Butler's Cinema Scene

Lyricist/author Howard Ashman on the off-Broadwday  set of “Little Shop of Horrors”

“HOWARD” My rating: B+

93 minutes | No MPAA rating

“Howard” is a laughter-through-tears emotional powerhouse that will leave you convinced that when Howard Ashman died of AIDS in 1991, we lost a musical theater genius.

As the lyric-writing partner of composer Alan Menken, Ashman was largely responsible for the off-Broadway hit “Little Shop of Horrors” and then went on to rejuvenate a dying Disney animation division with monsters like “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast.” (The fact that those films went on to spawn wildly successful theatrical versions only adds lustre to his accomplishments.)

Don Hahn’s documentary begins with a recording session for “B&B” in New  York City.  As Hahn’s narration informs us, nobody at the time knew that within nine months Ashman would be gone.  He never got to see the finished film.

On the visual side Hahn (a producer of “Beauty…” and director of the doc “Waking Sleeping Beauty”) exploits a treasure trove of home movies from throughout his subject’s life.  There’s so much material, in fact, that the film needn’t rely on talking-head inserts.  The many contributors to this film (among them Menken and Jeffrey Katzenberg) are heard in voiceover but not seen, leaving center stage to Ashman.

The earliest glimpse into Ashman’s creativity comes from his sister, who recalls her brother turning his bedroom into an elaborate designed theater in which individual toys became players in a vast adventure.  Before long he was organizing neighborhood kids into giving backyard performances.

Young Howard had little interest in sports, but wrote poems for every occasion.

Howard Ashman with Jodi Benson during the recording of “The Little Mermaid”

Ashman’s rise was not without setbacks. His post-“Little Shop” beauty contest musical “Smile” (written with Marvin Hamslich) tanked after an indifferent review from The New York Times.

But the folks at Disney were looking for a writer/lyricist and with “Little  Shop” collaborator Menken Ashman went to sunny L.A. At the time Disney animation appeared on its last legs.  Ashman and Menken were instrumental in turning the division around; soon it was producing hit after hit.

Ashman’s final struggle with AIDS — he kept his diagnosis from his colleagues until poor health forced his hand — is heartbreaking,.

But “Howard” soars whenever it devotes itself to the music.  Ashman’s lyrics, combined with Menken’s melodies, made for hummable, songs that served the overall story while remaining so unique that they easily stood alone. More than a few times during this documentary a viewer finds himself brought up short by the sheer artistic rightness of Ashman’s choices.

It’s like a crash course in esthetics.

| Robert W. Butler

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