Collaboration is being open to each other's ideas and benefiting from each other's perspectives in an open way. Collaboration is all about rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and helping each other to constantly improve a piece. And, it's also about spurring each other on to doing really great, hard work - it's easier to do it in a collaboration than on your own.
Alan MenkenWhether it's animated, whether it's live-action, whether it's Broadway, whether it's television, a musical is a musical is a musical. So, pretty much you approach the songs in pretty much the same way. The difference might be that in a film you have a close up. On stage you don't. So there are more songs on the stage because the songs are kind of the close up.
Alan MenkenI don't write songs for myself anymore. I only write songs on assignment. It's purely a business, but it is still so important to me emotionally.
Alan MenkenThe best parts about writing a show are [its] first, second and 10th anniversaries. Everything else is relative levels of hell.
Alan Menken