1974–1987: Early career and breakthrough After graduating, Menken's plan was to become either a rock star or a recording artist. His interest in writing musicals increased when he joined the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Musical Theatre Workshop and was mentored by
Lehman Engel. In 1976, John Wilson reported for
The New York Times that members of Engel's BMI Workshop began performing as part of the "Broadway at the Ballroom" series: "The opening workshop program ... featured Maury Yeston and Alan Menken, both playing their piano accompaniment and singing songs they have written for potential musicals." Wilson reviewed a performance at the Ballroom in 1977 where Menken accompanied a singer: "In the current cabaret world, a piano accompanist is no longer expected to merely play piano for a singer. More and more, pianists can be heard joining in vocally, harmonizing with the singer, creating a background of shouts and exclamations or even doing brief passages of solo singing." Menken contributed material to
revues like ''New York's Back in Town
, Big Apple Country
, The Present Tense
(1977), Real Life Funnies
(Off-Broadway, 1981), Diamonds (Off-Broadway, 1984), and Personals (Off-Off-Broadway, 1985). His revue Patch, Patch, Patch
ran at the West Bank Cafe in New York City in 1979 and featured Chip Zien. The New York Times'' reviewer
Mel Gussow wrote: "The title song ... refers to a life's passage. According to Alan Menken ... after age 30 it is a downhill plunge." Menken wrote several shows that were not produced, including
Atina, Evil Queen of the Galaxy (1980), with lyrics by Steve Brown. He also wrote
The Thorn with lyrics by Brown, which was commissioned by
Divine in 1980. This was a parody of the film
The Rose, but they could not raise the money to have it produced. He collaborated with
Howard Ashman in an uncompleted musical called
Babe (), with
Tom Eyen in
Kicks: The Showgirl Musical (1984), and with David Rogers in
The Dream in Royal Street (), which was an adaptation of ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream''. '' (1982) Menken finally achieved success as a composer when playwright
Howard Ashman chose him and Engel to write the music for his
musical adaptation of
Kurt Vonnegut's novel
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The musical opened in 1979 at the WPA Theater to excellent reviews Menken and Ashman wrote their next musical,
Little Shop of Horrors, for a cast of only 9 performers, including a puppeteer. This musical is based on the 1960 black comedy film
The Little Shop of Horrors. It opened at WPA Theater in 1982 to warm reviews. It moved to the Off Broadway
Orpheum Theatre in the
East Village, Manhattan, where it ran for five years. The musical set the box-office record for highest grossing Off-Broadway show of all time. It toured around the world, won theater awards and was adapted as a 1986 musical film starring
Rick Moranis that earned Menken and Ashman their first
Oscar nomination for the song "
Mean Green Mother from Outer Space". For his body of work in musical theatre, he was awarded the BMI Career Achievement Award in 1983. The show proved successful and was an annual New York holiday event. From 1989 to 1990, Menken and
Howard Ashman wrote songs for the popular puppet TV show
Sesame Street. In 2008, Menken said that his work on
Sesame Street was "pathetic money, but it still had some prestige to it. It was on the air and [he] was getting some royalties". The film gave them their first Academy Award win:
Best Song for the song "
Under the Sea". Menken also won the 1989 Academy Award for
Best Score. Critic
Roger Ebert declared in his review, [the film] contains some of the best Disney music since the glory days." Menken and Ashman's
Beauty and the Beast garnered them three 1991 Academy Award nominations for Best Song, winning for
its title song. Menken's
live-action musical film
Newsies, with lyrics by
Jack Feldman, was released in 1992. Three more animated musical films followed. Menken collaborated with
Stephen Schwartz for
Pocahontas, for which the two won two Academy Awards: Best Song and
Best Musical or Comedy Score. In 1996, the same musical team created the songs, and Menken, the score, for
The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In 1997, Menken reunited with his early collaborator,
David Zippel, for his last film in the era,
Hercules. Menken also wrote the music for the
Michael J. Fox vehicle
Life with Mikey (1993), the holiday film
Noel (2004) and
Mirror Mirror (2012). His other film scores for Disney have included
Home on the Range (2004), the
Tim Allen remake of
The Shaggy Dog (2006),
Enchanted (2007), and
Tangled (2010).
2008–2016: Return to Broadway He next created the stage version of
The Little Mermaid, which played on Broadway from 2008 to 2009 and for which he received a nomination for a
Tony Award for Best Score. Menken received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010. In December 2010, he was a guest on the
NPR quiz show ''
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!. In 2012, Menken won a Tony Award for Best Score for his musical adaptation of Newsies, which ran until 2014. He also wrote the music for Leap of Faith, which had a brief run on Broadway in 2012. His stage adaptation of Aladdin'' opened on Broadway in 2014, earning him another Tony nomination for Best Score. He gave a concert there, including music that was cut from various productions, while talking about his creative process. Menken's stage adaptation of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame played at
La Jolla Playhouse, California, in 2014. In 2015, Menken co-composed the score for the musical television series
Galavant alongside
Christopher Lennertz, reuniting him with
Tangled screenwriter
Dan Fogelman. Menken also co-wrote songs for the series alongside
Glenn Slater. The series lasted two seasons, first airing on January 4, 2015, and last airing on January 31, 2016.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz was revived in Montreal in 2015, and
A Bronx Tale: The Musical played at the
Paper Mill Playhouse in 2016. Menken is currently working on stage musical adaptations of
Night at the Museum 2017–present: Live-action Disney films Menken wrote songs for a prospective prequel/spin-off series to 2017's
Beauty and the Beast titled
Little Town, which would be centered on
Gaston and LeFou. and Menken would also be an executive-producer on the series. In February 2022, it was reported that the series would not go forward for now. In March 2017, Disney released a
live-action adaptation of
Beauty and the Beast, directed by
Bill Condon and starring
Emma Watson and
Dan Stevens, with the songs from the 1991 film and new material by Menken and Rice. Menken collaborated with
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul on writing new songs for the 2019
live-action version of
Aladdin, directed by
Guy Ritchie. As of 2019, Menken reunites with his
Newsies creators
Jack Feldman and
Harvey Fierstein to develop a new musical called
Greetings from Niagara Falls. A reading was held in January 2019; however, there is no word on future plans for the project at this time. In 2017, Menken and Slater returned to write songs for the animated series ''
Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, which is set after the events of Tangled''. The series ended in 2020, after three seasons. On July 26, 2020, Menken and Slater won the
Daytime Emmy Award for Original Song in a Children's, Young Adult or Animated Program for the song titled "Waiting in the Wings". Menken again worked with Stephen Schwartz to write new songs for
Disenchanted, the sequel to
Enchanted. Menken also worked on new music for a
live-action film adaptation of
The Little Mermaid, directed by
Rob Marshall, with longtime
The Little Mermaid fan
Lin-Manuel Miranda, whom Menken knew since the former's childhood, as Miranda went to the same school as Menken's niece. Menken also worked alongside former Disney chief creative officer
John Lasseter on a project at
Skydance Animation. On May 20, 2020, the project was revealed to be
Vicky Jenson's
Spellbound. Menken co-wrote songs for
Spellbound alongside collaborated with lyricist
Glenn Slater, with whom he worked on
Home on the Range and
Tangled. Menken was set to work with Schwartz to write new songs for a remake of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which Menken would score. However, in May 2023, Menken suggested that the development had been stalled due to the original movie's content and themes. With eight Academy Awards, only composer
Alfred Newman (nine wins), art director
Cedric Gibbons (11 wins) and
Walt Disney (22 wins) have received more Academy Awards than Menken. He is tied for fourth place with late costume designer
Edith Head, and currently holds the record for
the most wins for a living person. ==Personal life==