The Little Mermaid

As a kid who grew up on Disney animated musicals, I could never have imagined that I would someday be the composer of 10 Disney film musicals. And I have to thank my amazing and brilliant late-collaborator, Howard Ashman, for this coming about.

As great as being offered Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” as a project to write was, the real excitement for me was being re-teamed with Howard for our first project together since our Off-Broadway days. We had been apart for a while. Howard directed and wrote on Smile with Marvin Hamlisch. I wrote “Kicks: The Showgirl Musical” with “Dreamgirls” writer, Tom Eyen. And, ironic as it seems, after what Mermaid has come to mean in the world, I will always consider it as our follow-up to “Little Shop of Horrors”.