Alan Irwin Menken (born July 22, 1949) is a composer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist for theater and film. Since 1989, he has been the go-to guy for Disney musicals, having composed the songs and scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, and Tangled. This has earned him eighteen Academy Award nominations, eight of which he won — more Oscars than any other living individual. In 2020, he became the 16th person to achieve the EGOT - though Menken proudly talks about the Golden Raspberry Award which he won for Newsies, though ironically, he earned the Tony when it was adapted to stage. To date, he's the only EGOT to also have a Razzie.
Menken first made a name for himself as a composer in 1982 with the Off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors, for which he co-wrote the songs with lyricist/librettist Howard Ashman. The musical's producer, David Geffen, recommended them to then-Walt Disney Pictures chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg (Little Shop company manager Peter Schneider was vice president of Disney's feature animation division at the time) to compose the songs for the studio's adaptation of The Little Mermaid (1989), beginning what would be a long and fruitful partnership between Menken and the studio.
Following Howard Ashman's death from AIDS in 1991 during the production of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, Menken has written with an ever-rotating cast of lyricists, including Tim Rice, Jack Feldman, Stephen Schwartz, David Zippel, Glenn Slater, and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
He had been set to compose for the film that would eventually become Frozen, until he was ultimately replaced with Robert Lopez & Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Christophe Beck, instead serving as composer and songwriter for a different Disney project, the short-lived ABC musical series Galavant. Afterward, he was going to provide music for a DreamWorks Animation movie titled Lidsville, but after former co-worker Katzenberg's studio wound up in a rut and restructured their business strategy and film lineup, word on Lidsville has gone silent.
In 2016, he returned to his roots in tongue-in-cheek raunchy humor by co-writing the score (with Christopher Lennertz) and composing the opening song "The Great Beyond" for the R-rated animated comedy Sausage Party.
Films:
- Little Shop of Horrors (lyrics by Howard Ashman)
- The Little Mermaid (lyrics by Howard Ashman; also Menken's first instrumental underscore)
- Beauty and the Beast (lyrics by Howard Ashman)
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (song "My Christmas Tree", lyrics by Jack Feldman)
- Aladdin (lyrics by Howard Ashman, with additional lyrics by Tim Rice after Ashman died in 1991)
- Aladdin: The Return of Jafar (song "Arabian Nights", lyrics by Howard Ashman)
- Aladdin and the King of Thieves (song "Arabian Nights", lyrics by Howard Ashman)
- Newsies (lyrics by Jack Feldman; first score written without Howard Ashman)
- Pocahontas (lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)
- Hercules (lyrics by David Zippel)
- Home on the Range (lyrics by Glenn Slater)
- Enchanted (lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)
- Disenchanted (lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)
- Tangled (lyrics by Glenn Slater)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (song "The Star-Spangled Man," lyrics by David Zippel)
- Sausage Party (lyrics by Glenn Slater; score co-composed by Christopher Lennertz)
- Beauty and the Beast (2017) (additional lyrics by Tim Rice)
- Ralph Breaks the Internet (song "A Place Called Slaughter Race," lyrics by Phil Johnston & Tom MacDougall)
- Aladdin (2019) (additional lyrics by Benj Pasek & Justin Paul)
- The Little Mermaid (2023) (additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda)
- Spellbound (lyrics by Glenn Slater)
Television:
- The Little Mermaid: The Series (instrumental theme and end credits music)
- Aladdin: The Series (song "Arabian Nights", lyrics for opening version by Howard Ashman)
- Hercules (song "Zero to Hero", lyrics for opening version by David Zippel)
- Galavant (lyrics by Glenn Slater; score co-composed by Christopher Lennertz)
- Tangled: The Series (lyrics by Glenn Slater)
Theater:
- Little Shop of Horrors (lyrics by Howard Ashman)
- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (lyrics by David Spencer)
- Beauty and the Beast (additional lyrics by Tim Rice)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- The Little Mermaid (additional lyrics by Glenn Slater)
- Sister Act (lyrics by Glenn Slater)
- Newsies
- Aladdin (additional lyrics by Chad Beguelin)
For samples of Alan Menken music, go to AwesomeMusic.Disney.