From the outset, I would say that Menken was a pleasure to talk with and had a calm demeanor about him. I asked all I could think of, and provides an update on future projects. Now for the highlights:
When I started to hang on to music?
He says that popular music is the main responsibility, and Joni Mitchell was a major factor
It 'still a passion to be a composer?
It started as a pre-med at the University of New York, but he always wanted to write.
I did not know how to follow that path.
How Donna Murphy and Mandy Moore in all this?
He had worked with Donna in the past and brought his experience in the theater.
Mandy had the exact features that were in search of votes.
Alan Menken: I know it's not crazy?
Did you know that you have the most Oscars any ...
Menken: Alive ... but you know, the truth is, let's face it. Meryl Streep has 16 nominations. I think mine is very impressive. I was very fortunate to be involved in projects as a composer, who really led me to report the results. I am very proud of him. If I had the ability to rename, I'd be happy.
You worked with Disney for a while now, but you had a bit of a pause or rest.
Menken: Well, I do not really take a break. I think a lively music works in cycles. So we had at the beginning of the cycle with the Little Mermaid and Hercules, to the end. He himself went, and I think that people wanted something more lively rock star driven, it was almost like a juke-box type of animation. I was delighted to return to the classic design. Tangled and is in the back because I think it was well aware of this desire is also a new type of music.
I read your story and you were really a pre-med student at NYU. So what did you do at Disney and musicals?
Menken: I have not been able to pre-medicine. [Laughs]. I wanted to be a composer and I went to school at the University of New York pre-med because I thought, well ... which is actually a composer?
As has always had this passion?
Menken: Yes, always. This is the passion of my life. So the college I started my musical career. Before coming to work for Disney, wrote Little Shop of Horrors, and other musicals. What led me to Disney was a new system, which is now the old system, it was over, Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and all these people really wanted to revive the musical soul, so he came to me and Howard Ashman . It was my entry into Disney.You were a part of the Golden Age.
Menken: It 'been a great success and we continued. I believe that the success of a musical has inspired some people by surprise '. I do not think anyone knew how great was the hunger to return to their songs, and a simple romantic, and brings the values of the film musical theater. So we said: "People like this, so let's continue to do so." When the box office has gone down, have such a thought, "Enough already, try something different." It 's inevitable the way things are going.
You've done a ton of different styles of Disney, but that era of music would you say that affects you the most?
Menken: Well, I'm always inspired by a particular style that we chose that comes from history. What a tangled, styles, I decided to ... I would not go to plan Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is another story of a person trapped in a tower, but clearly it was a goth and classical music of the Church and the French. Folk Rock wanted here. I was thinking of her long hair and the freedom he wanted. I immediately thought of Chelsea Morning Joni Mitchell and all, folk music, which I love. Cat Stevens and energy. I just felt that it would be, in the intestine, to bring this fresh palette. So that was really our road score.
While the film obviously affects any style you bring to the table.
Menken: Well, they had barely started the film at this point. It was the story and sketches of the characters that inspire a narrative device. When we did Hercules, and we brought the gospel, because it is in praise of God and Hercules were among them. It was an arbitrary choice, but it worked well for this story. Any one of the projects I've done has had a different musical palette that I have drawn on. Everyone wanted something that was really cool, it was fashionable to be adventurous and not so adventurous a little girl.
So howhaveyoubeeninvolvedinTangled?Menken:Rapunzelhadbeen around for a long time and I had no idea he would come my way. I think we had just finished and I had done Enchanted Shaggy Dog, and we were developing a few things and then the call came. They wanted to talk about Rapunzel, so when we started taking meetings and speeches, and then I took Glenn Slater. When we started, they really want to get out. While the songs were all pretty well written in less than a year. Many choices of songs and then they were storyboarded. The last song was written to be cast that takes place throughout the film. The first was written when my life began.What is Donna Murphy and Mandy Moore bring to the table?
Menken: Well, Donna has brought experience in musical theater. He is a brilliant actor and has won two Tony Awards. Women I have known for a long time, in fact, was one of our Audreys Shop of Horrors back. So Donna brought that kind of drama. Not really connected to Donna, but connected to the story, Glenn Slater, and I wrote something that was very musical theater oriented Mother Gothel, and his song, Mother knows best. Mandy brings that wonderful quality which is fully compatible with Rapunzel. This item, which is a light, airy, and desire. She is wonderful, beautiful, and Rapunzel. Frankly, it was a beautiful game in a loud voice what we wanted for the character.
You are constantly developing new, including the upcoming theatrical production of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Menken: The main things are going to have a leap of faith here at the Ahmanson Theatre opens, Oct. 3. And 'my gospel music. Sister Act London Palladium, is underway and coming to Broadway this spring. So those are my two, large, active projects, and then there's a music scene Newsies, Hunchback, Aladdin and all the way.
How to juggle all these projects? Is it easy?
Menken: I think it's easier ... Well, I think it is a pleasant and stimulating. I have always handled a lot of projects, because at least half of the projects do not get shelved. So you have to do a lot of things to come.
Tell us a little about how to balance the background score and music today. How did you find the pace of the transition between real history and a musical number?
Menken: We do it together. You can search for what must be the right time of the main characters of the song. But if you look like a pub song singing, well, you know what? We need to play a song. We need something that will be more than a single song. Thus, the characters have been invented to give Rapunzel and Flynn, stop on the road where you can play off the song a chance. Mother Knows Best flows directly out of the conflict between them. Lantern singing while quite a few 'power out of a sense of completion, and finally sees the lanterns, and at this time. And 'plus a number of assembly. So I sold the story and go, 'OK, these are the moments of a song as we see them, make this version and the version two of this. This seems about right. "It 'time to put on a song called The Dance United. When they come to the kingdom, and dance, which is a kind of musical moment, but also the moment of a song without words.But structurally, if you write musicals enough you basically have an idea of where to go, what you need and when, how to attract people on this trip.
This concludes our discussion, I was out of time. Once again, it was an absolute pleasure to meet the man behind some of my favorite songs of the music in Disney's string of hits in the 90's, especially Aladdin. You can read Part 1 and Part 2 of my set visit report, and my first interview with Zachary Levi here. Check back here over the last two interviews with Mandy Moore and Byron Howard and Nathan Greno directors in the next two days.
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