Live Review: Alan Menken @ Palais Theatre, Melbourne

Alan Menken.

You may not know the name, but you know the music. After all, he wrote the soundtrack to your childhood.

Across four decades, he has reshaped film and musical theatre, establishing himself as one of the most decorated composers in entertainment history. Not only is he the most-awarded living Academy Award recipient, with eight Oscars, but he has also collected 11 Grammy Awards, seven Golden Globes, a Tony Award, and a Daytime Emmy, firmly placing him in the rarefied circle of EGOT winners. His legacy has been further underscored with inductions into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the American Theatre Hall of Fame, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the title of Disney Legend.

Last night, Menken made his long-awaited Australian debut at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre for the first of two exclusive shows on his A Whole New World of Alan Menken tour. This wasn’t just another concert, but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness a living legend live on stage.

Musical comedian Sammy J set the tone, reflecting on how Aladdin changed his life and revealing that he and his wife skipped their wedding dance in favour of performing A Whole New World duet.

With a piano sitting centre stage and three screens flickering through decades of photos and archival footage, Menken took a seat, settled in, and launched into the triumphant Prince Ali, instantly lifting the room with a flamboyant burst of energy.

‘Welcome to my office,’ he quipped.

Part concert, part conversation, the evening unfolded as an anthology of beloved modern classics, as Menken intertwined music and memory. Presented in two acts, the babbling New Yorker guided the audience through his storied catalogue in a mostly chronological order.

After reflecting on his early life and career, including an early stint writing a herbicide jingle for Roundup, he moved into a few bars from the 1979 musical God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, marking his first collaboration with lyricist Howard Ashman.  

From there, he drifted into The Little Mermaid, his landmark partnership with Ashman, including the shimmering Part of Your World, a cut verse from Fathoms Below, alongside Kiss the Girl and an alternate version of Poor Unfortunate Souls.

The programme also featured music from Beauty and the Beast, with Menken playing snippets of Belle, Gaston, Be Our Guest, and the title track Beauty and the Beast. In addition, Menken performed If I Can’t Love Her from the stage adaptation.

Later, he performed a medley from Aladdin, including the soaring A Whole New World and Friend Like Me, a song Menken originally envisioned in a Fats Waller style, bringing that original concept to life on stage. Menken also shared that Aladdin marked his last partnership with his ‘collaborative soulmate’ Ashman, recalling how lyricist Tim Rice stepped in to complete the project after Ashman’s death.

Sheridan Square emerged as one of the night's more emotional moments. Written with Ashman about the AIDS crisis, the song carries particular weight since his death.

Fans were also treated to a medley from The Little Shop of Horrors, including Somewhere That’s Green and Suddenly, Seymour from the 1982 stage musical adaptation, alongside Mean Green Mother From Outer Space from the 1986 film.

Then there was a foray into the music from Disney’s 1992 film Newsies, including the Razzie-winning song High Times, Hard Times. Menken explained that he only learned about the Razzie after winning the Oscar for A Whole New World the very next day, noting with playful irony that he’s really a ‘REGOT.’ He also performed Watch What Happens from the stage adaptation, tripping over the tongue-twisting lyrics and dropping his head onto the piano keys in exhausted relief once the song was over.

The retrospective wouldn’t be complete without his collaborations with legendary lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz, including Out There from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas, as well as the unreleased In the Middle of the River from Pocahontas.

Then came a medley from Disney’s Hercules featuring Zero to Hero, the unreleased Shooting Star and the song that ultimately replaced it, Go the Distance. He also performed Forget About It from the Hercules stage musical.

This was shortly followed by another Schwartz medley, this time from Disney’s Enchanted. Menken told how songs such as True Love’s Kiss and Happy Little Working Song paid homage to Walt-era classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, while That’s How You Know was written as a self-parody.

Another standout medley arrived with Disney’s Tangled, with lyrics from Glenn Slater, another of Menken’s longtime collaborators. Not only did he perform When Will My Life Begin?, Mother Knows Best, and the Grammy-winning I See the Light, but he also shared the original lyrics to When Will My Life Begin?, never before heard outside a Disney conference room. If that wasn’t enough, he announced that Melbourne-born filmmaker Michael Gracey was set to direct the live-action remake and that a stage musical was also in development with Menken involved on both fronts.

Other selections from the Disney catalogue included the quietly-moving Will the Sun Ever Shine Again from Home on the Range, composed in the wake of 9/11, and the patriotic Star Spangled Man from Captain America: The First Avenger.

Menken took us through his stage credits, including God Bless Us Everyone from the musical A Christmas Carol, Raise Your Voice from the musical adaptation Sister Act, Leap of Faith from the eponymous musical, and I Like It from A Bronx Tale, as well as music from the short-lived television musical comedy Galavant and the animated musical Spellbound.

The show drew to a close with How Does a Moment Last Forever from Disney’s live-action film Beauty and the Beast, a tender reflection on capturing meaningful moments before they slip away, an apt sentiment, neatly echoing the audience’s desire to hold onto the night just a little longer.

After a standing ovation, the audience got their wish, albeit briefly, as Menken returned to the stage for one final tribute with Proud of Your Boy, written with Ashman and originally cut from Aladdin, before ultimately finding its place in the stage musical adaptation. As photos of Ashman and of Menken’s parents appeared, the show closed on a quietly reflective note.