Alan Menken was born in New York City on July 22, 1949. His family moved to New Rochelle in 1951 and Alan attended New Rochelle public schools until graduating high school in 1967. Musical training and both musical and theatrical influences counted heavily in his development. He studied piano with Emily Harris and violin with Edith Braham, both highly respected teachers. He attended Red Fox Music Camp, played violin in numerous orchestras, and displayed an early interest in "serious" composition. Working with Ms. Harris, he composed piano pieces and was highly rated in young composers' competitions. At the same time, the Menken household was filled with sounds of musicals. Alan's mother (an actress) and father (the original "musical dentist") passed on to their children a passionate love of the Broadway musical. (Alan's sister Faye was in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof and his sister Leah is currently acting and singing in New York.) With the sixties, Alan discovered pop music and found the third major ingredient in his musical style. He began playing guitar, joined some bands, and developed an enormous appetite for rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, folk music, country music, Indian music, world music, and jazz.In 1967, he enrolled at N.Y.U. as a pre-Med student and in 1971 he graduated with a degree in music. In between, he wrote music and lyrics to hundreds of songs, performed as a singer/songwriter, and joined the B.M.I. Musical Theater Workshop.Alan found his greatest teacher in Lehman Engel, who taught and presided over the workshop. From 1971 to 1985, he showcased Conversations with Pierre, Dear Worthy Editor, Apartment House (with lyrics by Muriel Robinson), Midnight, Harry the Rat, and The Messiah on Mott Street (with lyrics by David Spencer).In order to make a living, Alan moved from accompanying ballet and dance classes to accompanying, writing, and arranging club acts to composing, singing, and producing jingles.Alan's first produced musical was God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, with book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and additional lyrics by Dennis Green. It was adapted from the Kurt Vonnegut novel of the same name and produced in the spring of 1979 at the WPA Theater, with Howard directing and Alan conducting and musical directing. Rave reviews led to a move to The Entermedia Theater on Second Avenue.While the show was being readied for its move, a revue of Menken songs was produced at The West Bank Cafe. Patch Patch Patch consisted of songs from the many musicals, club acts, and revues that Alan had written in the preceding years. This, too, was very well received. Its run, however, was limited to the summer of 1979 because of preparations for the Off-Broadway production of Rosewater.In 1980, work began on two musical projects: Real Life Funnies and Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy. With Real Life Funnies, Menken wrote both music and lyrics in a revue format based on the comics of Stan Mack that appear regularly in The Village Voice. When The Manhattan Theater Club produced Funnies in January of 1981, Howard Ashman came aboard to adapt the book and direct. The show received mixed reviews and did not continue beyond MTC. Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy had a libretto by Steve Brown. It was a hard rock send-up of the Flash Gordon serials, conceived with Divine in mind to play Atina, a trashy version of Ming the Merciless. It was produced in workshop by Michael Bennett and Robin Wagner with the title Battle of the Giants, direction by Tom O'Horgan and without Divine.From time to time, Alan contributed individual songs or groups of songs to theatrical revues, including: Personals (lyrics by Marta Kaufman and David Crane), Diamonds (lyrics by David Zippel), and Big Apple Country (which contained Alan's Cabaret classic "Pink Fish").Alan and Howard reteamed for a production of Rosewater at The Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and then returned to New York to learn from Rosewater's mistakes and write a smaller musical with more modest ambitions. The show was Little Shop of Horrors. It opened at the WPA Theater to tremendous acclaim and moved immediately Off-Broadway to the Orpheum Theater, where it ran for over five years and established itself as the highest-grossing Off-Broadway show ever. It won Alan the New York Drama Critics Award and Drama Desk Award for best musical, the Outer Critics Award for best musical and best score, London's Evening Standard Award for best musical and a Grammy® Nomination for best cast album.Following the success of Little Shop, Alan began a number of new projects. The Thorn, with book and lyrics by Steve Brown, was completed but never produced, due to Mr. Brown's death in the spring of 1983. Honeymooners, with music and lyrics by Menken, still awaits production.The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, with lyrics by David Spencer, was produced in 1987 as part of The American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia at the Zellerbach Theater. Based on the novel by Mordechai Richler, it was directed by Austin Pendleton with book by Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Richler. It has since been rewritten with book by Mr. Spencer.Kicks: The Showgirl Musical, with book and lyrics by Tom Eyen, was produced in workshop from the fall of 1983 to the summer of 1984. Despite many attempts by very important producers, the efforts of the best talents Broadway has to offer, and the passionate support of countless people, Kicks has not as yet been produced.In the fall of 1987 Alan Menken and Howard Ashman reunited to write the songs for the Disney animated picture The Little Mermaid. Their goal, and that of the new heads of Disney, was to produce an animated feature that could stand on the shelf alongside the classics from the '40s and '50s. Since he had always underscored scenes within his stage musicals, Alan decided it was time to compose his first film score, as well. The result was a breakthrough for animated films and for the careers of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. In 1990, Alan won two Academy Awards® for best score and best song written for motion pictures and three B.M.I. Awards. In addition he won two Grammy's® and two Golden Globe® Awards for Best Song and Best Score. The soundtrack album has sold over 3 million copies worldwide to date.During the same year, the next Disney animated feature, Beauty and the Beast, was well underway, despite the increasing difficulties due to Howard Ashman's battle with AIDS. Also, an earlier animated project, Aladdin, moved from development into production and required new songs from Alan and Howard. In November of 1990, Alan wrote music and lyrics to "Measure of a Man," the theme song for Rocky V. It was recorded by Elton John.When approached about writing songs for Newsies, Alan Menken turned to Jack Feldman, with whom he had collaborated on a song for the television musical Polly. The subject was a group of New York City newsboys in 1899 and their strike against the paper for which they worked. In March of 1991, as Alan was preparing to leave for Hollywood to produce the recording of the Newsies songs, Howard Ashman died. For the remainder of the year, Alan divided his time between scoring Beauty and the Beast, writing and producing songs for Newsies and composing the score for Weird Romance, a science fiction stage musical with lyrics by David Spencer and book by Alan Brennert which would not be produced at the WPA Theatre until May of 1992. In November of 1991, Beauty and the Beast was released to unanimous praise, record-breaking business, and a nonstop stream of publicity. It became the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, and it earned Alan two more Academy Awards® and two more Golden Globes® for Best Score and Best Song ("Beauty and the Beast"), five B.M.I. Awards, a Christopher Award, 3 Grammy® Awards, and another platinum soundtrack album. The single of "Beauty and the Beast," recorded by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson, became Mr. Menken's first top-ten single and the number one Adult Contemporary song in the country.Alan's collaboration with Tim Rice on new songs for Aladdin, as well as his score for that film, resulted in two Academy Awards® for Best Song and Best Score, two Golden Globes®, and a number one pop record recorded by Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle ("A Whole New World," lyrics by Tim Rice). Alan's work on Aladdin brought him four Grammys® in 1994, including the coveted Song of the Year for "A Whole New World." He also composed the music for the ABC/Kunhardt Productions miniseries "Lincoln."In April 1994, the Broadway stage version of Beauty and the Beast opened and became an immediate smash hit. It includes some previously unrecorded material written with Howard Ashman, as well as a number of new songs with lyrics by Tim Rice.In December1994 he wrote the new Christmas show A Christmas Carol, which premiered at Madison Square Garden with lyrics by Lynn Ahrens.The Academy and Grammy Award winning composer, along with renowned Broadway lyricist Stephen Schwartz, recently completed the songs and score for Walt Disney's 33rd full-length animated feature, Pocahontas.
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