Alan Menken, David Zippel Developing Musical Comedy Series for ABC

Composer Alan Menken and lyricist David Zippel are developing a new musical comedy series for ABC, according to a report on Deadline.com. Marco Pennette is slated to be the writer of the show.

The untitled project is loosely based on Menken’s daughter and will focus on a young female musician living with other musicians as they try to make their way into the world. The show is scheduled to feature two or three original songs in each episode.

Menken has won Academy Awards for his work on The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas, and his music can currently be heard in the animated feature Tangled. His theater credits include Little Shop of Horrors and Sister Act, which will open on Broadway next spring, as well as the stage versions of Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid.

Zippel won the Tony Award for City of Angels. Among Zippel’s other stage credits are The Goodbye Girl, The Woman in White, and a musical version of Wendy Wasserstein’s Pamela’s First Musical. He and Menken have previously collaborated on the song “Go the Distance,” heard in the animated Hercules.