Disney superstar Alan Menken has announced in a Q&A with Young Artists of America earlier this week that he is very much keeping busy these days despite the global pandemic that has us all confined to our abodes.

Menken confirmed he is collaborating with lyricist Stephen Schwartz on a sequel to the beloved 2007 Disney film ‘Enchanted’, titled ‘Disenchanted’.

He is also working on a new Broadway show, ‘A Night at the Museum’, which he says is ‘almost ready for a reading now’.

ALAN MENKEN

Menken also managed to record the songs for the new ’The Little Mermaid’ live action movie in London just before the global lockdown. According to the composer, he and Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote four new songs for the movie, adding them to the other songs that they already had from the original.

In Menken’s words: ‘Melissa McCarthy came in and sang Ursula, Javier Bardem came in and sang King Triton, Daveed Diggs, who is from Hamilton, sang Sebastian, […] and Awkwafina is Scuttle.’

Other projects that have made their way onto the composer’s plate are a stage version of ‘Hercules’, a prequel to ‘Beauty and the Beast’ for Disney+, and a new animated project for Skydance, in collaboration with John Lasseter.

You can watch the full interview below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTv0Sc4TPRE