Alan Menken

Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist. Menken is best known for his scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards. He also composed the scores for Little Shop of Horrors, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Newsies, Home on the Range, Enchanted, Tangled, The Shaggy Dog, and Mirror Mirror.

Menken has collaborated on several occasions with lyricists including Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Glenn Slater, Stephen Schwartz, and David Zippel. With eight Academy Award wins (four each for Best Original Score and Best Original Song), Menken is the second most prolific Oscar winner in a music category after Alfred Newman, who has nine Oscars.

Life and education
Menken was born in New York, NY to Norman Menken a dentist and his wife Judith an actress and dancer. 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 focussing on music at New York University's Steinhardt School. 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.

Menken has been married to former ballet dancer Janis Roswick-Menken since 1972; they met when Alan composed a ballet and Janis came to audition. The couple have two daughters Anna Rose Menken and Nora Menken.

Menken lives in North Salem, New York.

Career
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. The play was an idea he got from Amy Lazarus, who originally had the idea for the play after watching the film one afternoon with her then friend, Bill O'Brien. Little Shop was adapted into a successful motion picture in 1986, and 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 the Walt Disney Studios scoring numerous films, including Disney animated classics The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, and Tangled, as well as the live-action Disney films Newsies (1992) and Enchanted (2007). Menken has received dual Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original 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 (22 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 a Disney Legend in 2001.

A musical version of The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway in January 2008 and in Europe/the Netherlands in June 2012. 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.

Menken received the 2,422nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 10, 2010.

He currently has a musical version of Aladdin on Broadway whilst revising The Hunchback of Notre Dame for a Broadway audience.

In December 2010, he was a guest on NPR's new quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.

In January 2013, he was a special guest at the annual Junior Theatre Festival in Atlanta, GA. He gave a special concert for attendees, including a special medley and several songs that were cut from various productions, while talking about his creative process. While there, he was also honored with the Freddie G. Award for Musical Achievement. Upon receiving this award, he was serenaded with "Be our Guest" by a select group of performers.

Songs only

 * Little Shop of Horrors (complete soundtrack, score by Miles Goodman) 1986 (Oscar nominee)
 * Who Framed Roger Rabbit (the song "This Only Happens in the Movies", score by Alan Silvestri) 1988 (unproduced prequel)
 * Polly (the song "By your side", score by Joel McNeely) 1989
 * Rocky V (the song "The Measure of a Man", score by Bill Conti) 1990
 * Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (the song "My Christmas Tree", score by John Williams) 1992
 * Captain America: The First Avenger (the song "Star Spangled Man", score by Alan Silvestri) 2011
 * Jock of the Bushveld (two versions of the song "Howling at the Moon", score by Klaus Badelt and Ian Honeyman) 2012
 * Sausage Party 2016

Television

 * Sesame Street [the songs "Grouchelot", "What is Friend?", "It's Gonna Get Dirty Again," "Snuffle Friends," "Martian Family (Yip Yip Song)," and "Todos un Pueblo"] 1989-1990
 * Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (supervising composer, the song "Wonderful Ways to Say No") 1990
 * Lincoln 1992
 * A Christmas Carol 2004
 * The Neighbors - S01E20 "Sing Like a Larry Bird" [the songs "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)] 2013 (Emmy nominee)
 * Galavant (Thirty songs and reprises, score by Christopher Lennertz) 2014
 * Tangled (score by Kevin Kliesch) 2017

Musicals

 * God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater WPA Theatre May 1979 and Entermedia Theater October 1979
 * Little Shop of Horrors Off Broadway 1982 and Broadway revival 2003
 * Weird Romance Off Broadway (1997) and revival of two 1-act musicals based on "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" and "Her Pilgrim Soul"
 * Aladdin, Jr. a 1-act, 7-scene musical adapted from the animated film Aladdin 1992
 * Beauty and the Beast Broadway 1994 (Tony nominee)
 * A Christmas Carol Perennial holiday run (10 years) The Theatre at Madison Square Garden 1994-2003
 * King David 1997
 * The Hunchback of Notre Dame 1999
 * The Little Mermaid Broadway 2008/ Europe 2012 (Tony nominee)
 * Sister Act West End 2009, Broadway 2011 (Tony nominee)
 * Leap of Faith Los Angeles 2010, Broadway 2012
 * Newsies stage musical Papermill Playhouse 2011, Broadway 2012 (Tony winner)
 * Aladdin Seattle 2011, Broadway 2014
 * The Hunchback of Notre Dame stage musical La Jolla Playhouse 2014
 * The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (musical) Segal Centre for Performing Arts 2015
 * The Dream on Royal Street

Other

 * 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 Park
 * 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 Park
 * Sindbad's Storybook Voyage featuring "Compass of your Heart" - Attraction at Tokyo DisneySea, Tokyo Disney Resort
 * Dramatists Guild of America's YouTube Channel music video featuring "Someone Wrote that song"
 * Tangled: the Musical - Theatrical show on the Disney Cruise Line (starting November 2015)

Upcoming projects

 * Menken is composing a new musical based on a 1994 film Corrina, Corrina with lyrics by Brian Yorkey and book by Jessie Nelson (writer for the film's screenplay).


 * In June 2014, Bill Condon announced that he will direct the live film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Condon also stated that he plans to include some, if not all, of the Menken/Ashman songs from the Disney musical.


 * Two musicals in the composition process are Mrs. Doubtfire with lyrics by David Zippel and book by Harvey Fierstein and Happy Trails-- a bio-musical about Roy Rogers and Dale Evans with lyrics by Glenn Slater and book by Marshall Brickman.


 * Menken will be composing music for the upcoming animated film Sausage Party directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan. Menken will compose 2 songs for the film with lyrics being written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg


 * Menken will be composing new songs for the upcoming Tangled animated series for 2017.

Academy Award nominations and wins

 * 1987
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", from Little Shop of Horrors
 * 1990
 * Won, Best Original Score - The Little Mermaid
 * Won, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Under the Sea", from The Little Mermaid
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Kiss the Girl", from The Little Mermaid
 * 1992
 * Won, Best Original Score - Beauty and the Beast
 * Won, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - Beauty and the Beast, from Beauty and the Beast
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Belle", from Beauty and the Beast
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Be Our Guest", from Beauty and the Beast
 * 1993
 * Won, Best Original Score - Aladdin
 * Won, Best Original Song (with Tim Rice) - "A Whole New World", from Aladdin
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Friend Like Me", from Aladdin
 * 1996
 * Won, Best Original Song (with Stephen Schwartz) - "Colors of the Wind", from Pocahontas
 * Won, Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (with Stephen Schwartz) - Pocahontas
 * 1997
 * Nominated, Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (with Stephen Schwartz) - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
 * 1998
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with David Zippel) - "Go the Distance", from Hercules
 * 2008
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Stephen Schwartz) - "Happy Working Song", from Enchanted
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Stephen Schwartz) - "So Close", from Enchanted
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Stephen Schwartz) - "That's How You Know", from Enchanted
 * 2010
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Glenn Slater) - I See the Light from Tangled

Golden Globe nominations and wins

 * 1990
 * Won, Best Original Score for The Little Mermaid
 * Won, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - Motion Picture from - "Under the Sea" from 'The Little Mermaid'
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - Motion Picture - "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid  ''


 * 1992
 * Won, Best Original Score for Beauty and the Beast
 * Won, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) for Beauty and the Beast, from Beauty and the Beast
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) for Be Our Guest, from Beauty and the Beast


 * 1993
 * Won, Best Original Score for Aladdin
 * Won, Best Original Song (with Tim Rice) - "A Whole New World", from Aladdin
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) for Friend Like Me, from Aladdin
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Howard Ashman) for Prince Ali from Aladdin


 * 1996
 * Won, Best Original Song (with Stephen Schwartz) for "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas
 * Nominated, Best Original Score for Pocahontas


 * 1997
 * Nominated, Best Original Score for The Hunchback of Notre Dame


 * 1998
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with David Zippel) - Go the Distance from Hercules


 * 2008
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Stephen Schwartz) - That's How You Know from Enchanted


 * 2011
 * Nominated, Best Original Song (with Glenn Slater) - I See the Light from Tangled

Golden Raspberry Awards

 * 1991 Nominated, Worst Original Song for The Measure of a Man, from Rocky V
 * 1993 Won, Worst Original Song for "High Times, Hard Times" from Newsies

Grammy Awards
Menken has eleven Grammy awards, including Song of the Year for 1993.

Tony Awards

 * 1994 Nominee Tony Award for Best Original Score - Beauty and the Beast
 * 2008 Nominee Tony Award for Best Original Score - The Little Mermaid
 * 2011 Nominee Tony Award for Best Original Score - Sister Act
 * 2012 Winner Tony Award for Best Original Score - Newsies
 * 2014 Nominee Tony Award for Best Original Score - Aladdin

Emmy Awards

 * 2013  Nominee Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics - The Neighbors

Drama Desk Awards

 * 1983 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - Little Shop of Horrors [nominee]
 * 1994 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - Beauty and the Beast [nominee]
 * 2011 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - Sister Act [nominee]
 * 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - Newsies [winner]
 * 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music- Leap of Faith [nominee]
 * 2014 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - Aladdin [nominee]

Other awards

 * 2001 Disney Legends
 * 2013 Freddie G. Award for Musical Excellence