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Tony Award‑winning composer and lyricist Marc Shaiman is looking back at his decades-long career of movies, TV, and Broadway in his new memoir, “Never Mind the Happy.” On Tuesday, the co-writer of Hairspray joined The View to preview the book, which is now available.
On the show, he spoke from the piano about some of the notable projects from his storied career, including Sister Act, The American President, and Mary Poppins Returns, even treating audiences to a sampling of a few of his tunes. He also reflected on working with artists like Whoopi Goldberg, Bette Midler, and the late Rob Reiner. Watch the segment now.
In “Never Mind the Happy”, Shaiman chronicles five decades of Broadway triumphs, Hollywood hijinks, and unforgettable collaborations. Along the way, he charts the personal highs and heartbreaks that have shaped him, spending his teenage years in community theatre, starting a long collaboration with Bette Midler in the ’70s, surviving the AIDS crisis of the ’80s, his award-winning film music career in the Hollywood of the ’90s, right up to the peaks (and valleys) of creating Broadway musicals from 2000 on.
Marc Shaiman is an award-winning composer and lyricist of the stage and screen. A frequent collaborator with lyricist Scott Wittman, his Broadway credits include Hairspray, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Catch Me If You Can, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Some Like It Hot, and Smash.
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, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Team America: World Police, Hairspray, Flipped, and original songs for Mary Poppins Returns.
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 also received an Emmy Award for co-writing “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It” for the Hulu hit Only Murders in the Building.
He and Wittman also wrote original songs for the musical TV show 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.
