October 22, 1959– Marc Shaiman
At the 2003 Tony Awards, with a lingering kiss and a prime-time television declaration of love that brought rousing applause from the audience, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, personal and professional partners for 25 years made a bit of history with their same-sex smooch.
In his acceptance speech for Best Score, Shaiman turned to Wittman and said:
“I love this man. We’re not allowed to get married in this world … But I’d like to declare, in front of all these people, I love you and I’d like to live with you the rest of my life.”
Shaiman is a pianist, composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator, musical director, conductor, writer, producer, actor, and overachiever working in Films, Television, and Theatre.
He has contributed, in one way or another, to at least 60 films and television shows: Broadcast News (1987), When Harry Met Sally (1989), The Addams Family (1991), Addams Family Values (1993), Sister Act (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), A Few Good Men (1992), The American President (1995), The First Wives Club (1996), In & Out (1997), and songs for what I think is one of the finest film musicals of all time, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
He has composed the scores for the Broadway musicals Hairspray (2002), Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me (2006), Catch Me If You Can (2009) and the upcoming Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, opening in Spring 2017 after a successful run in London.
He has quite the awards shelf with two Tonys, a pair of Drama Desk Awards, seven ASCAP Awards, an Emmy Award, and five Academy Award nominations, including one for the terrifically rousing song Blame Canada from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
Shaiman had been with Whitman as a creative partner and life partner for more than three decades. No longer a couple, they continue to collaborate. He frequently works on films associated with Billy Crystal, Rob Reiner and Trey Parker. He has also appeared in many of those films. His association with Crystal and Martin Short goes back to their Saturday Night Live days in the 1980s, when Shaiman was a regular as the pianist Skip St. Thomas who accompanied Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn as a lounge-singer sister act, The Sweeney Sisters.
Shaiman began his career as a cabaret musical director. He became the vocal arranger for Bette Midler, eventually becoming her musical director and co-producer of many of her recordings, including Midler’s inspirational ballads The Wind Beneath My Wings and From A Distance. He helped create the material for Midler’s performance on the penultimate The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson. Totally crazy, he auditioned for, but lost the role of himself on Midler’s short lived sitcom, Bette (2000-01).
He also served as arranger and musical director in the Peter Allen’s Brodway revue Up In One (1979) and wrote songs for André DeShield’s Harlem Nocturne (1984), and did arrangements for Leader Of The Pack (1985) and Patti LuPone On Broadway (1995).
To protest the passage of California Proposition 8 in November 2008, Shaiman wrote the satiric mini-musical Prop 8: The Musical. The 3 minute video was written and produced in just a few days. The cast includes Jack Black (who plays Jesus), Neil Patrick Harris, John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph, Margaret Cho, Rashida Jones and a bunch of other celebrities. Shaiman plays the piano and appears on the video. It received 1.2 million hits on YouTube in its first day.
Shaiman co-wrote, with Wittman, songs for Neil Patrick Harris when Harris hosted the 2009 Tony Awards and the 2009 Emmy Awards. He was Emmy nominated for musical directing and co-writing the 2010 Academy Awards hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. How meta is that?
He wrote original songs for the much missed television series Smash (2012-14) as well as serving as Executive Producer. The series revolved around a fictional NYC theater community and the creation of a pair of new Broadway musicals. A cast recording of the fictional musical Bombshell, featuring original songs from the first and second season of Smash, 160,000 copies in its first week. It contains all 22 songs written for the musical within the show and featured lead vocals by Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty as dueling Marilyn Monroes. The drama behind Smash was more intriguing than the series itself, but the musical numbers were beyond terrific.
All that, but his biggest success is certainly the hit musical Hairspray, adapted from the John Waters 1988 film. It won eight Tony Awards, with 13 nominations, running for seven years and 2,642 performances. Hairspray has toured the USA and has been produced in 18 countries around the globe. The London West End production won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical. It was adapted to a rather good film version in 2007, becoming the sixth highest grossing musical film of all-time. If you watch closely, you will catch Shaiman and Wittman playing talent agents in the film.
Hairspray Live! continues NBC’s tradition of live adaptations of Broadway musicals, often with dubious results. It will be broadcast on December 5, with Ariana Grande, Kristin Chenoweth, Harvey Fierstein, Derek Hough, Martin Short, Billy Eichner, Sean Hayes, Andrea Martin, Rosie O’Donnell and the fabulous Jennifer Hudson. Here’s hoping.
This past spring, just as NYC’s Gay Pride Day was to start, Shaiman took to The Facebook to literally unfriend Charlotte Crossley Fortier, a friend of four decades who starred as Motormouth Maybelle in the original Broadway version of Hairspray. Fortier had gone on social media expressing her disapproval of Marriage Equality, including the marriage between mutual male friends. This started a flurry of comments on both sides of the issue.
Shaiman noted that Fortier sang his civil-rights tune I Know Where I’ve Been on Broadway and on tour. Shaiman:
“How sad that she sang that song so beautifully and yet never listened to what she was singing. I hope she continues to sing it and always remembers it was written by two gay men who love each other.”
I Know Where I’ve Been includes the lyrics:
“There’s a dream in the future
There’s a struggle that we have yet to win
And there’s pride in my heart
Because I know where I’m going and I know where I’ve been.”
Fortier countered with:
“Marc Shaiman! I am not in a fetal position in bed with the covers pulled over my head, crying about this fiasco! It is comical and very sad… sad that the free speech rights are taken as an insult. I ain’t playin’ the Matron in THIS musical, Maestro.”
Fortier wrote that her position as a minister of the International Church Of The Foursquare Gospel forbids her from recognizing the legitimacy of same-sex marriage and that any reference to her rhetoric labeled hate speech is “a lie straight out of the pits of hell.”
Shaiman returned with:
“Separation of church and state, you ought to read up on what our Founding Fathers intended. Also, you might want to check up on what Jesus said about homosexuality. Nothing. He was too busy talking about love. I do not ask for your forgiveness, nor do I offer any to you. I am ashamed of you.”
In March, Shaiman married Lieutenant Commander Louis Mirabal. The wedding was set up as a surprise for guests following a ceremony for Mirabal’s retirement from the military after 20 years of service. Nathan Lane read the poem Old Glory, Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy officiated, and Midler, Whoopi Goldberg and Patti LuPone sang.
The post #BornThisDay: Songwriter, Marc Shaiman appeared first on The WOW Report.
