Alan Menken Is aware of He Wrote the ‘Soundtrack to Your Childhood’

Alan Menken is a real romantic. Simply ask him how he met his spouse of 52 years, Janis.

“This dancer walks into the room, and I knew instantly who she was, as a result of I dreamt her,” he says, beaming from throughout the breakfast desk on a Beverly Hills rooftop.

It’s no shock that the person behind lionized love songs like “A Complete New World” and “I See the Mild” has a young, light nature. In reality, it’s that simple sentimentality that has elevated Menken to legend standing (and EGOT standing) over the course of his profession spanning 5 many years. The composer has earned eight Oscars (essentially the most of any individual alive in the present day), all of which got here from his work on movies of the so-called “Disney Renaissance,” the interval between 1989 and 1999 when the Mouse Home produced a few of its most beloved animated movies. And he stays one of many business’s most sought-after songwriters to this present day, most not too long ago penning the music for Skydance’s full of life 2024 film “Spellbound.”

However earlier than penning classics together with “A part of Your World” and “Colours of the Wind,” Menken had a distinct career in thoughts. “Virtually all the lads in my household had been dentists,” he says. However the younger maestro had loftier objectives. “I simply wish to sit and make up music,” he informed his father, who described the prospect as “a recipe for failure and turning into a shoe salesman.”

The stress to evolve took its toll on Menken bodily: “I developed a peptic ulcer on the age of 11, simply due to all of the stresses of feeling that disparity between what I wished and what was anticipated.”

Menken set his sights on making the household proud, enhancing his grades and attending NYU as a pre-med scholar. It didn’t final lengthy. “I believe I made it to 1 class in biology,” he says with fun. He could be the king of crafting kid-friendly hits, however Menken’s no sq.. “It was 1967, so I spent 4 years writing music and getting excessive. No extra ulcer, however very apprehensive mother and father!”

To appease them, Menken joined the BMI musical theater workshop with famed composer Lehman Engel, all whereas writing songs for “Sesame Road” and catchy jingles to make ends meet. Menken as soon as dreamed of turning into a rock star (“like Billy Joel or Elton John!”), however his time with Engel and his cohorts at BMI, together with “9” composer Maury Yeston, impressed upon him a newfound theatrical sensibility.

“That’s the place my pop and rock type of writing married to every little thing else, and have become a part of my signature type,” Menken says. “You have got such a specificity of tales and characters and genres you could possibly go to. It simply retains it recent, additionally, with collaboration.”

That penchant for collaboration has been the key sauce to Menken’s most beloved works – and all of it started with lyricist Howard Ashman. “Initially, I used to be writing music and lyrics, and I used to be really an excellent lyricist. Nonetheless am! However with Howard, I stated, ‘Okay, I’ll put that apart,’ as a result of he had his personal theater. He had the rights to a present, ‘God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.’”

The difference of the Kurt Vonnegut novel was a crucial hit when it opened in 1979, ultimately transferring Off-Broadway. The issue, Menken says, was that it had too huge of a solid to foster longevity. So when he and Ashman set their sights on a brand new collaboration, a musical based mostly on the 1960 black comedy “Little Store of Horrors,” they saved the numbers tight with a solid of simply 9 performers.

“With ‘Little Store,’ every little thing exploded,” Menken says of the 1982 Off-Broadway smash about an formidable younger florist who discovers a carnivorous alien plant. Given his household enterprise, it’s no shock that Menken was the proper match to pen a tune a few dentist (albeit a sadistic one). The musical spurred by itself movie adaptation in 1986 starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene and Steve Martin.

Menken and Ashman’s new tune penned for the film, the anthemic villain rap “Imply Inexperienced Mom From Outer Area,” earned the pair their first Oscar nominations – and the Academy’s first-ever nod for a tune that includes express lyrics (“You’ll be able to maintain The Factor, maintain The It, / Maintain The Creature, they don’t imply shit!”). Formally solidified as a white-hot workforce, Disney took discover (regardless of the profanity).

“It was [‘Little Shop’ producer] David Geffen who actually related us to Disney. It was extra by way of Howard, as a result of Howard was that extremely uncommon commodity of any person who understood how one can how one can use the musical style in a dramaturgical means,” Menken says with reverence. “For me, the massive headline after they got here to us about ‘The Little Mermaid’ was, ‘Nice! Howard and I are going to work collectively once more!’”

Whereas the 1989 Hans Christian Andersen adaptation doesn’t outwardly resemble the morbidly humorous “Little Store,” Menken says the musicals are literally religious sisters: Ariel longs for all times on land the identical means Audrey and Seymour dream of a world away from the imply streets of Skid Row. “We used to jokingly name ‘A part of Your World,’ ‘Someplace That’s Dry,’” he recollects with fun, referencing the beloved “Little Store” ballad “Someplace That’s Inexperienced.”

“It was this infusion of expertise instantly from theater into Disney and into animation,” Menken says of the movie, which was a direct hit amongst critics, audiences and awards voters alike. “You can sense there was this starvation for traditional Disney animation. What we dropped at it had a complete new rootedness within the chopping fringe of musical theater. It was an excellent, explosive mixture.”

After all, the Mouse Home wished extra. Menken and Ashman started working on each “Magnificence and the Beast” and “Aladdin, whereas Menken was concurrently writing music for “Newsies” with lyricist Jack Feldman.

“The Little Mermaid” kicked off the Disney Renaissance, and although Menken does his finest to remain humble about that interval of unprecedented success, he admits to at all times understanding this work was one thing particular. “In my intestine, I believe I knew all of it alongside. We had been clearly a very particular collaboration. I had developed loads of abilities as a songwriter,” he recollects of writing alongside Ashman. “My specific model of expertise was very, very appropriate with this way. I felt that I had this distinctive voice to convey homage to kinds of music and re-ignite them.”

What Menken didn’t know was that his cherished time of collaboration with Ashman would quickly come to an finish.

“Howard was not letting anybody know that he was HIV constructive,” Menken says, his jovial demeanor turning immediately somber. “It was like a demise sentence. … It was a nightmare time. You’d watch these younger, wholesome males actually be shrinking into nothing and dying.”

The pair was capable of end their work on “Magnificence and the Beast,” however Ashman handed away in 1991 earlier than the movie’s launch. “The day that Howard died, I dreamed I used to be visiting Howard within the hospital,” Menken recollects. “He stated, ‘Hey, assist me up.’ I put my palms beneath his again and lifted. There was no weight. He fell on the ground like a Raggedy Ann doll. I picked him up, and he was not within the hospital robe. He was in a black gown. I awoke and keep in mind trying on the time.”

The following morning, Menken realized the information from dozens of messages on his answering machine. “He had handed. It was on the precise hour that I had that dream.”

Menken stays silent for a couple of moments earlier than including, “It’s fueled every little thing that’s come since. I took on defending each of us.”

Menken was joined by “Jesus Christ Famous person” lyricist Tim Rice to finish work on “Aladdin,” and admits to feeling involved that the extent of success he achieved with Ashman was behind him. Fortunately, these fears had been assuaged when he and Rice took dwelling the Oscar for “A Complete New World,” the primary “Aladdin” tune they wrote with out Ashman.

The maestro flashes a smile. “It was Howard who actually talked me into – virtually browbeated me into – scoring these films, which was such a blessing. The truth that I write the songs and I rating them creates a style of labor that’s fairly distinctive. God, I really feel so blessed that I try this.”

His fruitful inventive partnership with Disney continued for a few years to come back, composing music for “Pocahontas,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Hercules” “Enchanted” and “Tangled,” amongst others.

As beloved as Menken’s work is, the Disney Princess franchise has confronted appreciable criticism for its portrayal of younger ladies, arguing that its heroines’ solely objectives are to seek out love.

Menken flat-out rejects these claims. “Take a look at Ariel. Take a look at Belle. Take a look at Jasmine. I’m making an attempt to think about if any of our characters have been something however empowered,” he says. “These feminine protagonists are very modern, very highly effective. Ariel is absolutely three-dimensional and relatable. Belle is vibrant and curious and passionate and strong-willed. Jasmine breaks free and is her personal individual. Pocahontas is Pocahontas. My perspective is that our job is to create a narrative that has the fitting dimension and the fitting construction in it. Inside that, you need characters which might be relatable, that develop. There are occasions the place you may need a personality that doesn’t meet all of your requirements of what they need to be, however that’s a part of telling the story.”

And Menken’s work has stood the take a look at of time, with Disney opting to craft live-action variations of a number of movies from its Renaissance period. He’s loved revisiting his work for the brand new medium and discovering new methods to convey depth to those larger-than-life characters. He cites Jasmine’s highly effective ballad “Speechless” from Man Ritchie’s 2019 film as a very proud second of empowerment.

However there’s one change to a live-action movie he wasn’t the most important fan of. Within the 2023 “Little Mermaid” iteration with Halle Bailey, her crustacean pal Sebastian sings some up to date strains by Lin-Manuel Miranda throughout “Kiss the Woman” to make sure audiences don’t really feel Prince Eric is forcing himself on Ariel. “There may be one option to ask her / It don’t take a phrase / Not a single phrase / Go on and kiss the lady,” are the unique 1989 lyrics. Daveed Diggs’ new Sebastian, however, croons, “Use your phrases boy and ask her / If the time is true / And the time is tonight / Go on and kiss the lady.”

“Let’s not sanitize ourselves out of any sort of ardour. That’s not the best way we’re constructed as folks,” he says, rolling his eyes. “We acknowledge what’s proper and incorrect. However on the identical time, passions should not constructed out of correctness.”

He’s not shedding sleep over it, although. “Everyone compromises on their stances. We have now to be one society by some means,” he says. “The fundamental underlying feelings and intentions and wishes are precisely the identical.”

Menken intends to convey that very same signature emotion to the litany of tasks he’s presently acquired within the works, from “Hercules” on the West Finish to new musicals based mostly on the Nancy Drew sequence and George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”

“I don’t should do it for monetary causes anymore. I do it for emotional causes,” Menken says of remaining booked and busy at 75. “Why am I profitable? As a result of I’m in all probability boring sufficient to wish to do the identical factor each day. That’s what I wish to do. It’s what I like doing. You’ll be able to’t manufacture that.”

It doesn’t harm that he’s reminded so usually of how a lot his music has meant to thousands and thousands — he can’t go a day with out being informed, “You wrote the soundtrack to my childhood.” He’s undecided why that precise phrase is what’s caught, however he’s grateful to have guided so many by way of their most formative moments. He’s a romantic, in any case.

“In the course of the AIDS disaster, my daughter was born. It was a terrifying time. Individuals had been dying proper and left. It was very horrifying. I couldn’t watch the information. It was all too painful. Too uncooked,” he says. However he discovered an escape. “I’d put in ‘Winnie the Pooh’ or ‘Snow White’ or ‘Cinderella’ or ‘Peter Pan.’ I remembered being a toddler. And I remembered feeling protected. I’m proud to be part of that.”

After all, the youngsters that had been raised on his songs have since grown up, however Menken nonetheless sees them the identical means he did all these years in the past.

“We’re all youngsters,” he muses with a smile. “There’s a toddler in all of us. That youngster is the a part of us that remembers when the feelings had been essentially the most intense, when the freshness of life was essentially the most intense, when the sense of discovery was most fun. That’s the a part of us that reacts to music.”