Renowned composer and New Rochelle High School graduate Alan Menken turns 71 today. Born in 1949 at the French Hospital in Manhattan and raised in New York City, Menken grew up to be one of the world’s most recognizable musicians by ear.
Before being the composer behind the beloved Disney Renaissance, Menken was a playwright and musical composer starting with works such as God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater after being recruited to organize the music by playwright Howard Ashman’s 1979 adaptation of a novel written of the same name by Kurt Vonnegut.
Alan Menken later worked with Ashman again in the early ’80s co-writing Little Shop of Horrors which first opened in 1982 at WPA theatre to a warm reception by the audience. Little Shop of Horrors then moved to the off Broadway Orpheum Theater where it ran for five years, and later became a successful movie and found a new life on Broadway in recent years.
Following the success of Little Shop of Horrors, both Menken and Ashman were hired by Walt Disney Studios to write music for The Little Mermaid and later Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocohontas, among others, a major part of the Disney Renaissance.
Menken went on to compose music for several animated Disney films that earned him eight Oscar wins for the Best Score and/or Song (in a span of eight years) as well as 11 additional nominations.
Alan Menken is true New Yorker who has made his name as a composer, making an impact on both the film and music worlds.
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