(seen at the evening performance on 9th March 2025)
The man who won both a Razzie and an Oscar inside 24 hours. Son of a family of dentists and a mother who sacrificed her own artistic leanings for his. Schoolboy who refused to practice what his piano teacher wanted – and luckily had a teacher who recognised a budding composer.
Written and performed by Alan Menken himself (with extra material by Jennifer Lucy Cook and Richard Kraft), in an extraordinary 2 and a half hours this affable man, with a warm and expressive singing voice - as well as iconic musical style, takes us through his life and work.
A black grand piano, three video screens – one hung portrait for show posters, two landscape to show live keyboard action and appropriate stills and video. Add some lovely glitterball lighting and we settle in for the evening in “his office” as he jokes.
“Prince Ali” (‘Aladdin’) is as good as any for grand entry music. We learn that it was written on the deathbed of the dear, departed Howard Ashman. Less Prince, more King, frankly.
A terrible bit of juvenilia – his 11-year-old attempt at rock’n’roll, a brush with NYU’s ‘pre-med’ course before finding his calling writing for “Sesame Street” at $135 a time, and the unforgettable “Round Up” weed killer commercial.
A video of “You and I” – for BMI Musical workshop shows emerging talent. Meeting Ashman to create “God Bless You, Mr Rosewater” yields “The Rosewater Foundation NYC” – more shades of greatness to come, even if the inaccurate “not one bar of tunefulness” review is scathing.
The first hit, “Little Shop Of Horrors.” We get the title number, “Somewhere That’s Green,” “Feed Me” and “Suddenly Seymour” - discovering the composer’s passion for his score.
Laughing gas is better than a bottle to the head on stage, apparently, and thanks to neighbour Mr Gingold’s remarks, it became the weapon of choice in “Son Be A Dentist.” “Want to go on a magic carpet ride” his father used to remark before strapping on the mask...
The AIDS epidemic pushed his family to escape to rural Pennsylvania, where classic Disney VHS tapes gave respite to his imagination. Asked to compose for the company, initially he was worried about work sitting on a shelf evermore.
Taking the plunge, “Part of your World” (‘The Little Mermaid’) was the happy result, the watery sound clear on his piano. They wanted to call it “Somewhere That’s Wet” of course...
A cut song interlude, from ‘Mermaid’ “Fathoms Below”, and ‘Little Shop’ – “We’ll Have Tomorrow” reduced to the single “Don’t Feed The Plants” line at the end of the show.
“Poor Unfortunate Souls” into “Kiss The Girl” and “Under The Sea” – the crab transforming from English so as to allow the rocky lounge Caribbean style.
The Oscar and revelation of Ashman’s illness. Heartbreaking as Ashman’s comment was, “Good, we won. Now I know you are taken care of.”
A fabulous number, “Sheridan Square” remembers, celebrates and commemorates AIDS victims before we get to the next triumph...
... a six-minute opening song for an animated movie. “Bonjour” (‘Beauty and the Beast’). Paige O’Hara’s rehearsal footage amuses before ‘Gaston’ brings down the tone as only he can.
Dummy tune to lyricist results in, well, “Beauty and the Beast”, nearly turned down by Angela Lansbury as they sent her the wrong singer’s cassette... him, not Ashman. Another unique moment as we hear a working tape, with yet-to-be-polished lyrics.
‘Newsies’ up next, “High Times / Hard Times,” “Seize The Day” and “Sante Fe” – and admission Christian Bale was cast before it became a musical.
“King of New York” flopped but we are back to “Never Had a Friend Like Me” from ‘Aladdin’. Conceived as ‘boogie-woogie’, Robin Williams improvising led to the version used, but demonstrated as original, well, it works. Oh, and the “wa-a-a” lyric was supposed to indicate a trumpet solo.
Act one closing on a sketch of Beauty leaning over her fallen Beast, we learn that “Spellbound” and a whole new world are about to unfold.
Act Two, and “A Whole New World” indeed arrives, with Tim Rice to work with. First song together, a hit. And Broadway hits continued too, with “If I Can’t Love Her” (‘Beauty and the Beast’) proving Disney works on stage.
His ‘A Christmas Carol’ ran 9 years at Madison Square Garden, his children Anna (here tonight) and Nora as angels in the show. “God Bless Us Every One” a pleasant tune but far sugarier than the Old Vic offering the monkey adores.
Time for ‘Pocahontas’ and “Colors of the Wind,” happy collaboration with Stephen Schwartz. Up-tempo style and stunning. “Out There” from ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ elicits a roar of approval before David Zippel and ‘Hercules’ arrive.
“Zero to Hero” and “Go The Distance” are both very Disney. Next project ‘Home on the Range’ is still so, but yields “How Do You Go On” which became an iconic song of 9/11.
‘Enchanted,’ and Menken had to prove he could satirise his own style. “Happy Little Working Song” settles it. The title song nearly went to Idina Menzel, too.
A cut song from ‘Hercules’ follows, then one from ‘Pocahontas’ and leading into “Galavant” – television produced under pressure. A movie number from ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ and on to 2013 when he had 3 shows running on Broadway.
“Raise Your Voice” from ‘Sister Act,’ a number from ‘Leap of Faith’ and the stage version of ‘Newsies’ – a happy accident when Harvey Fierstein saw the DVD on his desk, and demanded they work on bringing his favourite movie to a theatre.
From Razzie to Tony for “Best Score.” What does anyone know?
‘A Bronx Tale,’ a flop, but “I Like It” is a good number.
‘Aladdin The Live Movie’ and “I Won’t Go Speechless” is strong. A ‘Little Mermaid’ obsessive called Lin Manuel Miranda calls, and they work on “For The First Time” for that live movie.
A little ‘Spellbound’ a glimpse of the new ‘Hercules’ coming to Drury Lane in summer 2025, a final “Proud of Your Boy” and to end it, “shave and a haircut, six bits”.
The man is as charismatic as his music, and his music will last as long as time – true as it can be, as the great Ashman wrote to Menken’s tune.
5 stars.