HOWARD ASHMAN

LYRICIST

Best known for his award-winning lyrics, Ashman was also a librettist, playwright, and director. His greatest fame rested on the Off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors (1982), which he created with the composer Alan Menken.

Born in Baltimore on May 17, 1950, Howard Elliott Ashman was educated at Goddard College, Boston University, and Indiana University. In 1974 he moved to New York City, where he worked as a book editor and wrote plays. His Dreamstuff, a musical version of Shakespeare's The Tempest, was produced by the WPA Theater in 1976. He became that group's artistic director and held the position from 1977 to 1982. The WPA Theater also produced Little Shop of Horrors, the story of a florist who sells his soul to a man-eating plant. It won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical of 1982-1983, and in its five-year run it became Off-Broadway's highest grossing musical. For the 1986 film version, Ashman and Menken received Academy Award nominations.

Ashman and Menken also collaborated on songs for the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid. Their song "Under the Sea" won them an Oscar in 1989 for Best Original Song. For their work on this movie they also won a Golden Globe Award and two Grammy Awards. Ashman and Menken continued their musical partnership on the Disney movies Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Ashman died of complications arising from AIDS on March 14, 1991, shortly before it was announced that his title song for Beauty and the Beast had also won an Oscar. Aladdin had not been released at the time of his death.

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