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Alan Menken | Entertainment News, Photos, and Videos

Many 'The Little Mermaid' Lyrics Have Been Changed for Live Action Movie, Reason Why Explained (& New Songs Are Coming, Too!)

Alan Menken, who composed Disney’s most recognizable scores and songs, really enjoyed collaborating with Lin-Manuel Miranda on the live-action version of The Little Mermaid.

For the first song they worked on together, Alan said, “We discussed with [director] Rob Marshall what he wanted. One was the Prince Eric song, called ‘Wild Uncharted Waters.’ Then, there was the song for Ariel when she has her legs (doesn’t have a voice), and she’s singing her thoughts about all the firsts she is noticing for the first time.”

Alan added, “there was a number called ‘Scuttlebutt’ for Scuttle and Sebastian.”

Keep reading to find out more…More Here! »

'Disenchanted' Producer Explains Why He Was Still 'Excited' For The Movie To Go Straight to Disney+

Amy Adams reunites with Patrick Dempsey at the premiere of their new movie, Disenchanted, held at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on Wednesday night (November 16).

The two actors were joined by co-stars Maya Rudolph, Idina Menzel, James Marsden, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jayma Mays, Oscar Nunez, and Kolton Stewart at the event, as well as director Adam Shankman and composer Alan Menken.

Disenchanted is set to debut on Friday, November 18 on Disney+ – which is something that didn’t scare off producer Barry Josephson.

Click inside to read more…More Here! »

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Composer Alan Menken Joins The EGOT Club With Daytime Emmy Win!

Congrats to Alan Menken!

The iconic songwriter has just won a competitive Emmy and acquired EGOT status!

Alan won his first competitive Emmy for best original song in a children’s, young adult or animated program at the 2020 Daytime Emmy Awards on Sunday (July 26) for Disney Channel’s Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventures with the song, “Waiting in the Wings.”

While Alan did receive an honorary Primetime Emmy in 1990, he didn’t achieve the EGOT status with that.

Alan has won eight (8) Oscars and 11 Grammys for his scores from The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas; and a Tony award for his work in Newsies

Alan joins a prestigious list of entertainers in the EGOT club, including Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn, Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend and many more.

See the full list of EGOT winners here, and who still is just one away from joining the club!

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Dan Levy, Andy Cohen, Idina Menzel & Many More Stars Have a Virtual Saturday Night Passover Seder for Charity - Watch!

It’s Passover, and everyone is digitally invited!

A ton of stars came together online to sit around a virtual Seder table with music and comedy to raise funds for the CDC Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund for Tasty on Saturday (April 11).

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Dan Levy

Seder guests included Pamela Adlon, Jason Alexander, Reza Aslan, Skylar Astin, Shoshana Bean, Mayim Bialik, Rachel Brosnahan, Rabbi Sharon Brous, D’Arcy Carden, Andy Cohen, Darren Criss, Fran Drescher, Billy Eichner, Cynthia Erivo, Beanie Feldstein, Harvey Fierstein, Tan France, Eliot Glazer, Ilana Glazer, Josh Groban, Richard Kind, Julie Klausner, Nick Kroll, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, Dan Levy, Judith Light, Camryn Manheim, Milo Manheim, Alan Menken, Idina Menzel, Debra Messing, Isaac Mizrahi, Busy Philipps, Ben Platt, Billy Porter, Stephen Schwartz, Michael Solomonov, Shaina Taub, Nina West, Henry Winkler, Finn Wolfhard and Rabbi David Wolpe, among even more stars.

Watch them all celebrate the Jewish holiday in the one-hour digital special…

Melissa McCarthy Might Play Ursula in Live-Action 'Little Mermaid'

Melissa McCarthy is in talks to portray Ursula in Disney’s upcoming live-action The Little Mermaid film!

The 48-year-old Life of the Party actress would take on the role of the famous villain and put her own spin on the classic “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” Variety reports.

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Melissa McCarthy

Disney reportedly wants to cast “contemporary and compelling” actors, while still honoring the original 1989 animated movie.

Mary Poppins Returns director Rob Marshall will helm the adaptation, which will include the original songs as well as new ones from Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Lin-Manuel is also producing with Rob, John DeLuca, and Marc Platt.

Disney’s live-action The Lion King is also set to premiere soon, on July 19. Watch the trailer!

Will Smith & Mena Massoud Recall Their First Meeting & It's Awkward & Hilarious All At Once

Will Smith hangs out with Navid Negahban and choreographer Jamal Sims inside the official after party for the premiere of Aladdin, held at Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood on Tuesday night (May 21).

The trio was joined by Naomi Scott, Mena Massoud, Marwan Kenzari, Numan Acar, with composer Alan Menken, and director Guy Ritchie inside the party.

Speaking with ET at the premiere, Mena opened up about his first meeting with Will.

“First time I met him, I mean, I grew up watching his films, so I was really nervous and I forgot to introduce myself,” he shared. “And [director] Guy Ritchie was there, so I thought he was gonna help break the ice! But he didn’t, so I had to back track a little [and introduce myself]. Guy [left] me hanging, and I’ve brought that up several times.”

Will added about the funny meeting, “We’re on set, and there’s 200 dancers standing around, and I’m taking to the director, and then this dude just comes up and he’s standing in our conversation, and I’m like, ‘That’s a bold-a** dancer, [who's] going to stand there in the middle of the director and the genie in this conversation.’ And he just stood there and he didn’t say nothing! He just smiled and then walked away.”

“I came back later, because I didn’t really tell him who I was,” Mena added. “So I came back and introduced myself.”

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Will Smith Says He Brought His 'Fresh Prince' Persona To New Version of Genie in 'Aladdin'

Will Smith chats with reporters during the press conference for Aladdin in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon (May 19).

The 50-year-old actor joined Naomi Scott, Mena Massoud, Nasim Pedrad, Navid Negahban, plus production designer Gemma Jackson, composer Alan Menken, and director Guy Ritchie to chat up the movie ahead of the premiere this week.

In a recent interview, Will opened up about how he approached an iconic character like the Genie for the flick, all while trying to honor Robin Williams, who voiced the character in the animated film.

“Robin Williams didn’t leave much room to improve on the Genie. … So I looked at it and the first thing for me was that it was going to be live action. I thought it could be a little different,” he shared.

Will added, “Robin Williams … took his essentially stand-up persona and just infused his stand-up persona into the Genie. … I was like I could just use the extreme version of almost my ‘Fresh Prince’ persona to be able to infuse that into this wild character.”

“I felt I’d be able to capture the nostalgia while at the same time being able to make something new.”

Aladdin hits theaters on Friday, May 24th.

FYI: Naomi is wearing Balmain. Mena is wearing an AllSaints bomber jacket.

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