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Sound Design
By Bryan Reesman
The Art ofJuggling
One of his first hits is hitting
Broadway, but the work is
never over for Alan Menken.
All photography by Joan Marcus
Fans of musical
theatre undeniably
know the name
Alan Menken. The eight-time
Oscar-winning composer and songwriter
penned the off-Broadway rendition of Little Shop Of Horrors
with the late lyricist Howard Ashman before the duo revitalized
Disney’s fortunes by bringing pop and musical theatre sensibilities
to the animated films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast
and Aladdin. Like The Lion King, Beast became a hit in its Broadway
incarnation and then started playing in theatres across the globe,
while Mermaid arrives on the Great White Way this month.
Menken remains quite active, juggling multiple projects.
Aside from Mermaid’s Broadway bow, which features 10 new
songs, the semi-animated film Enchanted, in which a cartoon
princess escapes to the real world of New York and is followed
by her suitor and an evil queen, recently opened in movie
theatres nationwide. Additionally, the composer is working
on Sister Act and Leap of Faith, both adaptations of Whoopi
Goldberg and Steve Martin movies, respectively, which he
hopes will be on Broadway by spring 2009. All these productions,
with the exception of Mermaid’s original movie songs,
feature lyrics by Glenn Slater.
The ever-energetic Menken spoke to Stage Directions about
his long career, balancing multiple projects and the art of
writing musicals. In Manhattan, a week after his interview,
the weary composer performed while sick with a cold for a
press preview of new Mermaid songs. At the preview, he introduced
the show’s lead, the unknown-but-soon-to-be-a-star
Sierra Boggess. Soldiering on during his performance, Menken
proved that he is a die-hard trooper.
Stage Directions: You brought pop and musical theatre sensibilities
into Disney animated films. How does that serve
you now, bringing this whole process back full circle with
The Little Mermaid on Broadway?
Alan Menken: I think the pop sensibility has always been an
essential color to what I do, and I think it’s one of the reasons I’ve
been able to have the musical theatre career and the film career
that I’ve had. I’m able to blend a pretty good understanding of
musical theatre with working in diverse musical styles and giving
it a pop veneer where appropriate. On Little Mermaid, Howard
Ashman and I never achieved the single, the liftable song. We
really weren’t quite “pop enough” as far as the pop charts, but
Sierra Boggess as Ariel in
The Little Mermaid.
we brought a musical
theatre sensibility to the
animated picture in a way that
the whole industry responded to,
and I think that’s why we swept the awards for
score and song. I think, especially in Hollywood, they respond
to material that’s written specifically for a story in a film and
not written with the secondary purpose of having a single. It
was only with Beauty and the Beast that we gave ourselves the
assignment of writing a song that could function within the
picture and also exist as a single, and that, of course, became
part of the tradition.
How did that sensibility play into working on Enchanted?
When I write these songs, I don’t think about pop charts
— especially now. The pop charts are in a different place than
they were even eight or 10 years ago. In the case of Enchanted,
I created a score that evolves from the world of Snow White to
contemporary New York and everything in between.
Enchanted seems to have a very self-reflexive sense of
humor. Do you think that the film speaks to where the
musical is in terms of mainstream consciousness?
I think, in general, musicals must have a self-awareness of
what they are in our culture and how they are perceived; however,
there are always exceptions to that rule. There’s always
that musical that will carry its heart on its sleeve, and there are
musical projects that are completely about an inside sensibility
and a wink. Enchanted really exists in both worlds. It has a lot of
winks, but it does wear its heart on its sleeve.
Obviously, musicals now have amplified sound and stereo
mixes. How does all this technology that’s seeping
into Broadway productions affect and influence your job
as a composer?
It doesn’t affect me in the room as I’m writing, but sometimes
I’ll get into the theatre and think, “What was I thinking? I was really
thinking a record sensibility on this song, and what is coming
from the pit is sounding too legit. What do we do about that?”
Sometimes you have to address balancing a traditional orchestra
against a more sophisticated, contemporary pop sound. If
you create something that has too much pop veneer to it in the
theatre, you’re going to distance an audience from responding
in a very live sense. You want them to have a sense that there is
16 January 2008 • www.stage-directions.com