{
Alan Menken
Early Life and Career
Alan Menken was born July 22nd, 1949 in New Rochelle, New York to Norman
and Judy Menken. With encouragement from his parents, Menken developed a
love for music at any early age and studied piano and violin.
Menken attended New York University where he explored a variety of majors
such as Pre-Medicine, Anthropology, and Psychology before settling on
Musicology. After earning his degree in Musicology from NYU Menken worked
under Lehman Ingram, the Music Director at the Musical Theater Workshop.
However, to support himself Menken wrote jingles, accompanied ballet classes
and consulted on music for shows.
As well, Menken he took a collection of his songs and wrote a rock-ballet for The
Downtown Ballet Company, called CHILDREN OF THE WORLD. While the
work did not become incredibly popular Menken met his wife, Janis Roswick
through the process as she was of the ballet dancers in the company.
In 1979, Alan Menken met Howard Ashman in New York.
Ashman was artistic director of the WPA Theatre and was
looking for a fellow composer to work with him. Lehman
Engel, a mutual friend and Menken’s old boss,
recommended Menken. The pair would go on to work on a
variety of projects together , most notably for Disney, where
Menken would compose the music and Ashman would
write the lyrics.
Style of Music
Menken and Ashman were known for incorporating a
variety of musical styles into their arrangements.
Example: Reggae Music in “Under the Sea” from The Little
Mermaid
Little Shop of Horrors
Menken and Ashman achieved there first success with the
musical Little Shop of Horrors which premiered Off-OffBroadway in 1982 but soon moved to the Orpheum Theatre
Off Broadway where is has a five year run. The show
quickly became popular and spurred many productions in
the U.S. and abroad as well as an on Broadway Production.
The musical also spurred a movie that came out in 1986.
Menken wrote an additional song for the movie, “Mean
green Mother From Outer Space.” The song was nominated
for an Academy Award in the Best Song Category.
Menken and Ashman
Disney
Alan Menken and Howard Ashman are most famous for
their work on multiple musical scores for Disney
animated films including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and
the Beast and Aladdin. Their first project was the Little
Mermaid. Menken had never attempted to compose a
film score before but was nevertheless earned an Oscar
for not only Best Song (“Under the Sea”) but Best Score as
well. Menken and Ashman are partially credited with the
come back of Animated Musicals. Within a year of the
release of the Little Mermaid the pair began work on two
new projects, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.
Howard Ashman would die before the release of the two
projects after a long battle with HIV Aids. However, his
influence would continue to inspire Disney animators
and composers, such as Alan Menken. Howard Ashman
died at the early of 40 ion March 14th, 1991.
Beauty and the Beast would go on to win Best Picture at
the Golden Globes. The song “Beauty and the Beast”
became a hit single. Aladdin also won Best Score and 2
Best Song nominations. “A Whole New World,” written
by Menken and Tim Rice after the passing of Howard
Ashman, won Best Song.
All three of these Disney musicals would be adapted to
Broadway. These shows would join Menken’s other
Broadway productions, Newsies, Sister Act and Leap of
Faith.