SONGS TO LEAVE YOU 'ENCHANTED'
NEW YORK — DIRECTOR Kevin Lima had a number of concerns in his struggle to film a script about an animated young woman who winds up in live-action New York. Among them, "that the audience be invested in the character, first, not the star."
He found his perfect lead at audition No. 275 (out of about 300) in the relatively unknown Amy Adams, although the studio wasn't quite as sold. But more on that later. He also was worried about getting the songs in the film -- which, of course, became "Enchanted," the Disney musical that took in close to $50 million over its Thanksgiving weekend opening -- to have just the right tone.
"I wanted collaborators who loved the material as much as I did, who wouldn't be embarrassed about writing this love letter to Disney." He found that in the Oscar-winning pair of composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.
In fact, Menken's Westchester, N.Y., estate itself seems to be a love letter to Disney and the grand tradition of musicals. Sitting near a grand piano in his studio, he and Schwartz are surrounded by posters for "The Little Mermaid" and Menken's first great success, "Little Shop of Horrors."
"The writing is always fun for us," Menken says. "We just have a blast bouncing off each other. The part that isn't necessarily fun is the production aspect and this movie really was continually reinventing the wheel."
There are five original songs for the film, as well as Menken's score. The standout number is "That's How You Know," the film's centerpiece song, set as a huge musical number in Central Park. The number has nods to many films in the Disney canon and beyond, with one particularly inspired sequence with princess-to-be Giselle spinning through the meadows à la "The Sound of Music" (in another wink to audiences, the film is narrated by Julie Andrews).
Adams and Lima were a little star-struck by their composers. Adams says she came into the project "with preconceived intimidation because they are such legends," while Lima says he was "frightened that they wouldn't accept me into the process."
The composer and lyricist have previously worked together on "Pocahontas" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Schwartz is also the composer and lyricist of the Broadway phenomenon "Wicked" and Menken has composed such blockbusters as "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast."
For "Enchanted," they had to write the score fairly quickly, Menken recalls.
