A Seattle Times Author, Nicole Brodeur, wrote a great article about a recent visit to the Children's Hospital in Seattle by Alan Menken. It includes a video and pictures of his visit. I was fortunate enough to take Kai out of his room for a short time to listen. He absolutely loved it. He has not been out of his room since July 3rd so it really was a great opportunity. Mr. Menken was so nice and I am very glad he was able to come and brighten some faces. I know it is hard for others to see sometimes what these kids go through but I hope he knows he made a difference that day.

Originally published July 21, 2011

Nicole Brodeur

Acclaimed composer visits hospital, gets more than expected

The kids may not know who wrote the songs for "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin" — the musical opening this week at the 5th Avenue Theatre — but they sure know the songs.

Nicole Brodeur

Seattle Times staff columnist

They can't keep the Disney DVDs in the playroom at Seattle Children's hospital.

Patients take them into their rooms, their families into the waiting area.

"They are usually the first ones to be taken," one nurse told me.

Which boded well for composer Alan Menken when he walked in the other day.

The kids may not know who wrote the songs for "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin" — the musical opening this week at the 5th Avenue Theatre — but they sure know the songs.

And yet, for all the logistics surrounding Menken's visit, some things weren't to be planned, like when patient Shannon Wallace sat down at the piano to play for a bit, unknowingly forcing the eight-time Oscar winner to cool his heels on a couch.

Menken listened intently as Wallace, 16, her IV drip beside her, played a swirling melody that she had composed herself.

"Reminds me of Joni Mitchell," Menken told Wallace when she finished. "Sounds like 'Blue.' "

Then Menken sat down to play some things he had composed.

"I wrote a lot of the those Disney things," Menken said casually.

Wallace, who has cystic fibrosis and has been at the hospital for eight days, was stunned.

"He's a legend," she said. "I think it's cool that he's here and that he would devote his time."

While the adults in the room stood smiling and spellbound, the kids did what kids will do: Two boys — one of them in an arm cast — ran between a fort of cushions and the Xbox console. A baby watched his mother blow bubbles. A boy in a wheelchair, and another with a breathing machine, were parked not far from the piano to listen.

"Music helps to relax us, music can calm us, music can make us feel safe when we're scared," said Dave Knott, the hospital's music therapist. "This music that (Menken) has written is so meaningful to the kids. It's the music that they love."

Menken invited one little girl to sit beside him on the bench, and taught her a few notes of accompaniment as he played requests: The theme from "Beauty and the Beast," "Under the Sea," and, of course, "A Whole New World," from "Aladdin."


"This is what I wanted him to experience," said Mateo Messina, who has been playing piano here every month for more than a decade. He also composes and produces an annual benefit concert that has raised almost $1 million.

"What else can I play for you guys?" Menken asked.

Rich and famous people do nice things all the time. Donating money, visiting places like this. It comes with the territory of doing well and being known; the expectation to give back is always there. Always.
But this concert in the playroom seemed to be more than Menken expected.

He walked out after about an hour at the piano and released a deep and sober sigh.

"That was great," he said. "So heart-rending."

Menken knows suffering and loss, especially that of his friend Howard Ashman, who wrote the lyrics for all of "The Little Mermaid," and some for "Aladdin." (Those that weren't included in the film have been restored, with their storyline, into the musical.)

Menken, who turns 62 today, met Ashman in New York in 1979.

Not long after they won the 1990 Oscar for Best Original Song for "The Little Mermaid," Ashman told Menken he was HIV positive. They went on to write and win two more Oscars for "Beauty and the Beast" and had begun writing songs for "Aladdin" when Ashman died in 1991. He won a posthumous Oscar in 1992 for Best Original Song for "Beauty and the Beast."

"He was brilliant, very considerate, sensitive, demanding, temperamental and larger than life," Menken said of his friend. "Had he lived, he would have been a major contributor to our culture. Major."
And he would have been in Seattle this week for the opening.

"It feels amazing and joyful and sad," Menken said. "I watch these moments and I think, 'God, Howard's not here.' I still feel it very strongly; the connection."

On the way back to his hotel, Menken and I talked about all kinds of things. Family. The Seattle theater scene. Then, after a pause, this:

"What do you know about cystic fibrosis?" he asked.

I said I knew there wasn't a cure. That it was life-threatening.

Neither of us said much after that.

We pulled up to Menken's hotel, and for just a moment, he sat in the passenger seat, distracted.

"That was a good thing you did," I told him.

"Yeah... " he said, quietly. "It haunts you."

All the more reason to write songs that can light up a movie. Funny songs. Happy songs. So happy that kids will want to take them into their hospital rooms, and keep them.