Alan Menken, the brilliant composer of Disney animated musicals as well as the company's first Broadway production, "Beauty and the Beast," will join forces with some of Broadway's top talents to create a new musical version of "A Christmas Carol" at Madison Square Garden's Paramount Theatre this holiday season.
Lyrics are by Lynn Ahrens, whose 1991 Broadway fable "Once on This Island" had perhaps its best staging at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre in 1993. The director and choreographer, Mike Ockrent and Susan Stroman, teamed for the Gershwin musical "Crazy for You," which won the 1992 Tony for best musical and is still running at the Shubert Theatre.The 45-year-old Menken, whose scores for "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin" and "Beast" have made him the nation's hottest composer of family-oriented musicals, says that his new role on Broadway - and in Broadway's future - is the culmination of a 12-year effort.
"We had an offer to move `Little Shop of Horrors' (in 1982) to Broadway, but we decided we didn't need the risk because we were doing so well off-Broadway," the composer said. Even after the great rewards of the Disney films, he continued, "It was still an incredible experience to sit in the Palace Theatre and watch `Beauty' - to have Jule Styne (composer of `Gypsy') walk up and tell me he's my biggest fan. To now be a part of what I've admired all my life. I had to pinch myself."
Menken believes that the success of "Beast," whose mixed reviews have not taken any steam out of its box office, and Disney's commitment to restore and run the 90- year-old New Amsterdam Theatre are signs of a suddenly friendlier environment for family programming in New York theater. Another indication is the offer by Madison Square Garden - which has very little experience in Broadway-style entertainment - to produce "A Christmas Carol" in its 5,700-seat Paramount, which is used almost exclusively for rock concerts.
Susan Lee, a spokeswoman for the League of American Theaters and Producers, said that the "Carol" production is at the vanguard of what is expected to be a major push toward more family-oriented fare on Broadway.
Menken elaborated, "some of the negative reviews (of `Beast') have concentrated on the spectacle and the money and the merchandising, and I can kind of understand that.
"But then you sit and listen to those people, especially the kids, and you realize there's a hunger for shows like these . . . The hope is that `Christmas Carol' can be a perennial."