Because the composer behind The Little Mermaid, Magnificence and the Beast, and Aladdin, Alan Menken has created a few of Disney’s most recognizable scores and songs. His canon has paved the way in which for modern-day animated musicals like Frozen and Encanto, and influenced a technology of songwriters working in movie, musical theater, and past. With lyricist Howard Ashman (Menken’s collaborator till Ashman’s demise in 1991), Menken was a driving pressure behind Little Store of Horrors, which premiered off-off Broadway in 1982, and greater than 40 years later remains to be taking part in at New York’s Westside Theatre. Hercules, which Disney launched in 1997 and Menken labored on with lyricist David Zippel, simply wrapped up a regional run in New Jersey, and can transfer on to premiere in Germany, whereas Aladdin (which additionally featured lyrics by Tim Rice, who helped end Aladdin’s songs following Ashman’s demise) is at present celebrating its ninth anniversary on Broadway on the New Amsterdam Theatre.
In the present day, at 73 years outdated, Menken reveals no indicators of slowing down. Disenchanted, the sequel to Enchanted for which he cowrote the music together with Stephen Schwartz (Depraved), debuted on Disney+ final fall. The totally animated characteristic Spellbound is predicted on the finish of the yr, and he tells Vainness Honest that there’s one other musical venture within the works. However first is the live-action model of The Little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey as Ariel and premiering in theaters on Might 26, a venture that led him to work on some new songs with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
“My niece went to Hunter Faculty and I’d hear about this little boy named Lin-Manuel Miranda who liked The Little Mermaid,” he recollects to Vainness Honest. “He was asking questions on it, needed me to signal posters, and was simply fanatical about it. Then someday that little boy was a author who had a brand new [movie] referred to as Within the Heights. I assumed, Was he the identical Lin-Manuel Miranda? And now we’re collaborating! I’ve been amazed watching what he’s grow to be on this planet.”
VF lately spoke with Menken about transforming the 1989 movie’s music and the groundwork he laid to catapult the movie-musical-song catalog for brand new writers like Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Bobby Lopez, Kristen-Anderson Lopez, and Miranda.
Vainness Honest: You had Little Store of Horrors, Hercules, and Aladdin all taking part in on the similar time within the New York Metropolis space. How does it really feel to have these reveals nonetheless so widespread and so current?
Alan Menken: I am used to it. I have been coming again to initiatives for a very long time. It definitely beats the choice by rather a lot. A lot of what I am doing is about my illustrious previous. However you recognize, I nonetheless have a future and infrequently I will discuss that in remedy. I am very pleased with what I’ve performed. However then, there’s additionally what’s subsequent. Essentially the most thrilling factor is the brand new initiatives, and I am engaged on new initiatives.
Spellbound, inform me every thing!
I am unable to let you know that a lot. Primary as a result of it’s an ever-evolving venture. This can be a very uncommon story. It has a really formidable, central theme. I’m not going to speak in regards to the central theme as a result of it is all hidden in a fairy story which entails a spell. Nevertheless it’s a theme that impacts all of us in a recent method. I am collaborating with [lyricist] Glenn Slater on the songs. Chris Montan, who was the pinnacle of music and animation at Disney from The Little Mermaid, to Tangled and Frozen is the musical supervisor. For me, it is an ideal return to work once more in animation. A number of the crew have by no means written music earlier than. So there’s been a whole lot of work in attempting to make it extra of a conventional musical and other people pushing me to be extra formidable in a sure method. We’re nonetheless engaged on it. We rating within the fall. We’re recording with the artists who’re doing it: Rachel Zegler, Javier Bardem, and Nicole Kidman. I’m going to cease there.
Are you able to imagine Aladdin is celebrating 9 years on Broadway?
Is it 9 now? Wow. I really feel outdated.
What do you suppose has saved it taking part in for therefore lengthy?
It is a good musical. Tom Schumacher is nearly as good because it will get as a theatrical producer. Aladdin is a whole lot of enjoyable. The infectiousness of numbers and explosion of creativeness make it actually enjoyable for an viewers. You need them to need to be in that room and simply have a superb time.
