Yesterday, Rosie O'Donnell brought back her Emmy award-winning talk show for a special fundraising benefit for Actors Fund to support members of the entertainment industry in need during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. There were a slew of guests including Gloria Estefan, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Idina Menzel, Neil Patrick Harris and more.
Also appearing on the show was longtime Disney composer Alan Menken , who has provided the film score for such classics as Hercules, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and more. While on the show, Menkin revealed that he's collaborated with Lin-Manuel on the new live-action Little Mermaid reboot that stars Halle Bailey (of the Beyonce protege group Chloe x Halle) as Ariel. Specifically, Menken revealed that he co-wrote four new songs with Lin-Manuel Miranda. Menken also confirmed that he's working on Disenchanted, the Enchanted sequel. The Menken portion of the show begins at the 1:02:15 mark where he confirms that all four songs have already been recorded.
Filming on the live-action Little Mermaid was scheduled to begin next month in London before the coronavirus outbreak resulted in Disney halting all their productions until further notice.