Center at West Park<\/a> in residence at St. Paul and St. Andrew Church, 263 W. 86th St., (doors open 6:30 p.m., reading at 7:30 p.m.) seeks to attract attention and raise money for the Center at West Park. It has a star-studded cast that includes Matt Dillon, Marisa Tomei and many actors who support the Center and its effort to return to the West Park Presbyterian Church.<\/p>\nShaiman previously appeared as a pianist in the Center\u2019s reading of \u201cAll About Eve,\u201d as he goes from behind the scenes to onstage, and tours around his bestselling autobiography, titled \u201cNever Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner.\u201d It tells behind-the-scenes stories about writing Broadway musicals and for movies, TV and singers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m tired of people saying, \u2018You should write a book,\u2019\u201d Shaiman said. \u201cI kept realizing people don\u2019t know what I\u2019ve done. I\u2019m proud of the work I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/all_about_eve_11.17.25-08028.jpg\" "\\"Marc")
Marc Shaiman previously appeared as a pianist in the Center\u2019s reading of \u201cAll About Eve,\u201d as he goes from behind the scenes to onstage, and tours around his bestselling autobiography, titled \u201cNever Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Broadway\u2019s most successful composers and lyricists (he works with co-lyricist Scott Wittman), Shaiman has been a force behind a number of recent shows.<\/p>\n
Shaiman wrote the music and co-wrote lyrics for \u201cHairspray,\u201d \u201cCatch Me if You Can,\u201d \u201cCharlie and the Chocolate Factory,\u201d \u201cSome Like it Hot,\u201d and \u201cSmash.\u201d He also handled music for movies such as \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally,\u201d \u201cBeaches,\u201d \u201cThe American President,\u201d and \u201cThe First Wives Club.\u201d Lately, however, he\u2019s spent most of his time on tour with his book.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last few months have been really lovely,\u201d Shaiman said. \u201cThis is my 50th year in show business. I started when I was 16.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Marc Shaiman\u2019s growth into a musical genius<\/p>\n
His autobiography draws its title from his mother\u2019s reply when his sister said she wanted to be the first to wish her a happy and healthy new year.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother, like the ultimate Jewish mother, said, \u2018Never mind the happy,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lifelong thing to try to hang onto the joy that life can bring.\u201d<\/p>\n
After listening to \u201cMary Poppins\u201d as a child, Shaiman began a lifelong love affair with Broadway, then playing piano for school plays.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember listening to it over and over again,\u201d he said of \u201cMary Poppins,\u201d \u201cmemorizing the songs, recognizing in the way a young child can that the orchestra was fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n
While living in New Jersey, he began staying with friends on the Upper West Side who lived across the hall from Ula Hedwig, one of Bette Midler\u2019s backup singers in The Harlettes, leading to a lasting gig with Midler at age 17.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time, which I\u2019ve been lucky enough to have happen over and over again,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
He worked freelance and full-time for \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d writing comedy and music for performers such as Billy Crystal and Martin Short.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a great time meeting some of the funniest people on the face of the earth, who I am still great friends with,\u201d he said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Shaiman made his biggest mark on Broadway, collaborating with Scott Wittman to create a string of shows.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sit, think of words and phrases to match what the song needs to be about,\u201d Shaiman said. \u201cEventually, I have enough of them that we created together. I\u2019ll move over to the piano and see which phrases jump out to set a melody to.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some artists work alone, Shaiman often collaborates with many artists. In other projects, collaborators have different views, sometimes leading to major rewrites and changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just like any other aspect of life,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard sometimes to hang onto the part of you trying to be creative, when you\u2019re dealing with the ups and downs of working the business side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before returning to rehearsal for a new project at an age when some might retire, Shaiman looked back and forward.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had 50 years of steady employment,\u201d he said, \u201cand I got to work on an amazing list of iconic projects.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Shaiman was only a few years old when his parents got him his first record, \u201cMary Poppins,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[77989,77990,77991,207,77992,77993,77994,77995,1617,9,11,10,77996,2039,77997,77998,77999,78000],"class_list":["post-195589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-autobiography","tag-bette-midler","tag-broadcast-news","tag-broadway","tag-center-at-west-park","tag-hairspray","tag-marc-shaiman","tag-mary-poppins","tag-musical-theater","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-theater-scene","tag-saturday-night-live","tag-scott-wittman","tag-show-business-career","tag-staged-reading","tag-theater-fundraiser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Marc-Shaiman-photo-credit-Robert-Trachtenberg.jpg\" "\\"Marc")
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