Alan Menken, the composer and lyricist behind the scores for huge musical theatre shows, such as Little Shop of Horrors, Sister Act and Newsies, picked up an Emmy over the weekend. This has made him only the 16th person ever to achieve an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar & Tony) in his career!
Other EGOT winners include: Mel Brooks, Whoopi Goldberg, Sir Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
He won the Emmy for his new song ‘Waiting in the Wings’, which is featured on the Disney Channel show Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventures. The song was given the ‘Best Original Song in a Children’s, Young Adult or Animated Program’ award.
Whilst Menken did win an honorary Emmy thirty years ago, it wasn’t until this year that he won an Emmy in a competitive category for the first time.
Menken has won a remarkable eight Oscars (his first being for The Little Mermaid), and eleven Grammys in his career so far- whilst he won his first Tony award for Newsies in 2012.
Menken is currently a very busy man. He’s been working on a live-action version of The Little Mermaid alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda, as well as a musical adaptation of Night at the Museum and a stage show of the classic Disney film Hercules.
Words by Robert Percy.
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