PROUD OF YOUR BOY
ALADDIN
Composer: Lyrics Howard Ashman, Music Alan Menken
Production/Performer History: Film 1992 (cut), Broadway 2014 (Adam Jacobs), Sydney 2016 (Aisley Naylor)
Context: Sung to his late mother, street-rat Aladdin vows to change his ways and make his parents proud.
Choice: Alan Menken and Howard Ashman were a genius songwriting duo until Ashman’s untimely death. Menken writes a beautiful melody, but he’s never found anyone to match Ashman’s lyrical wit and dexterity. If ever a boy laments that they can’t sing Part of Your World from Little Mermaid or Somewhere That’s Green from Little Shop of Horrors, tell them there’s a boy version, and this is it.