apple Country, The Present Tense (1977),[14]Real Life Funnies (Off-Broadway, 1981),[15]Diamonds (Off-Broadway, 1984), and Personals (Off-Off-Broadway, 1985).[16] His revue Patch, Patch, Patch ran at the West Bank Cafe in New York City in 1979 and featured Chip Zien. The New York Times reviewer Mel Gussow wrote: "The title song ... refers to a life's passage. According to Alan Menken ... after age 30 it is a downhill plunge."[17]
Menken wrote several shows that were not produced, including Atina, Evil Queen of the Galaxy (1980), with lyrics by Steve Brown. He also wrote The Thorn with lyrics by Brown, which was commissioned by Divine in 1980. This was a parody of the film The Rose, but they could not raise the money to have it produced.[18] He collaborated with Howard Ashman in an uncompleted musical called Babe (c. 1981),[19][20] with Tom Eyen in Kicks: The Showgirl Musical (1984),[21] and with David Rogers in The Dream in Royal Street (c. 1981), which was an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream.[20] Menken contributed music for the film The Line (1980), directed by Robert J. Siegel.[22]
Menken and Ashman wrote their next musical, Little Shop of Horrors, for a cast of only 9 performers, including a puppeteer. This musical is based on the 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors. It opened at WPA Theater in 1982 to warm reviews. It moved to the Off Broadway Orpheum Theatre in the East Village, Manhattan, where it ran for five years. The musical set the box-office record for highest grossing Off-Broadway show of all time. It toured around the world, won theater awards and was adapted as a 1986 musical film starring Rick Moranis that earned Menken and Ashman their first Oscar nomination for the song "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space".[28] For his body of work in musical theatre, he was awarded the BMI Career Achievement Award in 1983.[3]
Menken and Ashman's Beauty and the Beast garnered them three 1991 Academy Award nominations for Best Song, winning for its title song.[35] Menken won another Academy Award for Best Score. The two were working on Aladdin at the time of Ashman's death in 1991. Ashman wrote only three songs in the film and Menken collaborated with Tim Rice, who was then working on The Lion King, to write the rest of the songs for the film. The film won an Academy Award in 1992 for Best Song, "A Whole New World".[35] Menken also won the Oscar for Best Score. Menken's live-action musical film Newsies, with lyrics by Jack Feldman, was released in 1992.
Menken again worked with Stephen Schwartz to write new songs for Disenchanted, the sequel to Enchanted,[42] Menken also worked on new music for a live-action film adaptation of The Little Mermaid, directed by Rob Marshall, with longtime The Little Mermaid fan Lin-Manuel Miranda,[43] whom Menken knew since the former's childhood, as Miranda went to the same school as Menken's niece.[44] Menken is also working alongside former Disney chief creative officer John Lasseter on a project at Skydance Animation.[45] On May 20, 2020, the project was revealed to be Vicky Jenson's Spellbound.[46] Menken will co-write songs for Spellbound alongside collaborated with lyricist Glenn Slater, with whom he worked on Home on the Range and Tangled.[46] Menken is also reportedly attached to a sequel to Aladdin.[47] Menken was set to work with Schwartz to write new songs for a remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which Menken would score.[48] However, in May 2023, Menken suggested that the development had been stalled due to the original movie's content and themes.[49]
Menken debuted on Broadway with a musical theater adaptation of Beauty and the Beast that opened in 1994 and ran for 13 years before closing in 2007. In 1997, he collaborated with lyricist Tim Rice on a musical, King David, based on the biblical character, which was performed in a concert version on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Little Shop of Horrors played on Broadway from 2003 to 2004.[51]
He next created the stage version of The Little Mermaid, which played on Broadway from 2008 to 2009 and for which he received a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Score.[51] Menken's stage adaptation of Sister Act debuted in London in 2009, and opened on Broadway in 2011. He was nominated for another Tony Award for Best Score.[52] Menken received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010.[53] In December 2010, he was a guest on the NPR quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.[54]
In 2012, Menken won a Tony Award for Best Score for his musical adaptation of Newsies, which ran until 2014. He also wrote the music for Leap of Faith, which had a brief run on Broadway in 2012. His stage adaptation of Aladdin opened on Broadway in 2014, earning him another Tony nomination for Best Score.[51] In 2013, he was a guest at the annual Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, and was honored with the Junior Theater Festival Award.[55] He gave a concert there, including music that was cut from various productions, while talking about his creative process.[citation needed]
As of 2019, Menken reunites with his Newsies creators Jack Feldman and Harvey Fierstein to develop a new musical called Greetings from Niagara Falls. A reading was held in January 2019; however, there is no word on future plans for the project at this time.[60]
Television work
From 1989 to 1990, Menken and Howard Ashman wrote songs for the popular puppet TV show Sesame Street.[61] In 2008, Menken said that his work on Sesame Street was "pathetic money, but it still had some prestige to it. It was on the air and [he] was getting some royalties".[61] The duo also wrote a song titled "Wonderful Ways to Say No" for the 1990 animated anti-drug special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
In 2015, Menken co-composed the score for the musical television series Galavant alongside Christopher Lennertz, reuniting him with Tangled screenwriter Dan Fogelman.[62] Menken also co-wrote songs for the series alongside Glenn Slater.[63] The series lasted two seasons, first airing on January 4, 2015, and last airing on January 31, 2016.[64] In 2017, Menken and Slater returned to write songs for the animated series Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, which is set after the events of Tangled.[65] The series ended in 2020, after three seasons. On July 26, 2020, Menken and Slater won the Daytime Emmy Award for Original Song in a Children's, Young Adult or Animated Program for the song titled "Waiting in the Wings".[2][66]
Menken wrote songs for a prospective prequel/spin-off series to 2017's Beauty and the Beast titled Little Town, which would be centered on Gaston and LeFou.[45] The series would be released on Disney's streaming service, Disney+,[45][67] and Menken would also be an executive-producer on the series.[68] In February 2022, it was reported that the series would not go forward for now.[69]
Personal life
Menken was introduced to ballet dancer Janis Roswick while working with the Downtown Ballet Company. They have been married since November 1972 and live in North Salem, New York with their two daughters, Anna and Nora.[70][failed verification]
Artistry and reception
Menken has said he prefers for his compositions to be "hummable", writing, "Songs should have an infectious melody and rhythm ... They should elicit an emotion, of happiness, or of celebration, or of sadness, or of sorrow, or of love, or of laughter — whatever".[71] When writing songs for a Disney film, he is usually trying to progress the story, while being appropriate for each character and dramatic situation.[71] He gathers as much information as possible about a film project before composing at a piano, namely "What's the story? Who's the protagonist? Where would a song fit? What's the reason for singing?".[71] Menken has worked with numerous lyricists throughout his career. His most famous collaboration remains his songwriting partnership with Ashman, despite having worked together for a relatively short period of time.[72]
Steve Hochman of Grammy.com said Menken "ranks among the top composers in film and theater", writing, "his music is part of the DNA of several generations of children and parents alike".[73] According to Jeff Bond of The Hollywood Reporter, Menken is largely responsible for redefining the musical genre for a contemporary audience both in film and on stage, calling him "one of film music’s most versatile craftspeople".[74] His work has influenced a generation of songwriters across film and stage.[72] Menken has noted his influence on songwriters and musicians such as Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Robert Lopez, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Elton John, and Sara Bareilles, although he maintains he does not have a specific protege.[72]
Menken is an EGOT winner, having won at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony for his work.[75]
Returned to score from the 1992 animated film Composed original songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman & Tim Rice; Composed new songs with lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul
Returned to score from the 1989 animated film Composed original songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman; Composed new songs with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Composed "Grouchelot", "What is Friend?", "It's Gonna Get Dirty Again," "Snuffle Friends," "Martian Family (Yip Yip Song)," "Monster Up and Down", "Pond Full of Fish" and "Todos un Pueblo"
Episode: "Sing Like a Larry Bird" Composed "More or Less The Kind of Thing You May or May Not Possibly See on Broadway", "Giselle", "More or Less The Kind of Thing You May or May Not Possibly See on Broadway" (Reprise)
Alan Menken has received eight Academy Awards (and nineteen nominations), eleven Grammy Awards (and twenty-four nominations), one Tony Award (and four nominations), and one Daytime Emmy Award. He has also received seven Golden Globe Awards (and sixteen nominations), one Drama Desk Award (and five nominations), and three Outer Critics Awards.
He was made a Disney Legend in 2002 and was the recipient of a Richard Kirk Career Achievement Award in 1998, a Freddie G. Award for Musical Excellence in 2013, and The Oscar Hammerstein Award in 2013, among others.
In 2006, AFI listed its 25 greatest movie musicals, with Beauty and the Beast (1991) ranked 22nd. It is the only animated musical film on the list. Four of his other film musicals were also nominated:[81]
In 2019, Menken finally accepted the Razzie Award for "Worst Original Song" he won at the 13th Golden Raspberry Awards (1993) for "High Times, Hard Times" from Newsies (1992), becoming the first person to win a Razzie and Oscar in the same year.[82][83] Menken wrote the music for the song, and shared the award with lyricist Jack Feldman.
In 2020, Menken reached EGOT status when he won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Song in a Children's, Young Adult or Animated Program for co-writing the song "Waiting in the Wings" for Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure.[2][84]
^Wilson, John S. (October 13, 1976). "Someday, Maybe on Broadway, But for Now They Are in SoHo". The New York Times. p. 33.
^Wilson, John S. (November 3, 1977). "Menken and Ellen March Play". The New York Times. p. 71.
^Dietz, Dan (2010). "Present Tense". Off Broadway Musicals, 1910–2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 362. ISBN978-0-7864-5731-1. Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
Menken, Alan. at the Wayback Machine (archived October 19, 2007) Britannica Book of the Year, 1997. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
"(Pussy Pussy Pussy) Whose Kitty Cat Are You?" – Music and Lyrics by Marvin Montgomery (1996)
The entire song score from The Postman – Music and Lyrics by Jeffrey Barr, Glenn Burke, John Coinman, Joe Flood, Blair Forward, Maria Machado, and Jono Manson (1997)
.jpg)
