Ferguson 1
Music is one of the universal languages that can connect all people, no matter where they come from or who they are. The best composers are those who know how to craft music so that all people will be affected, hearing their own emotions within the melodies. Alan Menken is one such composer, best known for his work in film and on Broadway. Menken stands out among all other contemporary composers as having a unique ability to weave emotion into his songs, touching hearts and inspiring listeners. Alan Menken has made a lasting impact on musical theatre, popularizing the art form and inspiring the next generation of artists through his music’s unique ability to inspire joy, love, and hope.
Alan Menken was born in New York City on July 22, 1949 (7). His mother was an actress and his father was a dentist; however, his mother also loved to write and his father was an avid pianist (7). His parents’ pursuance of their dreams in their careers and greater lives foreshadows Menken’s later life choices. Menken attended New York University, but could not decide on his major for some time: “Alan drifted from Pre-Med to Anthropology major to Philosophy major to finally graduating with a degree in Musicology” (7). Menken relates that even though people were skeptical of what kind of life he could make out of a career in music, he knew that he had to follow his passion (7). This unshakable conviction to his dreams and passions shows Menken’s emotional strength and intelligence, an intelligence he was later able to translate into melody.
Alan Menken’s career started to take off when he began work at the BMI Workshop, started and and run by legendary Broadway composer Lehman Engel. It through Engel that he met Howard Ashman, his first and arguably most important collaborator. Howard Ashman, though not a part of the workshop itself, quickly bonded with Menken; together, with Ashman’s
Ferguson 2
lyrics and Menken’s music, they began to create stories. They worked on various projects, with their collective acclaim and reputation growing with each. Finally, they hit their big break on Off-Broadway with Little Shop of Horrors, a dark 50s doo-wop musical comedy about a man-eating plant and the havoc it wreaks in the life of the kind young man who unwittingly picked it up. The musical quickly moved from the WPA Theater to the Orpheum Theater, and would become the highest-grossing Off-Broadway musical to date (7). Menken worked on a few other shows both on and Off-Broadway. ADD MORE HERE? Then, Ashman came to Menken with a proposition that would change both of their lives.
In 1988, Howard Ashman approached Alan Menken with a question: they had been offered a job working on the latest upcoming Disney animated movie (7). Disney had already established itself as a household entity by then, so working for one of their animated musicals was the chance of a lifetime. Ashman and Menken took the job, and they wrote the music for what would become known as The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid, a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic story of a mermaid who fell in love with a human man quickly became a box office hit. “The Little Mermaid restored the company not just to relevance but to glory, instantly earning comparisons with its time-honoured, first-generation classics… but the most breathless praise was reserved for Ashman and Menken's songs, which managed to both enchant and drive the plot” (5). Menken and Ashman continued their work with Disney after this success, creating music for Beauty and the Beast in 1991 and Aladdin in 1992 (4). Menken went on to create music for many other Disney movies, including Hercules, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Tangled. With his compositions, “Menken helped to usher in a golden age of Disney
Ferguson 3
animated films…” (5). His songs became recognizable in households; “A Whole New World” from Aladdin became the only Disney song to hit the Billboard Hot 100 (5). Menken undoubtedly brought about a new age for Disney, and his influence did not end on film.
As soon as his movies started getting popular and he gained more voice in the company, Menken pitched Disney the idea of bringing musicals to Broadway. Menken relates: “‘I tried to get Disney interested in producing original musicals on Broadway… but it said it was not a good business model. But then suddenly out of nowhere, probably because of the press it received, Beauty and the Beast became the project it decided to bring to Broadway’” (4). Beauty and the Beast hit Broadway in 1994, running for around 5,500 performances for over 13 years, thereby becoming the ninth longest-running Broadway show to date (4). Menken did lots of other work on Broadway, both with Disney and independently. Notably, Menken wrote the music for the Disney stage musical Newsies, and staged versions of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin have also gone to Broadway, beginning their runs in 2008 and 2014 respectively (4). He also wrote the music to two other notable independent shows, Leap of Faith and Sister Act. “Alan Menken broke a new milestone when he became the first songwriter in 13 years to have 3 new shows running concurrently on Broadway with SISTER ACT, LEAP OF FAITH and NEWSIES” (7). Not all of these shows were successful, however; the original production of The Little Mermaid flopped, and Leap of Faith only ran for 19 performances (4). However, overall, Menken is still considered one of the most successful contemporary musical theatre composers of the era. This was achieved through unique qualities in his writing and the stories he tells through his music.
One of the things that makes Alan Menken so unique is his ability to collaborate. It is true
Ferguson 4
that Howard Ashman was one of his most well-known, and perhaps his best, writing partners. Ashman and Menken were able to connect, understand how to interpret and enhance the other’s language and create meaningful and powerful music. Menken said of Ashman, “I have the emotions; Howard has the ideas plus lyrics, and he comes to me. I have the skill to give him the score that is perfect for the show” (1). However, Howard Ashman passed away in 1991 from AIDS complications, before Aladdin was complete; Menken finished the final parts of the movie soundtrack with legendary lyricist Tim Rice (4). Menken has also worked with other notable composers and lyricists, including Chad Beguelin, Jack Feldman, and Stephen Schwartz (7). With all of these various collaborations, the quality of Menken’s music has never wavered. This shows his unique and incredible ability to translate emotions into music, no matter whose words are set to it. In all of his projects, with all of his collaborators, Menken’s music continues to be able to inspire.
Alan Menken’s music is so unique for many reasons, but especially for its ability to connect with any audience. One reason for this is Menken’s inspirations. When asked why his music is so eclectic, Menken said, “Well, I'm a bit of a chameleon, and I enjoy working in different forms and sort of filtering them through the Alan Menken filter” (3). Menken has a distinct talent for taking different styles of music and marrying them with the emotion he is trying to portray. This holds true for the 50s doo-wop in Little Shop of Horrors, the gospel sounds of Sister Act and Leap of Faith, and all of the styles in his Disney movies, which feature “a smorgasbord of musical styles, including sea shanties, German cabaret, French music hall, Mozart operetta and, in Aladdin, the Harlem grooves of Fats Waller and Cab Calloway” (5). This
Ferguson 5
ability to feature lots of different types of music is important because it enables the listeners to recognize and connect to the music of the story more easily. The easier the audience connects, the easier they will understand the emotions portrayed. This genre incorporation combined with his style of melodic writing is what makes the music so easy to connect to and understand. Menken wants his melodies to be memorable, and have a very strong emotional grounding. He believes that “‘Songs should have an infectious melody and rhythm… They ‘should elicit an emotion, of happiness, or of celebration, or of sadness, or of sorrow, or of love, or of laughter — whatever’” (6). Menken believes that the purpose of music in a show is to move the story forward, and his music does exactly that (6). With its unique blend of familiar sounds and emotions, Menken tells new stories through memorable, inspiring melodies.
Another important aspect of Alan Menken’s writing is the stories he chooses to tell. When choosing a project to work on, Menken makes sure to choose the right kind of story. He prefers “… black comedy, something that can be as musicalized as possible, and something that is new” (1). Menken looks for stories that have not been told before, perhaps ones that would not have been typically thought of as musical theatre material. For example, one might not think a musical about a man-eating plant would sell, but Little Shop of Horrors continues to be popular, thanks in part to Menken’s exceptional music. Whatever story Menken tells becomes meaningful and easily relatable to the audience, even those one might not think typically relatable. Most people might not relate to a mermaid on first glance; however, Menken’s song “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid relates the feeling of wanting to be a part of something greater, something more (5). This kind of feeling is one all people have experienced at one time or
Ferguson 6
another, so the strong emotional grounding in the song allows the audience to relate to the character of Ariel in the movie. Menken’s commitment to relating emotion in his songs is what makes them so powerful. No matter who the character is or what setting they are in, every listener will hear something of themselves within the music. This is what makes Alan Menken’s music truly unique.
There is no doubt that Alan Menken is one of the best and most influential composers of the era. His work has impacted the work of so many other contemporary artists. Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who with her husband Robert Lopez wrote the music to the Disney musical Frozen, credits Menken with inspiring the newest generation of Disney writers. “‘We're just playing on a playground that Menken and Ashman built’”, she says, explaining that Menken set the standard for all other Disney composers afterwards (5). Other composers agre, like Menken’s sometime-collaborator Glenn Slater, arguing that Menken is possibly the most seminal composer of the last thirty years (5). Menken’s work has also inspired young composers as well as his peers, including his daughter, Anna Rose (5). Menken therefore always tries to give advice to budding composers, one standout being the following: “Don’t make it about you: make it about the work” (4). Throughout his career, Menken has stressed that what is truly important is the story that needs to be told, not the composer; the music is the vehicle for the story’s emotions, which is why the character and the story always come first (3). It is this dedication to portraying true emotion that sets Alan Menken apart from the rest.
Alan Menken is perhaps the most prominent