Alan Menken (born July 22 1949 in New Rochelle, New York) is an American Broadway and an eight time Academy Award winning film score composer and pianist. Menken has collaborated with several renowned lyricists including Howard Ashman (1950-1991), Tim Rice and Stephen Schwartz.

Biography

Alan Menken developed an interest in music at an early age, studying piano and violin. He attended New York University as a pre-med student, but later changed his focus to music. After college, he attended the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, through which he met Howard Ashman. He performed frequently in local clubs and worked as a composer of jingles and songs and as an accompanist.

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. Little Shop was adapted for a successful motion picture and later a Broadway run.

In 1983, Menken received the BMI Career Achievement Award for his body of work for the musical theater, including Little Shop, 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 on several Disney animated features, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Home on the Range. Menken has received eight Academy Awards and has one of the highest Oscar to film ratios of anyone in the industry. He recently produced all the music for the Disney movie, Enchanted (2007)

Menken's Sister Act the Musical was produced in 2006. The musical version of The Little Mermaid is scheduled to open on Broadway in January 2008. Menken and his wife, Janis, a former ballet dancer, reside in upstate New York with their two young children.

Menken was in his agent's (Richard Kraft) film Finding Kraftland.

Selected works

• Little Shop of Horrors (1982 Off-Broadway musical, 1986 film and 2003 Broadway Revival)
• The Little Mermaid (1989 film and 2007 Broadway musical)
• Rocky V (the song "The Measure of a Man") (1990)
• Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (the song "Wonderful Ways to Say No") (1990)
• Beauty and the Beast (1991 film and 1994 Broadway musical)
• Newsies (1992)
• Weird Romance (1992 Off-Broadway Musical and 2007 revival)
• Aladdin (1992 and 2003 musical)
• A Christmas Carol (1995 Broadway musical and 2004 TV movie)
• Pocahontas (1995)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 and 1999 German musical)
• Hercules (1997)
• King David (1997)
• Home on the Range (2004)
• The Shaggy Dog (2006)
• Sister Act the Musical (2006)
• Enchanted (2007)

Upcoming Projects

• The Snow Queen set to debut at Tokyo DisneySea with Amon Miyamoto directing and John Weidman as the bookwriter and Glenn Slater the lyricist.
• Sinbad's Storybook Voyage, overlay of Sinbad's Seven Voyages at Tokyo DisneySea featuring an original song, "Compass of your Heart"
• The Little Mermaid Broadway stage version.
• Leap of Faith Broadway musical (opening date unknown)

Awards

Academy Award Nominations and Wins

• 1986: Nominated, Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", from Little Shop of Horrors
• 1989
• Won, Original Score - The Little Mermaid
• Won, Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Under the Sea", from The Little Mermaid
• Nominated, Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Kiss the Girl", from The Little Mermaid
• 1991
• Won, Original Score - Beauty and the Beast
• Won, Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Beauty and the Beast", from Beauty and the Beast
• Nominated, Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Belle", from Beauty and the Beast
• Nominated, Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Be Our Guest", from Beauty and the Beast
• 1992
• Won, Original Score - Aladdin
• Won, Original Song (with Tim Rice) - "A Whole New World", from Aladdin
• Nominated, Original Song (with Howard Ashman) - "Friend Like Me", from Aladdin
• 1995
• Won, Original Song (with Stephen Schwartz) - "Colors of the Wind", from Pocahontas
• Won, Original Musical or Comedy Score (with Stephen Schwartz) - Pocahontas
• 1996: Nominated, Original Musical or Comedy Score (with Stephen Schwartz) - The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• 1997: Nominated, Original Song (with David Zippel) - "Go the Distance", from Hercules

Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards

• 1983 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - Little Shop of Horrors [1]
• 1994 Tony Award for Best Original Score - Beauty and the Beast [2]
• 1994 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music - Beauty and the Beast [3]