Klimova Kristina

Jerome David Kern was born in 1885. He began his stage career grafting American songs (for which he wrote the music) into imported European operettas. His breakthrough came with the song written (with lyrics by Edward Laska) for a show called "The Girl from Utah". It established him as a major American composer in 1914.

Married to a Englishwoman, Kern became an Anglophile, and teamed up with British writers Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse to write the so-called "Princess Theatre musicals"--shows like "Very Good, Eddie" and "Leave It To Jane", which were unusual not so much for their silly storylines but for the fact that the characters were everyday people rather than the exotic characters of operetta, and also for the fact that these shows had few sets and small casts. He later wrote shows like "Sally" and "Sunny", both loaded with song hits, star casts and spectacular sets but silly plots. Finally, looking for an entirely different type of musical, Kern decided to adapt Edna Ferber's novel "Show Boat" to the musical stage.

Although Oscar Hammerstein II agreed to do the adaptation and lyrics, nearly everyone (including Ferber) thought Kern and Hammerstein had lost their minds. "Show Boat"'s storyline featured interracial marriage, wife desertion, alcoholism and gambling, and the most realistic characters ever seen in a musical up to then, not to mention the song "Ol' Man River" and an opening chorus of black dockworkers singing about their work.

Most of the songs were integrated so well into the story that they could not possibly have been sung in another show or taken out of "Show Boat" without damaging the plot. And "Show Boat" featured a song, "Mis'ry's Comin' Round", which was so utterly tragic that Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. ordered it cut--and it remained cut, existing only as background music, until the 1994 revival. In spite of all this, "Show Boat" became a huge hit and has remained one of the musical theater's greatest classics and most often revived shows--the only musical pre-1943 to be revived over and over.

Kern, however, did not experiment any further--his other hit shows, "Music In The Air", "Roberta" and "The Cat and the Fiddle", contain classic songs that are still sung, but the shows are almost never revived. After a heart attack in 1939, Kern wrote songs exclusively for movie musicals. Two of his movie musicals, Swing time (1936) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and Cover girl (1944) with Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly, have become famous for their songs and dances. Kern died of a stroke at the age of 60, in 1945.

The style of music in musicals. They can range from really freakin' annoying to wonderfully witty. They are used to convey an emotion in the character, continue the story of the play, create irony, or jsut about anything the writer wants.

Legendary composer Alan Menken has created some of the most beloved songs and musical scores of our time, with his unique voice as a composer capturing the imagination of audiences for over 35 years.

Known for his music on stage and screen, he is noted for his multiple works with the Walt Disney company (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin), as well as Broadway stage musicals Sister Act and Little Shop of Horrors. With eight Academy Awards, Alan has received more Oscars than any living person, and is the recipient of numerous other awards including Golden Globes, Grammys, Drama Desk Awards, and a Tony Award.

Alan Menken was born July 22nd, 1949 at French Hospital in New York City, to young aspiring actress/playwright, Judy Menken and boogie-woogie piano-playing dentist, Norman Menken, DDS. He grew up in a home, filled with music and theater (and comedy and drama) in New Rochelle, New York, along with his sisters, Faye and Leah.

Most importantly, to appease his parents, he auditioned for (and was admitted into) the BMI Musical Theater Workshop, taught by eminent conductor and composer, Lehman Engel. Even though his plan was to become a rock-star-recording-artist, he would dabble in writing more musicals through that workshop. Alan found his first and best network for learning and growing into the composer he now has become.

Upon graduating from NYU, he took a collection of his songs and wrote a rock-ballet for The Downtown Ballet Company, called ‘Children Of The World’. The work itself has mercifully faded into the distant past, but one aspect of that experience became the best moment in his life; meeting a beautiful ballet dancer named Janis Roswick. As of November 26th, 2019, they are together 48 years and married for 47.

Then came ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, the musical that put Ashman and Menken on the map as in-demand, up-and-coming musical theater writers. Based on the Roger Corman B-movie classic, it opened at the WPA Theater in the spring of ’82, to great reviews, lines around the block and countless offers from producers. It moved to the Orpheum Theater on 2nd Ave and St. Marks Place, where it ran for over 5 years and set the box-office record for highest grossing Off-Broadway show of all time. Productions followed in Los Angeles and London, along with national tours and all the rest. Most exciting was a movie deal, which opened doors to Hollywood.

When Howard Ashman called Alan about coming to work at Disney, the headline for Alan was the fact that they were re-uniting. (Howard had been collaborating with Marvin Hamlisch on a stage musical of SMILE for years; wearing the book writer, lyricist and director hats). The project was THE LITTLE MERMAID and the opportunity was amazing; to create an animated musical that could sit on the shelf alongside SNOW WHITE and CINDERELLA. They began work in New York and then shifted to working in Los Angeles, as Ashman was also wearing the Executive Producer’s hat. These were years of commuting back and forth between coasts for Alan, which was made especially hard because of the birth of his daughters, Anna and Nora. London was also a necessary trip, due to the LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS movie being shot there. For the movie, Menken and Ashman wrote a new song for the plant; “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space”, which earned them their first Oscar nomination.

At the turn of the century, Alan continues working on musical stage adaptations, film scoring, as well as continuing his work with Disney, writing for both HOME ON THE RANGE and ENCHANTED.

Alan brings several of his classic animated film works to the stage (THE LITTLE MERMAID, ALADDIN, HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, and NEWSIES), as well as new film-to-stage adaptations; SISTER ACT and LEAP OF FAITH.

Alan's projects begin to show new musical sides to him, from the controversial SAUSAGE PARTY, Theme Park music in Dubai, A BRONX TALE on Broadway, and even a full concert of his solo performance with A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF ALAN MENKEN.

Classic animated works of Alan are given new life, through live-action film (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN), Animated Television (TANGLED), and theatre (HERCULES and LITTLE SHOP revival).