Menken, Alan

▪ 1997

      The prolific composer Alan Menken, whose captivating scores helped invigorate the recent animated feature films of Walt Disney Pictures, collected his seventh and eighth Academy Awards in 1996. He won Oscars for his work in Disney's Pocahontas in the categories of best musical or comedy score and best original song ("Colors of the Wind"). Menken was born on July 22, 1949, in New Rochelle, N.Y. He initially enrolled in a premedical program at New York University but graduated with a degree in music. He then performed in clubs, composed advertising jingles, and provided accompaniment for ballerinas at practice. One such ballerina would later accompany him in life; he married a professional dancer. A career break came when playwright and lyricist Howard Ashman picked Menken to collaborate with him on the 1979 play God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Although they attained mild success with that production, it was not until 1982 that they achieved significant critical and commercial acclaim with the off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors. The duo subsequently adapted their score for the 1986 film.

      In the late 1980s Jeffrey Katzenberg, at the time chairman of Walt Disney Pictures, offered the team a list of projects. Menken and Ashman chose to tackle an animated musical version of the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Little Mermaid," which was released in 1989. The resulting collaboration earned Menken two Academy Awards, two Grammy awards, and two Golden Globe awards, among other accolades. The team's next Disney project, Beauty and the Beast (1991), in addition to being nominated for best picture and winning Menken another two Oscars, went on to become a successful Broadway production. Ashman died in 1991 after having begun work with Menken on what would become another Disney success, Aladdin (1992), and Menken teamed up with lyricist Tim Rice. Aladdin became Disney's biggest animated hit to that time. For his next two Disney films, Menken collaborated with lyricist Stephen Schwartz on Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).

      Although Menken's association with Disney identified him with children's projects, he saw his work as the natural evolution of the theatrical musical. Menken said, "I write for the broadest possible audience . . . and sometimes they call it kid stuff, and I admit it pains me." As 1996 drew to a close, Menken was working with lyricist David Zippel on Hercules, Disney's 35th full-length animated musical. (ANTHONY L. GREEN)

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