Alan Menken is a living legend.
The eight-time Academy Award-winning composer and songwriters music was a crucial element in the revival of Disneys animation brand.
Den of Geek: When you look back, whats your fondest memory of the original film or score?
Alan Menken:Writing it.
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People have said that the animated film is a perfect movie.
Do you remember the first time you watched it?
It was an opening down there.
It was a screening and it was very emotional.
What was your reaction when Disney said theyre going to do this as a live action film?
It was first brought up and I went, Okay.
What are the details?
Theres no way for me to have a complete reaction without knowing the details.
They could be working on a script for a year.
They could be working on a script for a year and a half, two years, whatever.
Maybe it wont get greenlit at all.
It all becomes a hypothetical until you see the script.
First of all, I loved his work.
Hes just the real deal.
Then we had our discussions about, Where are we going to change things?
What are the new areas we want to open up?
More of a sense of France.
There is a great flavor of French music that I wanted to continue to weave into the score.
Once that was defined, then we looked at what the new song moments would be.
Who am I going to collaborate with?
One of my mantras was Dont screw it up.
Serve both those agendas.
Did you start completely from scratch with the new songs?
Was there anything that you had that didnt make the stage show?
There were two songs from the stage show that I would have loved to have had.
It was a nine-minute number.
Really, Something There filled that moment of transition in a more economical way.
Thats the new number called Evermore.
How is it working with this cast?
Luke does in fact have roots in musicals, and God, hes so good.
The bulk of the cast was very fluent with musicals.
We have Audra McDonald, whos the Meryl Streep of musical theater, as the wardrobe.
If he hasnt been in a lot of stage musicals, he should be.
Ewan McGregor, Emma Thompson, who is very experienced with musicals.
I dont know if you know that or not, but she is.
On the other side, you have our two leads, and theyre new to musicals.
It was just a process.
They had their vocal coaches.
They had Michael Kosarin, my musical director.
Do younger actors have maybe a harder time with the genre?
No, its almost the reverse.
This generation of young actors are so into musical theater.
I think its every bit as much or more than in the previous generations.
This is probably the greatest generation weve had of musical theater talent.
Just through the roof.
I dont know, I cant really judge entirely.
But in general, the younger actors are gung ho about musicals.
Youre working on a live-action version ofThe Little Mermaidnext with Lin-Manuel Miranda?
Im not sure which will be next.
We have a sequel toEnchantedcoming.
Then theres two other studios, theres other things that Im working on.
None yet greenlit, so I cant say.
Honestly cant say whats next, but yes, Im slated to work with Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Hes going to write lyrics for new songs with me and also I think function as a producer onMermaid.
Beauty and the Beastis out in theaters this Friday (March 17).
