‘Howard’ Is Moving Profile Of Groundbreaking Disney Lyricist Whose Life Was Tragically Cut Short By AIDS

Generations of children have grown up on the works of Howard Ashman. Along with composer Alan Menken, he wrote the songs and was crucial to the development of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, films that pushed animated features to new artistic heights and helped revitalize the Walt Disney Company. Before that, he wrote and staged the groundbreaking Off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors, which later made its way to the big screen. The greatness of his impact is unfortunately contrasted by the brevity of his life. Ashman died at 40 from complications from AIDS. The 2018 documentary Howard is a skillful and moving examination of his life and work and is currently streaming on Disney+.   

Born in 1950, Howard Ashman was a storyteller from an early age. His sister, Sarah Gillespie, recalls their youth in Baltimore, where he would dress up or rearrange his toys in order to entertain her. After his first visit to the theater, he became a semi-professional child actor. Howard and his sister were the first in their family to go to college. He appeared in experimental theatrical productions and while in summer-stock began a relationship with Stewart “Snooze” White, the first great love of his life. The couple later enrolled together in the master’s program at Indiana University, where their combined charisma attracted friends and followers. 

After college, the couple moved to New York and struggled to break-in to the local theatrical scene. Low on cash, Ashman worked in publishing, editing a Mickey Mouse scrapbook book which foreshadowed his future. In 1977, he started the 99-seat WPA Theater, which Alan Menken describes as “a sacred clubhouse…almost like a theatrical monastery.” Unfortunately, while White enjoyed the liberties of the city’s gay nightlife, Ashman aspired to domesticity. Their breakup caused a rift in the WPA with Ashman heading up the more responsible and ultimately successful faction.

Though Ashman was initially a book writer, he preferred lyric writing and he had strong opinions about a songs’ music as well. A chorus line of collaborators discuss his sometimes bullying tactics of getting his own way with both honesty and admiration. Menken says collaboration sessions were “no holds barred wrestling and there was only one rule and that rule is you don’t leave this room without a good idea and a good song.”

After a musical adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater failed to catch fire, Ashman was looking for “something attention grabbing,” that had, “some sort of large gimmick.” That project would become Little Shop of Horrors, based on Roger Corman’s 1960 horror spoof of the same name. Mining doo wop and Phil Spector for musical inspiration, its pop obsessions and camp staging is still being copied on Broadway to this day. It was a theatrical smash and would produce a well-received 1986 film adaptation that Ashman wrote the screenplay for. 

In 1984, Ashman began a relationship with Bill Lauch, an aspiring architect with whom he built the domestic life he had always yearned for. As AIDS ravaged the gay community, Ashman learned his former lover Stuart White was sick, one of countless friends to succumb to the disease. As terrible as the losses were, so too was the omnipresent fear of receiving a positive diagnosis. 

In 1986, Ashman was recruited by Disney’s Jeffrey Katzenberg to work on a number of projects, ultimately finding full-fruition in 1989’s Little Mermaid. For Ashman, working at Disney was the fulfillment of a childhood dream and the freedom of animation unleashed his creative juices. His works would usher in “The Disney Renaissance,” and his 360 degree approach to theatrical songwriting, introducing characters that had never been seen before, and examining their personal motivations, broke new artistic ground in what had previously been dismissed as children’s entertainment.   

Ashman’s lyrics flash across the screen as we hear the songs he and Menken wrote, his interweaving mastery of wordplay and storytelling creating dense tapestries of meaning that resonated with audiences, young and old. Tragically, as his greatest success loomed, he tested positive for HIV and began extensive treatments to keep the virus at bay. Afraid his sexuality and health status would result in his firing from Disney, he kept his struggles secret for as long as he could. He died in March 1991, six months before the release of Beauty and the Beast, which would go on to be the first animated feature to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Directed by Beauty and the Beast producer Don Hahn, Howard adeptly explains Ashman’s importance and affectionately brings him to life. There’s a compassion in Ashman’s lyrical character studies that celebrates the best in us, warns of the worst, and sympathizes with the powerless. That he presented these ideas in mass market entertainment for growing minds and Middle American parents is tantamount to a civil service. Sadly, we are still fighting these battles for equality and understanding to this day.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter: @BHSmithNYC.