A whole new world for Alan Menken ‘Disney’s Aladdin’
Composer of ‘Aladdin,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Little Mermaid’ finds fans now span generations
Alan Menken’s fan base has come full circle.
The Tony, Academy Award and Grammy winner composed the music for Disney’s 1992 animated film “Aladdin,” which this summer is enjoying time on both screen and stage.
The movie has been adapted into a live-action feature starring Will Smith that has hauled in more than $266 million domestically since its release in late May. And that original film is the basis for the Broadway musical “Disney’s Aladdin,” which is making a stop at Houston’s Hobby Center beginning Wednesday during its national tour. Both feature Menken’s hit songs, including “A Whole New World.”
“I have this great thing going on now,” Menken says in a phone interview. “I have all these projects that I did that a generation grew up on … . And beyond having a shelf life, they take on a greater life of their own over time.”
In addition to “Aladdin,” Menken composed music for “Newsies,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and The Beast.” Fans of those films now have children of their own, he says.
“Growing up on something is very powerful,” he says of nostalgia for songs of one’s childhood. “‘Oh, my gosh, I want to take my kids to this,’ ” he imagines fans saying of the new adaptations.
“I write this for the kid in all of us,” Menken says of “Friend Like Me” and other original songs that will be performed in Houston by a cast that includes two stars reared in Texas: Arlington’s Clinton Greenspan, who plays the role of Aladdin, and Major Attaway, who hails from Fort Worth, as Genie.
“It’s this wonderful interaction between what tickles us as artists and what kids pick up on,” he says.
New songs, too
Menken, 69, helped to write the musical’s new songs that were added to the original score.
One is “These Palace Walls,” which has been described as Princess Jasmine’s modern-day girl-power anthem, in which she laments being forced to find a suitor from a royal family per palace protocol.
The musical follows the same storyline as the original movie and the folk tale on which it was based. In the fictional city of Agrabah, Aladdin is a peasant who encounters a magical lamp with a genie inside. He’s granted wishes he uses to pursue Jasmine.
For the original music, including “Arabian Nights” and “Prince Ali,” Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman created an homage to Old Hollywood’s take on “the mysterious East,” Menken says, referring to performances including Bing Crosby’s “Road” pictures.
“It’s more fable than it is reality,” Menkens says of the story’s setting. “What appeals to the kid in all of us is just the concept of a magical land.”
That magical land comes to life on stage with special effects and elements suspended in the air, including the flying carpet Aladdin and Jasmine rode on when they first sang “A Whole New World” together.
12-pound wedding gown
Also meant to dazzle, the 337 other-worldly costumes were handmade using fabrics and vibrant embellishment sourced from places including Morocco, Turkey, Tahiti, Mexico, India, Uzbekistan and China. Some pieces are heavily adorned with Swarovski crystals. According to press materials, Jasmine’s glittering wedding gown weighs 12 pounds.
Menken says “Aladdin’s” overarching message has stood the test of time and, with the new film’s release, he’s had time to reflect on it of late.
“It’s fine to have a lamp and three wishes, but the truth is we make our own wishes,” he says. “And it’s the wishes that are in When: Wednesday-July 14 Where: The Hobby Center, 800 Bagby
Details: From $35; TheHobbyCenter.org our heart that we are committed to seeing through that are really what’s most precious.”
Of his hit song “A Whole New World” that’s found a new audience, Menken says, “There’s a sense of unreality to it. It came from your insides and found its way all over the world.”
The song was a No. 1 Billboard hit in 1993. It was also awarded the Grammy for song of the year.
“The world is an interrelated place, and there’s a collective conscious,” he says. “We’re all in touch in quiet ways that we connect to. I feel really blessed that in my writing and composing I’ve been able to write things that have had such an impact on people ... I feel I’m as much of a recipient of that as they are.”
And if Menken were presented a genie in a lamp willing to grant him just one wish?
“Right now I’d wish for a better world,” he says. “I’d wish for a world of compassion. We are a world in need of a lot of love and a lot of acceptance.”