The eight-time Oscar-winning composer behind Disney’s Aladdin and The Little Mermaid on being told to become a dentist, working on hits and his tips for success
Iam talking to a man who has won — deep breath — eight Oscars, seven Golden Globes, 11 Grammys, a Tony and one Emmy, the latter win in 2020 making him the 16th person to score EGOT status (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). I was rather hoping to see all his gongs lined up on a suitably groaning mantelpiece behind him. But at 75, Alan Menken has no need to flaunt his achievements. In fact, the composer who virtually reinvented the Disney musical for our era (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas are all his) as well as co-writing several hit stage musicals, from Little Shop of Horrors to Sister Act, reveals that, if he had taken the advice of his New York Jewish family, he would never have gone into music at all.
“I could easily have become a dentist, like all my male relatives,” he says. “Can you imagine being in a family lousy with dentists? That was the destiny chosen for me. Obviously there was no question of becoming a composer or songwriter. Just to raise the subject was enough for my dad to shout, ‘You wanna end up selling shoes?’ Even now I can’t go into a shoe store without feeling sorry for the staff….
Menken’s music will return to the West End in June, when a new musical version of Disney’s Hercules starts at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Does he have any advice for young composers? “Yes: don’t fall in love with your own material to the extent that you aren’t prepared to ditch it if it isn’t working,” Menken replies. “And in that respect, the audience is your final, and most important, collaborator….