Marc Shaiman is one of Broadway’s great figures. He’s the longtime musical director of legendary performer Bette Midler. He arranged and wrote songs for icons like André De Shields, Harry Connick Jr. and Patti LuPone for their Broadway shows. He served as a Broadway conductor. Then Hollywood swept him away.
From “Beaches” to “When Harry Met Sally,” “City Slickers” to “Mr. Saturday Night,” “Sleepless in Seattle” to “The American President,” Shaiman served on the music teams of movies in positions ranging from music supervisor to arranger, orchestrator to composer. And that’s all before producer Margo Lion asked if Shaiman would be interested in writing the music for the Broadway adaptation of the John Waters film “Hairspray.”
As Shaiman writes in his new memoir, “Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner,” “Ironically, it took being 10 years away from New York and a big ‘who needs Broadway?’ film career to finally get my name in the mouths of the New York theater community.”
Of course, Shaiman and Wittman went on to win the 2003 Tony Award for best score for “Hairspray” and the production won Best Musical. Since then, on Broadway alone, Shaiman has written music for the 2005 revival of “The Odd Couple,” music and lyrics for the 2006 original comedy “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me,” additional lyrics for the 2022 revival of “The Music Man” and music for the 2022 revival of “Plaza Suite.” With Wittman, Shaiman has penned the scores for “Catch Me If You Can,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Some Like It Hot” and “Smash,” earning additional Tony nods for “Catch Me” and “Some Like It Hot.” Shaiman has collaborated with everyone from Midler to the late Rob Reiner, Sara Jessica Parker to Jenifer Lewis, Susan Stroman to Jack O’Brien.
But the Main Stem magic really started with “Hairspray.” One of the many tales Shaiman tells in the now-released “Never Mind the Happy,” is how he and Wittman booked that job. In 1998, Lion called Shaiman to ask if he was interested. As Shaiman relays: “Since the Broadway community had gone wild for the ‘South Park’ movie [for which Shaiman provided additional music and lyrics], and the ‘South Park’ sense of humor was a direct descendant of John Waters’, whenever Margo Lion would ask someone who she should get to write the score for a ‘Hairspray’ musical adaptation everyone told her: ‘Get Marc Shaiman.’”
Shaiman wanted in and asked Lion if he and Wittman — both his writing partner and, at that time, romantic partner — could write the lyrics. Lion asked them to draft some material on spec. And, in the following excerpt, Shaiman describes what happened next.
