Alan Menken to Pen New Songs for Broadway’s Aladdin; Six-Time Tony Winner Bob Crowley Joins Creative Team

Oscar and Tony-winning composer Alan Menken will write new songs for Broadway’s Aladdin when the Disney musical heads to the Amsterdam Theatre in the spring of 2014, according to The New York Post.  The production will also add six-time Tony-winning set designer Bob Crowley to the creative team.

Aladdin premiered at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theatre in July 2011, directed by Casey Nicholaw and starring The Lion King’s Adam Jacobs as Aladdin and In the Heights' Courtney Reed as Jasmine. Nicholaw’s version of Aladdin however will not be the same production heading to New York.

Based on the smash-hit 1992 animated film, Aladdin is the story of a street urchin who uses the help of a magic Genie to win the heart of Princess Jasmine. The musical features music by Menken and lyrics by Tim Rice and the late Howard Ashman. Menken won an Academy Award for the original film's score and shared a second Oscar with Rice for the song "A Whole New World," sung in the film by Brad Kane and Tony winner Lea Salonga. 

Set designer Crowley has won Tony Awards for his work on Once, Mary Poppins, Aida, The Coast of Utopia, Carousel and The History Boys. He has received additional nominations for The Invention of Love, The Iceman Cometh, Twelfth Night, The Capeman and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Aladdin will mark his fourth Broadway collaboration with Disney after Mary Poppins, Aida and Tarzan.

Revisit Menken's Oscar-winning love song "A Whole New World" by clicking below.