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Alan Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.
Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas, each of which won him two Academy Awards. He also composed the scores for The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, Enchanted, and Tangled. Menken has collaborated on several occasions with lyricists including Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Glenn Slater, and Stephen Schwartz. He has won a total of eight Oscars, more than any other living individual, and has been Oscar-nominated a total of nineteen times.
[edit] Life and career
Menken was born in Manhattan into a Jewish family, the son of Judith and Norman Menken, a dentist.[1] He developed an interest in music at an early age, studying piano and violin. He went to New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York. He attended college as a pre-med student, but later changed his focus to music at NYU Steinhardt. After college, he attended the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop. He performed frequently in local clubs and worked as a composer of jingles and songs and as an accompanist.
In the late 1970s, Menken wrote several shows that were successfully showcased, but were not produced. Menken's first major professional work was with Ashman for the Off Broadway 1979 WPA Theatre production of the play God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, an adaptation of a Kurt Vonnegut novel. This was well received, but three years later, he achieved greater success with the 1982 Off Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors, again with Ashman, for which he earned a Drama Desk Award nomination. Little Shop was adapted for a successful motion picture and later received a Broadway run.
In 1983, Menken received the BMI Career Achievement Award for his body of work for musical theater, including Little Shop of Horrors, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Real Life Funnies, Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy (produced in workshop as Battle of the Giants), Patch, Patch, Patch, and contributions to numerous revues including Personals and Diamonds. In 1987, a musical adaptation of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, with lyrics by David Spencer, was produced in Philadelphia. In 1992, the WPA Theatre produced Menken's Weird Romance, also with lyrics also by Spencer. Menken's 1994 musical based on the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and book by Mike Ockrent, debuted at Madison Square Garden's Paramount Theater. The show proved successful and is becoming an annual New York holiday event. Menken received both Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for the music to the stage musical version of Beauty and the Beast which opened on Broadway in 1994.
Menken is best known, however, for his work over the past two decades with Walt Disney Pictures scoring numerous films, including Disney animated classics The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and Home on the Range, and most recently, Disney's 2010 animated film Tangled. He also wrote music for the Disney live-action films Newsies (1992) and Enchanted (2007). Menken has received dual Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Song on four of these projects. With eight Academy Award wins (four each for Best Original Score and Best Original Song), only composer Alfred Newman (nine wins) and Walt Disney (twenty two wins) have received more Oscars than Menken. He is tied in third place with late costume designer Edith Head. He currently holds the record for the most wins for a living person. He was named Disney Legend in 2001.
A musical version of The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway in January 2008. Menken's Sister Act the Musical was produced in London, 2009, and opened on Broadway in Spring 2011. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Score for his work.[2]
Menken and his wife, Janis, a former ballet dancer, reside in the suburbs of New York City with their two children, Anna and Nora.
Menken received the 2,422nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 10, 2010.[3]
He is currently at work on stage adaptations of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Newsies and Aladdin.[4]
In December 2010, he was a guest on NPR's new quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
[edit] Filmography
[edit] Feature
[edit] Score and songs
[edit] Songs only
[edit] Television
[edit] Musicals
[edit] Upcoming projects
- Disney has announced that Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame, the Berlin stage musical adaptation of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame will be coming to the Broadway stage in the next couple of years. Although the extended music and new songs with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz were completed for the 1999 premiere in Germany, the show is being fine tuned for American audiences, and in 2011, it will be ready for a Broadway premiere which it has a happy ending like the film.
- A Broadway musical version of Disney's Aladdin, with a book by Chad Beguelin. The songs will be the ones featured in the movie, along with cut songs written by both Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and the song that Menken wrote by himself for the theatrical adaption at California Adventure (To Be Free).[7] Casey Nicholaw is expected to direct and choreograph the stage musical Aladdin which is expected to run at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle, Washington, July 7–31, 2011. The musical "is not being groomed for a Broadway future."[8]
- Menken along with Weird Romance collaborator David Spencer wrote the musical The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, which is currently in Canada.[9]
[edit] Awards
[edit] Academy Award nominations and wins
- 1987
- 1990
- 1992
- 1993
- 1996
- 1997
- 1998
- 2008
- 2011
[edit] Golden Globe nominations and wins
[edit] Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards
[edit] Other awards
[edit] Further reading
[edit] References
- ^ Alan Menken Biography (1949-)
- ^ http://broadwayworld.com/article/2011-Tony-Nominations-Announced-THE-BOOK-OF-MORMON-Leads-With-14-20110503
- ^ Alan Menken to Be Honored with Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- ^ [1] BroadwayWorld.com, November 15, 2010
- ^ Gans, Andrew and Hernandez, Ernio."Musical Workshop" playbill.com, April 30, 2008
- ^ Jones, Kenneth."Leap of Faith, Menken's Gospel-Filled Musical Comedy, Will Premiere in L.A." playbill.com, January 28, 2010
- ^ BWW EXCLUSIVE: Alan Menken Talks TANGLED, SISTER ACT, LEAP OF FAITH, HUNCHBACK, ALADDIN & More 2010/11/15
- ^ Hetrick, Adam. "Disney's Aladdin Will Come to Life on Stage at Seattle's 5th Avenue; Casey Nicholaw Will Direct" playbill.com, January 14, 2011
- ^ BWW EXCLUSIVE: Alan Menken Talks TANGLED, SISTER ACT, LEAP OF FAITH, HUNCHBACK, ALADDIN & More 2010/11/15 Page 2
- ^ [2]
[edit] External links
| v · d · eGolden Globe Award for Best Original Song (1980s) |
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"Fame" Lyrics by Dean Pitchford, Music by Michael Gore (1980) · "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" Music & Lyrics by Peter Allen, Burt Bacharach, Christopher Cross, & Carole Bayer Sager (1981) · "Up Where We Belong" Lyrics by Wilbur Jennings, Music by Jack Nitzsche & Buffy Sainte-Marie (1982) · "Flashdance... What a Feeling" Lyrics by Irene Cara, Keith Forsey, Music by Giorgio Moroder (1983) · "I Just Called to Say I Love You" Music & Lyrics by Stevie Wonder (1984) · "Say You, Say Me" Music & Lyrics by Lionel Richie (1985) · "Take My Breath Away" Lyrics by Tom Whitlock, Music by Giorgio Moroder (1986) · "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" Lyrics by Franke Previte, Music by John DeNicola & Donald Markowitz (1987) · "Let the River Run" Music & Lyrics by Carly Simon/"Two Hearts" Lyrics by Phil Collins, Music by Lamont Dozier (1988) · "Under the Sea" Lyrics by Howard Ashman, Music by Alan Menken (1989)
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