Alan Menken facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alan Menken
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Menken in 2013
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Alan Irwin Menken |
| Born | July 22, 1949 Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1972–present |
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Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is an American composer and conductor. He is famous for writing the music for many beloved Disney films and Broadway musicals.
He has won many awards, including eight Academy Awards (Oscars), a Tony Award, eleven Grammy Awards, and a Daytime Emmy Award. He is one of only 21 people who have won an EGOT, which means he has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award!
Alan Menken is best known for his music in Disney movies like The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995). Each of these films earned him two Academy Awards. He also wrote music for Newsies (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Enchanted (2007), and Tangled (2010).
His work on Broadway includes Newsies (2012), for which he won a Tony Award. Other popular stage musicals he worked on are Little Shop of Horrors (1982) and Aladdin (2014).
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Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Alan Irwin Menken was born in Manhattan, New York City, on July 22, 1949. His father was a dentist who played boogie-woogie piano, and his mother was an actress and dancer.
Alan loved music from a young age. He took piano and violin lessons and started composing his own music early on. When he was nine, one of his original songs, "Bouree," won an award in a junior composers contest.
He went to New York University and graduated in 1972 with a music degree. After college, he joined the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. This is where he realized that writing musicals was what he truly wanted to do.
Career Highlights
Early Success and Little Shop of Horrors
After college, Alan Menken wanted to be a rock star or recording artist. But his passion for musicals grew when he joined the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. He worked as a piano player for ballet, a music director, and even wrote jingles and songs for Sesame Street.
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In 1982, Menken found big success with the musical Little Shop of Horrors. He wrote the music, and Howard Ashman wrote the lyrics. This musical was based on a 1960 comedy film. It became a huge hit Off-Broadway and later toured worldwide.
Little Shop of Horrors was even made into a movie in 1986. This film earned Menken and Ashman their first Oscar nomination for the song "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space."
Disney Renaissance and Broadway Hits
Because of the success of Little Shop of Horrors, Walt Disney Studios hired Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Their first big project was The Little Mermaid (1989). The movie was a huge success and started a new golden age for Disney animated films, known as the Disney Renaissance.
The Little Mermaid won Menken his first two Academy Awards: one for Best Song ("Under the Sea") and one for Best Score. Critics praised the film's music as some of the best Disney had created in years.
Next, Menken and Ashman worked on Beauty and the Beast (1991). This film earned them three Oscar nominations for Best Song, winning for the title song. Menken also won another Oscar for Best Score.
Sadly, Howard Ashman passed away in 1991 while they were working on Aladdin. Menken then teamed up with Tim Rice to finish the songs for Aladdin. The film won an Oscar for Best Song ("A Whole New World") and Menken won another Oscar for Best Score.
Menken's Disney success continued with Pocahontas (1995), for which he and Stephen Schwartz won two more Academy Awards. They also worked together on The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Hercules (1997).
Many of his Disney films were also turned into popular Broadway musicals. Beauty and the Beast opened on Broadway in 1994 and ran for 13 years! He also created stage versions of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.
Recent Projects and Live-Action Films
Alan Menken continues to create music for new Disney films and stage shows. He wrote songs for the live-action versions of Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Aladdin (2019). For these, he added new songs while keeping the beloved originals.
He also worked on Disenchanted (2022), the sequel to Enchanted, and the live-action The Little Mermaid (2023). For the new Little Mermaid film, he collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is a big fan of the original movie.
Menken is also working on new animated films like Spellbound and stage musicals like Night at the Museum.
Personal Life
Alan Menken is married to Janis Roswick, a ballet dancer. They got married in 1972 and have two daughters, Anna and Nora. They live in North Salem, New York.
Works
Theater
- Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (Off-Broadway, 1979)
- Little Shop of Horrors (Off-Broadway, 1982; Broadway, 2003)
- Beauty and the Beast (Broadway, 1994)
- A Christmas Carol (Madison Square Garden, 1994–2003)
- Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (Berlin, 1999)
- The Little Mermaid (Broadway, 2008)
- Sister Act (West End, 2009; Broadway, 2011)
- Leap of Faith (Broadway, 2012)
- Newsies (Broadway, 2012)
- Aladdin (Broadway, 2014)
- A Bronx Tale: The Musical (Broadway, 2016)
- Hercules (Central Park, 2019)
Other Notable Works
- Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage – A show at Disney's Hollywood Studios
- Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular – A show at Disney California Adventure
- The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure – An attraction at Disney California Adventure
- Sindbad's Storybook Voyage – An attraction at Tokyo DisneySea
- Tangled: The Musical – A show on the Disney Cruise Line
Awards and Achievements
Alan Menken has won many prestigious awards throughout his career. He has:
- Eight Academy Awards (Oscars) – He is the second most awarded person in music categories, after Alfred Newman.
- Eleven Grammy Awards
- One Tony Award
- Seven Golden Globe Awards
- One Daytime Emmy Award
In 2020, he achieved EGOT status, meaning he has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award. This is a very rare and impressive achievement!
He was also named a Disney Legend in 2002.
The American Film Institute recognized several of his songs as among the greatest in movie history:
- "Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- "Under the Sea" from The Little Mermaid (1989)
- "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- "A Whole New World" from Aladdin (1992)
- "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin (1992)
His film Beauty and the Beast (1991) was also listed as one of the 25 greatest movie musicals of all time by the AFI. It is the only animated musical on that list!
See Also
In Spanish: Alan Menken para niños
