Alan Menken arrives at the world premiere of The Little Mermaid at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on May 8, 2023.Jordan Strauss/The Associated Press
Being a member of the EGOT club means a person has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony award. It is considered an esteemed accomplishment – but is it though? More than 20 entertainers have done it (even Whoopi Goldberg).
Call me when you’ve achieved an EGORT, which adds a Razzie to the quartet.
“I actually call it a REGOT,” says Alan Menken, calling from upstate New York. The legendary Disney composer is one of two people − Liza Minnelli is the other − to own each of the five trophies. It’s a quasi-honour, given that the Razzie, short for a Golden Raspberry Award, is a parody prize given out for cinematic stinkers.
Menken “won” his Razzie in 1993 for the song High Times, Hard Times, sang by Ann-Margret in the film musical Newsies. Menken got the last laugh, though: In 2012, he and co-writer Jack Feldman won a Tony for Newsies: The Musical.
On Friday, Menken brings his live autobiographical solo show, A Whole New World of Alan Menken, to Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall. The eight-time Oscar winner spoke about the multimedia stage presentation, his career and achieving acronymically.
Pop siren Lily Allen brings her sublime West End Girl show to Toronto
If there were an award for Canada's top folk music city, Calgary deserves a nomination
Did the Razzie for Newsies sting?
I found out about it the same night I won an Oscar for Aladdin. So, I didn’t exactly feel pain from the Razzie. Years later I won a Tony for Newsies: The Musical. It’s emblematic of the journey we go through in our own career.
Do you still have the Razzie statuette?
At first I didn’t even know there was a physical Razzie. I finally found out through my songwriting collaborator, Jack Feldman. The Razzie people asked if they could send it to me, and it actually came. It’s the cheapest award you’ve ever seen. As soon as I took it out of the box, it started falling apart immediately. I thought that was perfect.
It’s been said that you’ve soundtracked millennial childhoods with your work on Disney films. How does that recognition stack up with your awards?
It’s a wonderful distinction for the songs I’ve written with my songwriting collaborators, and a full-circle moment for me. I grew up loving Disney − we all did.
I revisited them when my first daughter was born in the 1980s. It was a time when we were reeling from the AIDS crisis, which was killing people left and right. It was a nightmare. So I would sit with my daughter and escape into the Disney classics when they were released on VHS tapes. We would watch Winnie the Pooh or Cinderella or Peter Pan, and it would take me back to my own childhood.
And then, unbeknownst to me, the next step in my life began with Howard Ashman calling me about The Little Mermaid. It was a pinch-me moment. I had never scored a movie before. The world of Disney animation was incredible.
Menken performs at the 2023 Songwriters Hall of Fame induction gala in New York City.Theo Wargo/Getty Images
Is that the kind of story you tell in your one-man show?
I’ve been doing it for well over a decade. It’s the one format I have which brings together all the elements of my career. It allows me to open the curtain and tell the stories behind the songs. I do some full songs, some partials, some medleys. It’s kind of a needle drop on 40 or 50 years of my career.
The pop songwriter Jimmy Webb does something similar with his live shows. Like him, you’re a composer behind the scenes. What convinced you that people might be interested in your stories?
It’s not something I felt I’d ever be comfortable with. But going out on stage, I noticed audiences loved the music and they love the world the music came from. For me, it’s satisfying and emotional to share it.
In the show you talk about Howard Ashman, your collaborator and a key part of the Disney revival, who died of AIDS complications in 1991.
I think he was the major talent of our generation. We wrote five musicals together: God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; Little Shop of Horrors; The Little Mermaid; Beauty and the Beast; and Aladdin. He didn’t live to see Aladdin. When he was dying, we kept it quiet. He was afraid his career would end if people knew he had AIDS. It’s hard for me to think of those years without Howard’s story as the underscore for what was happening. It was an emotional time. But from the ashes of that tragedy came some real beauty.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
A Whole New World of Alan Menken Stories and Songs, April 17, Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall