I possessed not one, but two, sets of The Little Mermaid sheets. Presumably so there was never a moment Ariel was not flipping her fins as I drifted off to sleep. I spent early elementary school on the swim team, so you can imagine the “Part of Your World” reenactments getting out of the pool at the end of practice. And Beauty and the Beast? Could not get enough. My Barbie collection was pretty small compared to my peers, but did I have to have Belle and Beast? You bet I did. Belle came with both her blue town dress and her gold gown and Beast had a sort of mask type thing to be removed after he learns to love and earns Belle’s love in return.
But back to Ashman and Menken, both musical geniuses to be sure. Each experienced individual successes but, in writing together, their strengths were magnified. Ashman’s experience with failure seemed to drive him even harder, giving him something to prove. Smile’s short run on Broadway (only 48 performances) would have rocked some to their core, but Ashman forged ahead. There is no doubt much more to Ashman than is revealed in this documentary, but what does shine through is Ashman’s passion. A man devoid of passion does not continue to create while staring death in the face. Ashman loved the arts and believed in their power to heal and uplift. The world was robbed of the chance to experience everything else Ashman would have produced throughout what would have no doubt been a long and productive career. But his legacy lives on. 30 years later, when Belle yearns for more than her provincial life and the melody feels instantly familiar and relatable and when “Be Our Guest” elicits a tongue twisting joy just as it did the first time we heard it, that’s Howard Ashman.
One can hope that a future documentary, Alan, will be greenlit soon.
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