Alan Menken

He is best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Menken's contributions to The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) won him two Academy Awards for each film. He also composed the scores and songs for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Newsies (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home on the Range (2004), Enchanted (2007), Tangled (2010), Disenchanted (2022), and Spellbound (2024), among others. He is also known for his work in musical theater for Broadway winning the Tony Award for Best Original Score for Newsies (2012). He was Tony-nominated for Beauty and the Beast (1993), The Little Mermaid (2008), Sister Act (2009), and Aladdin (2014). His other stage hits include Little Shop of Horrors (1982), A Christmas Carol (1994), Leap of Faith (2012), and A Bronx Tale (2016). Menken has collaborated with lyricists such as Christopher Lennertz, Howard Ashman, Jack Feldman, Tim Rice, Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Schwartz, David Zippel, Glenn Slater, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Alan Menken studied at Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New Rochelle High School and New York University College of Arts and Science. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is film score. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are pop, musical play and operatic pop. The Rolling Stones, Irving Berlin and Stephen Sondheim are recorded as an influence. Residence is recorded at North Salem. Works named in the authority record are The Little Mermaid: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Beauty and the Beast: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Aladdin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Pocahontas: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack, Enchanted: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack and Tangled: An Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack. Distinctions recorded are Academy Award for Best Original Score, Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score, Disney Legends and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.

• Name — Alan Menken • Birth Name — Alan Irwin Menken • Born — 22 July 1949 • Birthplace — Manhattan, New York City, U.S. • Genre — * Pop • musical theatre • film score • Occupation — * Composer • conductor • arranger • music director • music producer • Years Active — 1972–present • Education — New York University (BA) • Label — * Walt Disney • Website — https: www.alanmenken.com

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. His family was Jewish. Menken developed an interest in music at an early age, taking piano and violin lessons. He began to compose at an early age. 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." He attended New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York, and graduated in 1967. Menken remembers: "I'd make up my own Bach fugues and Beethoven sonatas because I was bored with the piano and I didn't want to practice; so I'd go off on tangents". He then enrolled at New York University. Menken graduated in 1972 from University College of Arts and Science at the Heights campus, which is now the College of Arts and Science. After college, he attended the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. 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."

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. From 1974 to 1978, he showcased various BMI workshop works, such as Midnight, Apartment House (lyric by Muriel Robinson), Conversations with Pierre, Harry the Rat and Messiah on Mott Street (lyrics by David Spencer). 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. 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." 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." Menken contributed material to revues like New York's Back in Town, Big Apple Country, The Present Tense (1977), Real Life Funnies (Off-Broadway, 1981), Diamonds (Off-Broadway, 1984), and Personals (Off-Off-Broadway, 1985). 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." 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. He collaborated with Howard Ashman in an uncompleted musical called Babe (c. 1981), with Tom Eyen in Kicks: The Showgirl Musical (1984), and with David Rogers in The Dream in Royal Street (c. 1981), which was an adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Menken contributed music for the film The Line (1980), directed by Robert J. Siegel. • Illustration — Menken's achieved success with Ashman with Little Shop of Horrors (1982) Menken finally achieved success as a composer when playwright Howard Ashman chose him and Engel to write the music for his musical adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The musical opened in 1979 at the WPA Theater to excellent reviews and modest box office. It transferred after several months to the Off-Broadway Entermedia Theater, where it ran for an additional six weeks. 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". For his body of work in musical theatre, he was awarded the BMI Career Achievement Award in 1983. In 1987, Menken and lyricist David Spencer's adaptation The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, based on the 1959 novel of the same name, was produced in Philadelphia. After substantial re-writes, it was produced in 2015 in Montreal. In 1992, the WPA Theatre produced Menken's Weird Romance, also with lyrics by Spencer. Menken's musical based on the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol, with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and book by Mike Ockrent, debuted at Madison Square Garden's Paramount Theater in 1994. The show proved successful and was an annual New York holiday event. From 1989 to 1990, Menken and Howard Ashman wrote songs for the popular puppet TV show Sesame Street. 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". 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.

• Illustration — During this time Menken worked with lyricist Tim Rice On the strength of the success of Little Shop of Horrors, Menken and Ashman were hired by Walt Disney Studios to write the music for The Little Mermaid (1989). The challenge was to create an animated musical film of this Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale that could sit alongside the Disney films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. The Little Mermaid opened to critical and commercial success and signaled a new Disney era called the Disney Renaissance. The film gave them their first Academy Award win: Best Song for the song "Under the Sea". Menken also won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Score. Critic Roger Ebert declared in his review, [the film] contains some of the best Disney music since the glory days." Menken and Ashman's Beauty and the Beast garnered them three 1991 Academy Award nominations for Best Song, winning for its title song. 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". Menken also won the Oscar for Best Score. 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. Menken's live-action musical film Newsies, with lyrics by Jack Feldman, was released in 1992. Three more animated musical films followed. Menken collaborated with Stephen Schwartz for Pocahontas, for which the two won two Academy Awards: Best Song and Best Musical or Comedy Score. In 1996, the same musical team created the songs, and Menken, the score, for The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In 1997, Menken reunited with his early collaborator, David Zippel, for his last film in the era, Hercules. Menken also wrote the music for the Michael J. Fox vehicle Life with Mikey (1993), the holiday film Noel (2004) and Mirror Mirror (2012). His other film scores for Disney have included Home on the Range (2004), the Tim Allen remake of The Shaggy Dog (2006), Enchanted (2007), and Tangled (2010).

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. 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. Menken received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010. In December 2010, he was a guest on the NPR quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!. 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. In 2013, he was a guest at the annual Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, and was honored with the Junior Theater Festival Award. He gave a concert there, including music that was cut from various productions, while talking about his creative process. Menken's stage adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame played at La Jolla Playhouse, California, in 2014. In 2015, Menken co-composed the score for the musical television series Galavant alongside Christopher Lennertz, reuniting him with Tangled screenwriter Dan Fogelman. Menken also co-wrote songs for the series alongside Glenn Slater. The series lasted two seasons, first airing on January 4, 2015, and last airing on January 31, 2016. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was revived in Montreal in 2015, and A Bronx Tale: The Musical played at the Paper Mill Playhouse in 2016. Menken is currently working on stage musical adaptations of Night at the Museum and Animal Farm.

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.

• Year — Title — Credited as — Notes • Composer — Songwriter — Score producer — Executive producer — Actor • 1989–1990 — Sesame Street — 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" • 1989 — Polly — Television film Composed song "By Your Side" with lyrics by Jack Feldman; score by Joel McNeely • 1990 — Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue — TV special Composed "Wonderful Ways to Say No" with lyrics by Howard Ashman; score by Richard Kosinski, Sam Winans, Paul Buckmaster, Bill Reichenbach, Bob Mann and Guy Moon • 1992 — Lincoln — Television film • 2004 — A Christmas Carol — Television film Composed songs with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; score by Michael Kosarin • 2013 — The Neighbors — 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) • 2015–2016 — Galavant — Composed complete soundtrack, score co-composed with Christopher Lennertz • 2017 — Tangled: Before Ever After — Television film Disney Channel original film Composed songs with lyrics by Glenn Slater; score by Kevin Kliesch • 2017–2020 — Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure — Composed complete soundtrack, score composed by Kevin Kliesch • 2019 — The Little Mermaid Live! — TV special Composed original songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman; Composed new songs with lyrics by Glenn Slater • 2020 — Central Park — Episode: "Dog Spray Afternoon" Composed song "Spoiler Alert" with lyrics by Glenn Slater • 2021 — The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — Episode: "The Star-Spangled Man" Composed "Star Spangled Man" with lyrics by David Zippel for Captain America: The First Avenger; score by Henry Jackman • 2022 — Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration — TV special Composed original songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman; Composed "Evermore" with lyrics by Tim Rice • 2024–present — Sausage Party: Foodtopia — "The Great Beyond Score Theme" several episodes

• Dear Worthy Editor (Off-Broadway, c. 1974) • Book by Judy Menken • Based on the letters-to-the-editor of Jewish-American newspaper Daily Jewish Forward • Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (Off-Broadway, 1979) • Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Dennis Green • Book by Ashman • Based on a 1965 novel by Kurt Vonnegut • The Dream on Royal Street (Regional, 1981) • Lyrics by David Rogers • Book by June Walker Rogers • Based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream • Little Shop of Horrors (Off-Broadway, 1982; West End, 1983; Broadway, 2003) • Book and Lyrics by Ashman • Based on the 1960 Filmgroup film • Weird Romance (Off-Broadway, 1992) • Lyrics by David Spencer • Book by Alan Brennert and Spencer • Two one-act musical: Based on "Her Pilgrim Soul" and "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" • Beauty and the Beast (Broadway, 1994; West End, 1997) • Lyrics by Ashman and Tim Rice • Book by Linda Woolverton • Based on the 1991 Disney animated film and the 1740 novelist by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve • A Christmas Carol (Madison Square Garden, 1994–2003) • Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens • Book by Mike Ockrent and Ahrens • Based on 1843 novella by Charles Dickens • King David (Broadway, 1997) • Book and Lyrics by Rice • Based on the Biblical books of "Samuel", "1 Chronicles" and "Psalms" • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Berlin, 1999; La Jolla Playhouse, 2014) • Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz • Book by James Lapine and Peter Parnell • Based on the 1996 Disney animated film and the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo • The Little Mermaid (Broadway, 2008) • Lyrics by Ashman and Glenn Slater • Book by Doug Wright • Based on the 1989 Disney animated film and the 1837 fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen • Sister Act (West End, 2009; Broadway, 2011) • Lyrics by Slater • Book by Cheri Steinkellner and Bill Steinkellner • Based on the 1992 Touchstone film • Leap of Faith (Broadway, 2012) • Lyrics by Slater • Book by Janus Cercone and Warren Leight • Based on the 1992 Paramount film • Newsies (Paper Mill Playhouse, 2011; Broadway, 2012) • Lyrics by Jack Feldman • Book by Harvey Fierstein • Based on the 1992 Disney film • Aladdin (Seattle, 2011; Broadway, 2014) • Lyric by Ashman, Rice and Chad Beguelin • Book by Beguelin • Based on the 1992 Disney animated film and the folk tale from "One Thousand and One Nights" • The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Montreal, 2015) • Book and Lyrics by Spencer • Based on the 1959 novel by Mordecai Richler • A Bronx Tale: The Musical (Broadway, 2016) • Lyrics by Slater • Book by Chazz Palminteri • Based on the 1990 autobiographical one-man play by Palminteri • Hercules (Central Park, 2019; West End, 2025) • Lyrics by David Zippel • Book by Kristoffer Diaz, Robert Horn and Kwame Kwei-Armah • Based on the 1997 Disney animated film and the legendary hero "Heracles"

• Aladdin, Jr. – 1-act, 7-scene musical adapted from the animated film Aladdin 1992 • Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage – Theatrical show at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World • Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular – Theatrical show at Disney California Adventure • The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Theatrical show at Disney's MGM Studios, Walt Disney World • The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure – Attraction at Disney California Adventure • Sindbad's Storybook Voyage featuring "Compass of Your Heart" – Attraction at Tokyo DisneySea, Tokyo Disney Resort • Dramatists Guild of America YouTube Channel music video featuring "Someone Wrote That Song" • Tangled: The Musical – Theatrical show on the Disney Cruise Line (starting November 2015) • Dubai Parks and Resorts's official theme song "All the Wonders of the Universe" (opening October 2016) • Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular 2017 celebration featuring the world premiere of "The Sum of Us" (lyrics by Jack Feldman) for soloist, chorus, and orchestra (Brian Stokes Mitchell, U.S. Army Soldier's Chorus and the Boston Pops Orchestra)

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. The series would be released on Disney's streaming service, Disney+, and Menken would also be an executive-producer on the series. In February 2022, it was reported that the series would not go forward for now. In March 2017, Disney released a live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, directed by Bill Condon and starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, with the songs from the 1991 film and new material by Menken and Rice. Menken collaborated with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul on writing new songs for the 2019 live-action version of Aladdin, directed by Guy Ritchie. 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. 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. 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". Menken again worked with Stephen Schwartz to write new songs for Disenchanted, the sequel to Enchanted. 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, whom Menken knew since the former's childhood, as Miranda went to the same school as Menken's niece. Menken also worked alongside former Disney chief creative officer John Lasseter on a project at Skydance Animation. On May 20, 2020, the project was revealed to be Vicky Jenson's Spellbound. Menken co-wrote songs for Spellbound alongside collaborated with lyricist Glenn Slater, with whom he worked on Home on the Range and Tangled. Menken is also reportedly attached to a sequel to Aladdin. Menken was set to work with Schwartz to write new songs for a remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which Menken would score. However, in May 2023, Menken suggested that the development had been stalled due to the original movie's content and themes. With eight Academy Awards, only composer Alfred Newman (nine wins), art director Cedric Gibbons (11 wins) and Walt Disney (22 wins) have received more Academy Awards than Menken. He is tied for fourth place with late costume designer Edith Head, and currently holds the record for the most wins for a living person.

• Year — Title — Director(s) — Credited as — Notes • Composer — Songwriter — Score producer — Actor • 1972 — A Dancer's Life — William Richert — Documentary film • 1986 — Little Shop of Horrors — Frank Oz — Composed original and new songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman; score by Miles Goodman • 1989 — The Little Mermaid — John Musker Ron Clements — First score for an animated film Composed songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman • 1990 — Rocky V — John G. Avildsen — Composed song "Measure of a Man"; score by Bill Conti • 1991 — Beauty and the Beast — Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise — Composed songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman • 1992 — Newsies — Kenny Ortega — Composed songs with lyrics by Jack Feldman; score by J.A.C. Redford First score for a live-action film • Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — Chris Columbus — Composed song "My Christmas Tree" with lyrics by Jack Feldman; score by John Williams • Aladdin — John Musker Ron Clements — Composed songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman & Tim Rice • 1993 — Life with Mikey — James Lapine — Composed songs "Cold Enough to Snow" and "Life with Mikey Theme" with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz & Jack Feldman • 1995 — Pocahontas — Mike Gabriel Eric Goldberg — Composed songs with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz • 1996 — The Hunchback of Notre Dame — Gary Trousdale Kirk Wise • 1997 — Hercules — John Musker Ron Clements — Composed songs with lyrics by David Zippel • 2004 — Home on the Range — Will Finn John Sanford — Composed songs with lyrics by Glenn Slater • Noel — Chazz Palminteri — Composed song "Winter Light" with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz • 2006 — The Shaggy Dog — Brian Robbins • 2007 — Enchanted — Kevin Lima — Composed songs with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz • 2010 — Tangled — Byron Howard Nathan Greno — Composed songs with lyrics by Glenn Slater • 2011 — Captain America: The First Avenger — Joe Johnston — Composed "Star Spangled Man" with lyrics by David Zippel; score by Alan Silvestri • Jock the Hero Dog — Duncan MacNeillie — Composed song "Howling at the moon" with lyrics by Tim Rice; score by Klaus Badelt and Ian Honeyman • 2012 — Mirror Mirror — Tarsem Singh • 2016 — Sausage Party — Conrad Vernon Greg Tiernan — Co-composer with Christopher Lennertz; Composed song "The Great Beyond" with lyrics by Glenn Slater, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Ariel Shaffir and Kyle Hunter • Aria for a Cow — Dan Lund — Short film; Composed song "Aria" with lyrics by Howard Ashman • 2017 — Beauty and the Beast — Bill Condon — Returned from the 1991 animated film Composed original songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman; Composed new songs with Tim Rice • 2018 — Ralph Breaks the Internet — Rich Moore Phil Johnston — Composed songs "In This Place" and "A Place Called Slaughter Race" with lyrics by Phil Johnston & Tom MacDougall; score by Henry Jackman • Holmes & Watson — Etan Cohen — Composed song "Strange Sensation" with lyrics by Glenn Slater; score by Mark Mothersbaugh • Howard — Don Hahn — Documentary film Disney+ original film Limited theatrical run in 2018; official release in 2020 • 2019 — Aladdin — Guy Ritchie — 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 • 2022 — Disenchanted — Adam Shankman — Disney+ original film Returned from the 2007 film Composed songs with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz • 2023 — The Little Mermaid — Rob Marshall — 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 • 2024 — Spellbound — Vicky Jenson — Netflix original film Composed songs with lyrics by Glenn Slater