The anchor has been dropped on production of the live-action Little Mermaid feature, but that has not stopped progress from flowing under the sea. Everyone is more enthused these days with the notion of WFH (work-from-home), and it seems like the legendary composer, Alan Menken, has turned on the pressure in his studio with his songwriting comrade, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The man recently guest-starred in Rosie O’Donnell’s Emmy winning talk show to raise money for the Actors Fund during this uncertain time of artistic floundering. During the video (via Slashfilm), Menken gave a little update on the live-action The Little Mermaid, and it seems he has made great progress.
This has been a great time for writing. Production stopped on The Little Mermaid movie. We recorded all the songs, and I wrote four new songs with Lin-Manuel Miranda, the lyricist for Mermaid. And I’m working on Disenchanted, the sequel to Enchanted. And I have another Broadway show. Oh, and Hercules is coming to the stage, of course. We did that in Central Park last summer. Just a whole bushel of new projects.
Wow, that is definitely a sizable amount of work!
Prior to this, we did not have much information with regard to the aquatic compositions in this new adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s beloved tale. Considering the fact that the ’89 The Little Mermaid film had characters breaking into a number every eight minutes, it’s interesting that we are getting even more songs. Granted, the runtime should exceed the original’s, and having new material to back that up is always a fresh sea-sprayin’ welcome. It is always better to be fresh than to rehash.
On a side note, I hope all the newts, carp, plaice, bass, chub, flukes, rays, ling, trout, blackfish, the smelt and the sprat have been doing fine, with their orchestral recording sessions being held via Skype. You know, to promote the whole social distancing thing. Who knows how long it took those poor creatures to get in sync, considering the echoes and delayed signals underrr the sea…sea… ea…
