The "Rodgers and Hammerstein of Disney" Part 2
If Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman weren’t the “Rodgers and Hammerstein” of Disney, then Howard Ashman and Alan Menken probably were. Like the Sherman’s, Ashman and Mencken also wrote a huge number of the most popular Disney songs of all time. They were not apprentices of the Sherman brothers, but one could say that, in a way, they did follow in their footsteps because both pairs helped keep the company running. Although Ashman and Menken’s real ambition was to keep musicals, in general, alive as an art form, they had no experience in movies or in animation. They came to work for Disney in the late 1980s, when the studio was on the verge of having to permanently shut down because none of the films the studio had produced since Walt Disney’s death in 1966, animated or live-action, had done well enough to keep the studio financially stable. The studio hired the two of them after they had created the hugely successful Off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors. Disney took a great risk in hiring the two of them because the only movie-making experience Menken nor Ashman had was the 1986 film adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors. Little did anyone know the ginormous success that awaited them all
Howard Ashman began the “Disney” chapter of his career in 1986 when he was hired to co-write the song “Once Upon a Time in New York City,” the opening song of Oliver and Company (1988). After the writing that song, the studio told him of another project that was in development called The Little Mermaid (1989). Ashman brought in his good friend and frequent collaborator Alan Menken to write the songs and the original score for the movie, and to everyone’s surprise – both the creative team’s and the whole world’s – it turned out to be a huge hit. It was so successful that Menken and Ashman would go on to win the Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song: “Under the Sea,” for their work. Because they played such a huge role in helping make The Little Mermaid (1989) a hit for the studio, they were immediately hired to write material for the studio’s next animated musical, Beauty and the Beast (1991) A film that Walt Disney himself had tried to adapt for the screen twice (both attempts of which were unsuccessful), Beauty and the Beast (1991) turned out to be an even bigger hit than The Little Mermaid (1989), and won them Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Original Song: “Beauty and the Beast.” The movie also garnered a Best Picture Oscar Nomination, making it the studio’s first Best Picture Oscar Nomination since Mary Poppins (1964), and the very first animated movie ever to be a Best Picture Oscar Nominee.
Howard Ashman unfortunately passed away of AIDS on March 14th, 1991 at the age of 40, 6 months before the premiere of Beauty and the Beast (1991), and while the studio’s next animated film, Aladdin (1992), was well into production. He never saw the final cut of either movie. Though it was a crushing and devastating loss for Alan Menken, Disney quickly hired Sir Tim Rice to finish the songs for Aladdin (1992). Menken composed the songs “Friend Like Me,” “Arabian Nights,” and “Prince Ali,” with Ashman, and he wrote “One Jump Ahead,” “A Whole New World,” and “Prince Ali (Reprise),” with Rice. Both Rice and Ashman are given screen credit in the film. Rice would also go on to collaborate with composer Sir Elton John on the songs for The Lion King (1994).
After Howard Ashman’s passing, Alan Menken continued to write material for Disney movie-musicals. He composed the songs and original scores for Newsies (1992), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home On the Range, Enchanted (2007), and Tangled (2010). He would win 4 more Oscars in addition to the 4 he won with Howard Ashman for his work on Aladdin (1992) and Pocahontas (1995): Best Original Score and Best Original Song, “A Whole New World” from Aladdin (1992) and “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas (1995). Menken collaborated with many different lyricists for all of these projects, including Jack Feldman for Newsies (1992), Stephen Schwartz for Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Enchanted (2007), David Zippel for Hercules (1997) (Zippel also would write the lyrics for Mulan (1998)), and Glenn Slater for Home on the Range (2004). Menken received additional Oscar nominations for Best Original Score on The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Best Original Songs “Go the Distance,” in Hercules (1997), “That’s How You Know,” “So Close,” and “Happy Working Song,” in Enchanted (2007), and “I See the Light,” in Tangled (2010).
Menken and Sir Tim Rice were reunited to write additional material for the Broadway versions of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Beauty and the Beast ran for a total of 5,461 performances and 46 previews from April 18th 1994-July 29th, 2007. It became the 9th longest-running musical in Broadway history. Menken was reunited with Glenn Slater for a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time for the Broadway Versions of The Little Mermaid and Sister Act the musical and the movie Tangled. The Little Mermaid, played on Broadway for a total of 685 performances and 50 previews from January 10th, 2008 to August 30th, 2009. Sister Act the musical played a total of 561 performances and 28 previews from April 20th, 2011-August 26th 2012. Aladdin opened on Broadway on March 20th, 2014, and is still currently playing today. The show received 5 Tony Award Nominations last year including Best Original Score for Menken, Rice, and Additional Lyricist/Book Writer Chad Beguelin. It managed to win the Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for James Monroe Igelhart for creating the role of the Genie in the show. Jonathan Freeman, who provided the voice of Jafar in the film, also reprised his role for the stage version. Alan Menken did however win the Tony for Best Original Score for the highly acclaimed Broadway Version of Newsies along with his lyricist partner from the film version, Jack Feldman. This is his only Tony win, though he received additional nominations for Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Sister Act. He is currently revising a new stage version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Broadway and he just finished scoring an all-new live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast for Disney, which will star Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast.
When they were casting for The Little Mermaid (1989), many women were considered for the role of Ursula the Sea Witch. Originally the studio offered the role to Beatrice Arthur. She unfortunately turned it down, because she was doing The Golden Girls on television for Disney at the time, and she was convinced that her schedule for the show wouldn’t allow her to do the movie. Tony-award-winner Elaine Stritch was then offered the role, who accepted, but then quit the movie due to bitter creative differences clashing with Howard Ashman. (Ironically, Elaine Stritch had also been considered for Beatrice Arthur’s role of Dorothy on The Golden Girls.) In addition to those two, many other women were considered, even Roseanne Barr, at one point, but the studio ultimately thought of and offered the role to Pat Carroll, who immediately accepted, having longed to be in a Disney movie all her life. She had no problems with how they were running the production whatsoever. In fact, after one of her recording sessions for the film, Pat Carroll went up to Howard Ashman, and she said “Howard, can I ask you a favor?” He replied “Sure.” Carroll then asked “Can you sing Ursula’s song for me?” With that, Howard then proceeded to sing the song “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” While he was singing, he ad-libbed some lyrics that were highly amusing to Carroll, including the lyrics “Life’s full of tough choices, isn’t it”. They were so amusing, that when he was done singing she asked “Howard, is it ok if I steal some of those ad-libs.” Howard replied “I was hoping that you would.”
Shortly before his passing, the creative team of Beauty and the Beast all went to work at Howard’s studio in New York because he couldn’t travel to L.A. because of his illness. And they were in a recording session for the “Something There,” sequence in the film, and Paige O’Hara (Belle’s voice) was singing the lyrics “New and a bit alarming,” and Howard wanted to give a note about that. He unfortunately couldn’t speak so he had to whisper his note into Alan’s ear. He whispered “Tell Paige, Streisand.” If you listen carefully, you hear some “Streisand” in O’Hara’s voice.
On the night Alan and Howard won their Oscars for The Little Mermaid (1989), they were both ecstatic to have won, but their happiness was short-lived when on that very same night Howard said to Alan, “When we get back to New York, we have to have a talk.” Alan was caught off-guard, and he said “Oh really, what is it can we talk about it now?” Howard said “No, not till we get back to New York.” And they got back to their studio in New York, and Howard said “Close the door,” and Alan closed the door. He then said “What is it?” Howard said “Well…, you know.” Alan said “I know, what?” Howard said, “Well, I’m sick, I’m HIV positive.” Alan didn’t say anything after that. As they helped each other through a very difficult time, it became clear that Menken was up to the task of “carrying the torch” for the pair – helping to make Disney musicals a ‘tour de force’ in movies and on Broadway…and continuing the Rodgers and Hammerstein legacy.
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