If you haven\u2019t heard the name Marc Shaiman, you\u2019ve most likely heard his music or lyrics in one of your favorite Broadway shows or movies released in the past 50 years. From composing the Broadway scores for Hairspray and Catch Me if You Can to most recently working on Only Murders in the Building, Hocus Focus 2, and Mary Poppins Returns, the openly queer artist has had a versatile career \u2014 one that keeps him just an Oscar away from EGOT status.<\/p>\n
The one thing the award-winning composer, lyricist, and writer credits with launching his successful career? Showing up, time and time again. Eventually, he lucked out in finding himself at the right place at the right time, meeting industry figures like Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal, and Bette Midler, who were immediately impressed with his musical instincts on the piano.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut my picture under the dictionary definition for being in the right place at the right time,\u201d Shaiman says. \u201cWhat I often try to say to students is, \u2018Show up. Say yes to everything.\u2019 Because you never know who is in the back of the theater that you had no idea was going to be there. Or even when you audition and don\u2019t get the part. My book is an endless example of dreams coming true, and a lot of these came true just because I showed up. I raised my hand. I had the chutzpah!\u201d<\/p>\n
Recalling one example from his memoir, titled Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner ( just hit bookshelves on January 27th), Shaiman says he heard Midler was only hiring Los Angeles-based artists for her world tour. At the young age of 20, the New York-based Shaiman took a chance and bought the cheapest flight he could find from JFK. Once landing in L.A., he called up Midler and simply asked: \u201cWhere\u2019s rehearsal?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWould I do that nowadays? I don\u2019t know,\u201d Shaiman admits. \u201cBut when you\u2019re young and you\u2019re fearless \u2026 I was just obsessed, I guess you could say. Maybe I was a stalker! Luckily, I was a stalker who had the goods to be able to co-create with her and live up to my wanting to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the occasion of Never Mind the Happy\u2019s official release, The Blade had the opportunity to chat with Shaiman about his decades-spanning career. He recalls the sexual freedom of his community theater days, the first time he heard someone gleefully yell profanities during a late screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and why the late Rob Reiner was instrumental to both his career and his lasting marriage to Louis Mirabal. This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n
Naturally, a good place to start would be your book, Never Mind the Happy. What prompted you to want to tell the story of your life at this point in your career?<\/p>\n
I had a couple of years where, if there was an anniversary of a movie or a Broadway show I co- created, I\u2019d write about it online. People were always saying to me, \u201cOh my God, you should write a book!\u201d But I see them say that to everybody. Someone says, \u201cOh, today my kitten knocked over the tea kettle -\u201d \u201cYou should write a book with these hysterical stories.\u201d So I just took it with a grain of salt when people would say that to me. But then I was listening to Julia Louis-Dreyfus\u2019 podcast, and Jane Fonda was on talking about her memoir \u2014 not that I\u2019m comparing myself to a career like Jane Fonda\u2019s \u2014 but she felt it was time to take a life review. That really stuck in my head. At the time, I was sulking or moping about something that had not gone as well as I wished. And I guess I kind of thought, \u201cLet me look back at all these things that I have done.\u201d Because I have done a lot. I\u2019m just weeks short of my 50th year in show business, despite how youthful I look! I just sat down and started writing before anyone asked, as far as an actual publisher.<\/p>\n
I started writing as a way to try to remind myself of the joyous, wonderful things that have happened, and for me not to always be so caught up on what didn\u2019t go right. I\u2019ve been telling some of these stories over the years, and it was really fun to sit down and not just be at a dinner party telling a story. There\u2019s something about the written word and really figuring out the best way to tell the story and how to get across a certain person\u2019s voice. I really enjoyed the writing. It was the editing that was the hard part!<\/p>\n
You recall experiences that made you fall in love with the world of theater and music, from the days you would skip class to go see a show or work in regional productions. What was it like returning to those early memories?<\/p>\n
Wonderful. My few years of doing community theater included productions that were all kids, and many productions with adults, where I was this freaky little 12-year-old who could play show business piano beyond my years. It was just bizarre! Every time a director would introduce me to another cast of adults, they\u2019d be like, \u201cAre you kidding?\u201d I\u2019d go to the piano, and I would sightread the overture to Funny Girl, and everybody said, \u201cOh, OK!\u201d Those were just joyous, wonderful years, making the kind of friends that are literally still my friends. You\u2019re discovering musical theatre, you\u2019re discovering new friends who have the same likes and dreams, and discovering sex. Oh my god! I lost my virginity at the opening night of Jesus Christ Superstar, so I\u2019m all for community theater!<\/p>\n
What do you recall from your early experiences watching Broadway shows? Did that open everything up for you?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t remember seeing Fiddler on the Roof when I was a kid, but I remember being really enthralled with this one woman\u2019s picture in the souvenir folio \u2014 the smile on her face as she\u2019s looking up in the pictures or looking to her father for approval. I always remember zooming in on her and being fascinated by this woman\u2019s face: turns out it was Bette Midler. So my love for Bette Midler began even before I heard her solo records.<\/p>\n
Pippin and The Wiz were the first Broadway musicals I saw as a young teenager who had started working in community theater and really wanted to be a part of it. I still remember Pippin with Ben Vereen and all those hands. At the time, I thought getting a seat in the front row was really cool \u2014 I\u2019ve learned since that it only hurts your neck, but I remember sitting in the front row at The Wiz as Stephanie Mills sang Home. Oh my god, I can still see it right now. And then I saw Bette Midler in concert, finally, after idolizing her and being a crazed fan who did nothing but listen to her records, dreaming that someday I\u2019d get to play for her. And it all came true even before I turned 18 years old. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and met one of her backup singers and became their musical director. I was brought to a Bette Midler rehearsal. I still hadn\u2019t even turned 18, she heard me play and said, \u201cStick around.\u201d And I\u2019ve stuck around close to 55 years! She\u2019s going to interview me in L.A. at the Academy Museum<\/a>. Would I have ever thought that Bette Midler would say yes to sitting with me, interviewing me about my life and career?<\/p>\n That\u2019s amazing. Has she had a chance to read the book yet?<\/p>\n She read it. We just talked yesterday, and she wants to ask the right questions at the event. And she even said to me, \u201cMarc, I wasn\u2019t even aware of all that you\u2019ve done.\u201d We\u2019ve been great friends for all these years, but sometimes months or almost years go by where you\u2019re not completely in touch.<\/p>\n In the book, you describe moving between New York and Los Angeles, especially when you started working more in film. As a queer artist, what was your experience finding LGBTQ+ community between the two coasts?<\/p>\n As far as gayness, they\u2019re equally gay! I guess New York tilts a little more. I came to New York in 1976, so during the \u201870s in New York, anything goes! That was the height of sexual freedom and expression, then the \u201880s brought the hideousness of AIDS. For a long time, part of being gay was the endless death that I was surrounded by \u2014 losing just about every friend and colleague. My god, when I first started living in L.A., coming out there to work with Bette in the \u201880s, almost every single person I met died by the mid \u201890s. Everyone, everyone was gone. That was unfortunately a huge part of my life, and anyone my age can relate to that. God bless everyone not my age that will hopefully never ever have to experience anything close to the devastation of a funeral every week. Even to say it now, it\u2019s hard to imagine or believe that happened.<\/p>\n But you know, I\u2019m in show business, so there are gay people everywhere and happily so. I\u2019m lucky that I grew up without any kind of shame about that, or a feeling that I needed to hide it. Although I didn\u2019t come out to my parents. It wasn\u2019t until I finally told my mom one day that I had been to yet another funeral, as I was sharing with her about AIDS. That was when she finally said, \u201cScott is more than your roommate, isn\u2019t he?\u201d And I was like, \u201cYes.\u201d Why did I pretend? I never pretended anywhere else, and I never pretended about anything else. But I still grew up in a time when \u2013 well, I mean, I\u2019m not naive, I know it\u2019s still a time now where a lot of people can\u2019t come out to their family or parents \u2014 but I certainly came out a time long before there were people coming out on TikTok for the whole world to see. It was a bit more of a private thing, but I was always happily gay. And dare I say, as I even say in the book, when my libido took off at around 15, and all the other 15 and 16-year-olds were around me, I was the pied piper!<\/p>\n In the spirit of being at the right place at the right time, you almost accidentally became part of The Rocky Horror Show and the immersive, theatrical performances that emerged in those midnight screenings.<\/p>\n We actually started that, which, once again, is hard for me to believe. I went to New York with my friend from community theater, Sal, and we walked by the Waverly Theatre. He said, \u201cOh, I heard that this movie just opened, I hear it\u2019s really outrageous.\u201d We got in line and really hit it off with these other guys and gals. We went to see it and loved it and said, \u201cLet\u2019s come back tomorrow night!\u201d These strangers that we just met came back too. When Susan Sarandon (who played Janet) holds a newspaper over her head in the rain, Louis Farese is the first person to yell out anything. He yelled, \u201cBuy an umbrella, you cheap bitch!\u201d The audience exploded in laughter. Sal and I were big hams and were like, \u201cWe\u2019ve gotta get a laugh. We\u2019ve got to figure out something to say and get a laugh like this!\u201d<\/p>\n You started working in film through your collaborations with director Rob Reiner, who recently passed. What was it like stepping into scoring and making that leap with films like Misery and When Harry Met Sally\u2026?<\/p>\n I was lucky enough, by Billy Crystal introducing me to Rob Reiner, to get the job doing the music for When Harry Met Sally\u2026. But that was arranging existing songs, arranging and orchestrating with Rob. I worked on Beaches (starring Bette Midler) at the same time, and that was the same thing \u2014 arranging songs, orchestrating them, co-producing the recordings. Suddenly, I had these two hugely successful soundtrack records I had co-produced, but I had never written a film score or done a student film. Since I was a kid, I had a little theme for when my cat walked across the room. If somebody walked into the room at a party, I would play something funny as they walked in.<\/p>\n Rob had an inkling and called me, \u201cHey buddy, you want to score my next movie, Misery, a psychological thriller?\u201d I was wondering why he thought I could do that. I had just gotten an agent as I moved to L.A., and even my agent said to Rob, \u201cWhat makes you think Marc can write a film score?\u201d Rob simply said, \u201cTalent is talent.\u201d That became my agent\u2019s mantra as he got me one job after another, and Rob\u2019s faith in me was just an overwhelming, life-changing thing. He became so important to me, and someone I\u2019ll be thankful for as a colleague and even more so as a friend. For the rest of my life, I\u2019ll be thanking him for that.<\/p>\n