Scott Wittman
Scott Wittman (born November 16, 1954) is an American director, lyricist, composer and writer for Broadway, concerts, and television. Life and career. Wittman was raised in Nanuet, New York, graduated from Nanuet Senior High School in 1972 and attended Emerson College in Boston for two years before leaving to pursue a career in musical theatre in New York City. While directing a show for a Greenwich Village club he met songwriter and composer Marc Shaiman, and the two became collaborators and professional partners. While Shaiman wrote for television shows, including "Saturday Night Live", Wittman directed concerts for such  artists as Bette Midler, Christine Ebersole, Raquel Welch, Dame Edna Everage, and Lypsinka, among others. In 2002, Shaiman and Wittman wrote the music and lyrics for the musical "Hairspray", which won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, the Tony Award for Best Original Score, and a Grammy Award. In addition to "Hairspray", Wittman conceived, wrote lyrics for, and directed "Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me" and conceived and directed "Matters of the Heart", a solo concert by Patti LuPone in 2000. Shaiman and Wittman worked on "Catch Me If You Can", a musical adaptation of the 2002 Steven Spielberg film , together with Terrence McNally. The musical opened on Broadway in April 2011. They again worked together on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical". In 2011, "Hairspray" was performed at Nanuet Senior High School, where Wittman attended high school. In 2013, Wittman and Marc Shaiman co-wrote the score for "Bombshell", a musical about Marilyn Monroe within the context of the NBC television show "Smash". A soundtrack was released later that same year. Wittman and Shaiman collaborated in 2018 on "Mary Poppins Returns" where Wittman wrote the lyrics for nine of the tracks listed. He and Shaiman were nominated for  the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the song "The Place Where Lost Things Go". In 2021, Wittman and Shaiman wrote a song entitled "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 Wittman and Shiman were writing songs for a new musical adaptation of "Some Like It Hot", due on Broadway in 2022, with a book by Amber  Ruffin and Matthew Lopez.