You wouldn’t clock Alan Menken on the street. The composer – spiky grey hair, crinkled forehead, encouraging grin – is altogether unassuming. To see his oeuvre, though, is to realise this 75-year-old soundtracked your childhood. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas – the man is almost more Disney than Walt himself. With eight Oscars, Menken has more golden statuettes than anyone else alive. Plus 11 Grammys, an Emmy, and a Tony. Meryl Streep, eat your heart out.
“If I showed up at the Oscars now, the car would pull up in front of all these photographers, the door would open, I’d walk out and they’d go, ‘Oh…” Menken laughs.
