3/16/2024 0 Comments A whole new world lyrics frenchThough ‘Atina: Evil Queen Of The Galaxy’ didn’t develop past its workshop, a number of relationships from that project bore fruit. It marked the last time Alan was to see Lehman, who he considers his most vital and important teacher. Lehman Engel came down to critique and help, as part of his relationship with that program. ![]() Based on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, it was developed and performed as part of the theater curriculum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, just after the ‘Little Shop’ opening. ![]() It was written to go straight into the stock and amateur market. Another musical Alan wrote, also in 1982, was ‘The Dream On Royal Street’. Most exciting was a movie deal, which opened doors to Hollywood. Productions followed in Los Angeles and London, along with national tours and all the rest. Marks Place, where it ran for over 5 years and set the box-office record for highest grossing Off-Broadway show of all time. It moved to the Orpheum Theater on 2nd Ave and St. Based on the Roger Corman B-movie classic, it opened at the WPA Theater in the spring of ’82, to great reviews, lines around the block and countless offers from producers. Littleshop Then came ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, the musical that put Ashman and Menken on the map as in-demand, up-and-coming musical theater writers. But starting in 1978, when they met to discuss a musical of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, GOD BLESS YOU MR ROSEWATER, Alan and Howard became a songwriting team and with only a few exceptions, Alan has seldom returned to lyric writing. Until working with Ashman, Alan Menken was almost exclusively a composer/lyricist. He contributed material to revues like ‘New York’s Back In Town’, ‘Big Apple Country’ and ‘The Present Tense’. He showcased material from early musicals like ‘Midnight’, ‘Harry The Rat’ and ‘Apartment House’. He performed his material at clubs like The Ballroom, Reno Sweeny and Tramps. In the years between graduation and actually earning a living as a composer, Alan worked as a ballet and modern dance accompanist, a musical director for club acts, a jingle writer, arranger, a songwriter for ’Sesame Street’ and a vocal coach. As of November 26th, 2019, they are together 48 years and married for 47. ![]() The work itself has mercifully faded into the distant past, but one aspect of that experience became the best moment in his life meeting a beautiful ballet dancer named Janis Roswick. Alan found his first and best network for learning and growing into the composer he now has become.Įarly career Upon graduating from NYU, he took a collection of his songs and wrote a rock-ballet for The Downtown Ballet Company, called ‘Children Of The World’. Even though his plan was to become a rock-star-recording-artist, he would dabble in writing more musicals through that workshop. Most importantly, he escaped to the piano practice room every chance he got and wrote songs and a Musical for the Hall of Fame Players ‘Separate Ways’ (featuring that musical theater classic – “Thank God for Marijuana”.) Most importantly, to appease his parents, he auditioned for (and was admitted into) the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, taught by eminent conductor and composer, Lehman Engel. ![]() What could he do? That stress became a peptic ulcer in Junior High School, which Alan didn’t fully cure until those magical, psychedelic, wonderful hippie years of 1967 thru 1971, which just happened to coincide with the period he attended New York University’s College of Arts and Sciences, where Alan drifted from Pre-Med to Anthropology major to Philosophy major to finally graduating with a degree in Musicology. When his piano teacher, Emily Harris, or his violin teacher, Editha Braham realized what he was doing they wisely suggested that this be encouraged, so Alan began composing, as well as pretending to practice.Ĭollege years Too bad he’d never be able to make a living doing that. Instead of learning pieces, Alan would get the basic idea of a Beethoven Sonata or a Bartok Mikrokosmos and spend the rest of his practice time “faking it”. Studying was like pulling teeth (no pun intended) and even practicing piano was a trial. Much as he would have expected to become a dentist, like most of the other men in three generations of his family, he was a very ADHD child. Alan’s ambition, from his earliest memories, was to become a composer. He grew up in a home, filled with music and theater (and comedy and drama) in New Rochelle, New York, along with his sisters, Faye and Leah. Early years Alan Menken was born July 22nd, 1949 at French Hospital in New York City, to young aspiring actress/playwright, Judy Menken and boogie-woogie piano-playing dentist, Norman Menken, DDS.
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