Rodgers and Hammerstein. Lerner and Loewe. Comden and Green. Kander and Ebb.
The work of certain composer-lyricist teams is so successful that their names are inextricably linked. Tony winner Alan Menken and Tony nominee Glenn Slater, who join forces for the stage for the fourth time with this season鈥檚 A Bronx Tale, rack up points towards their membership to that small club.
Whether writing for the stage (The Little Mermaid, Sister Act, and Leap of Faith), film (Disney-animated Tangled) or television鈥檚 Galavant, what makes their collaboration a prosperous one are their complementary sensibilities.
鈥淲e come to songwriting from two directions,鈥� says Slater. 鈥淎lan is all intuition. It鈥檚 just an instinct, whereas I鈥檓 all head.鈥�
鈥淕lenn is very smart,鈥� says Menken of his partner. 鈥淗e reminds me of Howard Ashman [Menken鈥檚 longtime writing partner who passed away due to complications from AIDS in 1991] in terms of his ability to get the essence of what a musical style of songs calls for in a lyric and also twist it and apply it to the effect of a new musical.鈥�
Twisting and molding words is a laborious process for Slater. 鈥淚 was an English major and I approach everything like an English major: what are the counter-archs; what are the themes; how do they intersect; how can I build a theme from the beginning to the end? It鈥檚 all up here,鈥� he says, tapping his temple.
鈥淲hen we come together, I do all this pre-prep and all this thinking and he just brings this gut-punch feel to it,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e get the best of both worlds, where everything is thought out, the whole score has a balance and a weight to it that I鈥檓 bringing in terms of the intellectual side, and you鈥檝e got all the emotional heft that鈥檚 in everything that Alan does.鈥�
The partnership has become so seamless, gone are the days of sitting for hours knocking out a tune together. (At least, mostly.) 鈥淰ery often, he鈥檒l sit and start playing and two minutes later he鈥檒l stop playing, I鈥檒l say, 鈥楪reat. That鈥檚 the song. Your work here is done,鈥� and then I go off and fill in the rest of the lyrics.鈥�
In terms of A Bronx Tale, Menken latched on to the sound of the era, pulling 鈥渕usical slices of life from that time and that neighborhood.鈥� Slater toyed with the father-son relationship, the way 鈥渋t鈥檚 real and masculine and emotional without being sentimental.鈥� Menken鈥檚 music sets the mood; Slater鈥檚 lyrics preserve the grit of the story.
Combined, audiences witness a musical that is at once cerebral and full of heart.
