Marc Shaiman
Marc Shaiman (; born October 22, 1959) is an American composer and lyricist for films, television, and theatre, best known for his collaborations with lyricist and director Scott Wittman. He wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics for the Broadway musical version of the John Waters film "Hairspray". He has won a Grammy, an Emmy, and a Tony, and been nominated for seven Oscars. Personal life. Shaiman was born to a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Claire (née Goldfein) and William Robert Shaiman. He grew up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey and attended Scotch  Plains-Fanwood High School, but got his GED and left school at age 16 to start working in New York's theaters. He lives in both Manhattan and upstate New York. He is openly gay, and married Louis Mirabal, a retired lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, on March 26, 2016. Career. Shaiman started his career as a theatre/cabaret musical director. He started working at "Saturday Night Live" as an arranger/writer, where he Shaiman portrayed Skip St. Thomas, the accompanying pianist for The Sweeney Sisters, a singing duo played by Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks, which earned him  an Emmy nomination; he returned for an appearance on "The Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special," having co-created Martin Short and Maya Rudolph's salute to musical sketch characters. He began his professional relationships with Billy Crystal and Martin Short during his tenure at the show. He also was a vocal arranger for Bette Midler, eventually becoming her musical director and co-producer of many of her recordings, including "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and "From a Distance." He helped create the material for her performance on the penultimate "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". His work with both  Midler and Billy Crystal led to his involvement on their films. He later produced Midler's CD "It's the Girls", which had the highest debut of Midler's recording career on the "Billboard" Album charts, and co-wrote Crytal's farewell to Jay Leno which featured Carol Burnett and Oprah Winfrey among others. His film credits include "Broadcast News", "Beaches", "When Harry Met Sally...", "City Slickers", "The Addams Family", "Sister Act", "Sleepless in Seattle", "A Few Good Men", "The American President", "The First Wives Club", "George of the Jungle", "In & Out", "Patch Adams", "", "", "Hairspray", "Flipped", "Mary Poppins Returns" and  HBO's "From the Earth to the Moon" and "61*". On television, he worked on the final performances for Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" (with Bette Midler), Conan O'Brien's "Late Night" (with Nathan Lane), both of Jay Leno's final "Tonight Show" broadcasts, and Nathan Lane's farewell to David Letterman called "Dead Inside." Shaiman has earned seven Academy Award nominations, a Tony Award and a Grammy Award for his work on the musical "Hairspray", and an Emmy Award for co-writing Billy Crystal's Academy Award performances. He has also been Grammy-nominated for his arrangements for Harry  Connick Jr.'s recordings "When Harry Met Sally..." and "We Are in Love" as well as "Hairspray" and "Smash" and Emmy-nominated for his work on "Saturday Night Live" and "Smash". In 2002, he was honored with the "Outstanding Achievement in Music-In-Film" award at The Hollywood Film Festival, and in 2007 he was honored with ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements and contributions to the music of film and television. He is the first recipient of the Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for a Comedy Feature Film. He wrote and sang  the song "Yes" for his agent's film "Finding Kraftland", and co-wrote (with partner Scott Wittman) songs for Neil Patrick Harris when Harris hosted the 63rd Tony Awards (2009) and the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (2009), and was Emmy-nominated for musical directing and co-writing the 82nd Academy Awards (2010). Shaiman co-produced and co-wrote cuts on Mariah Carey's 2010 Christmas album "Merry Christmas II You". He and Wittman wrote original songs for the musical-based television show for NBC, "Smash", which ran from 2012 to 2013, and served as executive producers. For their song "Let  Me Be Your Star," Shaiman and co-lyricist Wittman were nominated for both an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award, and as executive producers they were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series - Comedy or Musical. Shaiman and Wittman were honored on April 28, 2014, by The New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The following year, Jennifer Hudson sang the"Smash" song "I Can't Let Go" at the 87th Academy Awards during the in memoriam tribute, featuring revised lyrics. The duo's latest Broadway musical "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" ran on Broadway at the Lunt -Fontanne Theatre, after finishing a four-year run on London's West End at The Royal Drury Lane Theater. Shaiman was Tony-nominated for his orchestrations for their previous Broadway musical "Catch Me If You Can". In 2021, they wrote a song titled "Save the City" for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in-universe Broadway production titled "" featured in the first episode of "Hawkeye", "Never Meet Your Heroes". It was released as a single on November 24, the day the episode became available on Disney+. In February 2021, it was announced that Shaiman and Wittman were writing songs for a  new musical adaptation of "Some Like It Hot", coming to Broadway in 2022 with a book by Amber Ruffin and Matthew Lopez. Activism. In 2008, a controversy erupted nationwide when California Musical Theatre's then artistic director Scott Eckern resigned over the revelation of his personal donation of $1000 to a political campaign to support California Proposition 8, which was an amendment to change the California Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in California. After the amendment was passed, donor information became public. Shaiman and other Broadway artists who had previously worked with the  director became critical and called for a boycott of the theatre by all gay artists and performers, ending in the director's resignation days later. To protest the passage of California Proposition 8 in November 2008, Shaiman wrote a satiric mini-musical called "Prop 8 — The Musical." The 3-minute video was distributed on the internet at FunnyOrDie.com, beginning on December 3, 2008. It 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, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Margaret Cho, and Rashida Jones. Shaiman plays  the piano and appears briefly in the video. It received 1.2 million internet hits in its first day. † = Tony nominee†# = Tony winner † = Emmy nominee † = Grammy nominee † = Grammy nominee†# = Grammy winner † = Grammy nominee