More than two years after its debut at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, Howard, the documentary profile of Howard Ashman, arrives on Disney+. If his …
More than two years after its debut at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, Howard, the documentary profile of Howard Ashman, arrives on Disney+. If his name isn’t familiar to you, then maybe the songs he wrote are: “Under the Sea,” “Be Our Guest,” “Prince Ali”… the guy is a legendary lyricist who went from Broadway to Disney to Oscar and Grammy glory in his tragically brief life. So Disney superfans, this doc might be right up your alley, but be warned, it doesn’t have a happily-ever-after ending. The Gist: It’s 1990. An orchestra readies its instruments; Howard directs Paige O’Hara, the voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast, on some vocal inflections for the film’s opening musical number. Sadly, he wouldn’t live to see the movie’s premiere, or enjoy its status as an instant classic. Cut to 1950s Baltimore, where young Howard staged his toys in elaborate costumes and scenarios for his sister, Sarah Gillepsie. He showed a real flair for performance, but his father put the kibosh on dance lessons; hoping his son might be encouraged to be a typical male with typically male interests, Pops took Howard fishing once, but they both realized it just wasn’t going to happen. After college, in the mid-’70s, Howard moved to New York City where he and his lover/partner Stuart White formed a theatre production company in a skeevy part of town. Ashman wrote and produced a hit off-Broadway adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut novel God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, then scored a major breakthrough with Little Shop of Horrors, a huge hit off and on Broadway that became a 1986 motion picture that eventually earned a cult following. By the time Little Shop crossed over to the silver screen, Disney came knocking.
