Alan Menken

Alan Menken (born 1949 in New York) is an American composer best known for reviving the fortunes of Broadway-style musical storytelling within Walt Disney Animation Studios during the late 1980s and 1990s. Working closely with lyricists Howard Ashman and later Tim Rice and Stephen Schwartz, he composed the scores for «The Little Mermaid», «Beauty and the Beast», «Aladdin» and «Pocahontas», blending lush orchestral writing with Broadway-style song structures and character-driven melody.

Menken’s sound is defined by sweeping, hummable themes, clear motivic development, and a gift for matching music to comic or emotional character beats — heard in numbers like «Friend Like Me» and «Prince Ali» from Aladdin. He later returned to the Broadway stage itself with adaptations of his film scores as well as original musicals, cementing his reputation as one of the defining composers of modern musical theatre.

His honors include multiple Academy Awards, Golden Globes and a Tony Award, and his work has shaped how generations of audiences experience the animated musical as a form.