There is no shortage of memoirs by entertainment figures (or their ghosts), and many are forgettable. But occasionally one arrives that feels authentic and different.
Now lands the miracle of one such worthy work by legendary music composer Marc Shaiman: Never Mind The Happy: Showbiz Stories From a Sore Winner.” And won he has: a couple of Grammys, two Emmys, and a Tony. (He’s just one Oscar short of an EGOT, though he has seven Academy Award nominations under his belt, too.)
A quick rundown of his works that have, inevitably, provided the soundtrack to your life: the music for Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, The First Wives Club, Hocus Pocus, and Mary Poppins Returns; the vocal arrangements for Bette Midler; the Broadway musicals Hairspray, Catch Me If You Can, and Smash; Billy Crystal’s Oscars numbers; and even that raunchy earworm “Blame Canada” from the South Park movie.
We are talking five decades here, during which Shaiman formed close relationships with bold- facers, survived the AIDS crisis, and worked on films with none other than Rob Reiner.
As for the book’s formation, “Part of me wants to say I started during the pandemic, because I had so much more time,” Shaiman told me. “But I specifically recall listening to Jane Fonda on a podcast talking about her memoir, which she called a life review. That sounded like a good idea, and it felt like a good time to try.”
It was also a personal self-help project for Shaiman, to get past what he calls his Eeyore-like personality. “I think I inherited it from my mom,” he says. “When people would say ‘have a healthy, happy day,’ she would say ‘never mind the happy!’
The book is a rollicking ride and tells countless stories, all from the author’s memory. “This was not about interviewing others so much,” he says, “and a lot of folks may feel left out. So, I might have to go on an apology tour next. But my editors kept saying, ‘You can’t just list names.’ And they directed me to keep it chronological.”
Shaiman does start at the beginning. Was he that little kid skipping ballgames to listen to soundtracks?
“For me, it began when I auditioned for a children’s community production of The Sound of Music,” he recalls. “Only my aunts and cousins knew I even played the piano.”
Yes, he was a tween prodigy, and it went on from there. “But the dream was always Broadway, he says. “My big break was when producer Margo Lion got the rights to Hairspray. That truly started my career.”
More stage shows continued, and he was becoming known through the other mediums, including music for Billy Crystal’s Oscar-hosting. And then the introduction to Rob Reiner.
“I started with When Harry Met Sally and I did almost every one of his pictures after that,” Shaiman says. “Rob was my mentor, my brother, my father. I remember when he said, ‘My next movie is Misery. You want to score it? I wasn’t sure I could do a psychological thriller, but Rob said, ‘Talent is talent.’ He trusted his own sense of knowing when someone got it. This tragedy has been unspeakable, and I’ll never fully recover.”
Now, it is about this book and a new world to conquer. Friendly supporters are coming through.
“Marc Shaiman is responsible for more moments of musical joy in our collective lives than maybe any other living composer,” blurbs Lin-Manuel Miranda. “Would that he could bottle a fraction of that joy and sip a little for himself. Alas, he can’t, and once again, we’re all better for it.”
Shaiman did his research, though he confesses, “It all felt like homework. I read some other memoirs, like Barbra Streisand’s. The only book that took 10 years to write and 10 to read. There was also Cher’s and Al Pacino’s. I didn’t think about books being reviewed, and I didn’t know from Publisher’s Weekly, which called it ‘a lively, heartfelt chronicle of creativity, survival, and the enduring pull of the spotlight.’ How can I possibly turn that into a negative?”
As a gay man, Shaiman writes most movingly about the AIDS crisis. “When you’re only in your twenties and thirties, and reading the obituary page every day, almost always knowing someone, that’s tough. For 15 years, our community was bombarded with a constant cycle of fear, death, and crushing grief.” Today, he admits, “I carry survivors’ guilt.”
It is clear the Broadway failures—Smash and Some Like It Hot most recently—have hurt. “I’m happy for others’ success, but it’s hard to walk into a theater where mine didn’t work,” Shaiman says.
He hopes the memoir will resonate emotionally with readers across all fields. “It’s a universal story,” he says. “Whether movies, television, and/or theatre, readers do get to hear a story of trying to find the joy in life. I hope this book is a way to exorcise that tendency to go negative, and to proudly say ‘look what I did!’”
His life is busy and, dare we say, joyous, whether he admits it or not.
“I just went to Los Angeles and performed at Bette Midler’s 80th birthday,” he says. “It was me, Billy Crystal, Nathan Lane, and Marty Short. We have a lot of shared history between us all. It was a wonderful night.”
As for the future, he claims, “I’d like to retire, but I am currently on a project with Patti LuPone and Bridget Everett. They are both loudmouthed broads. We’re figuring out a way to do it on a stage but off the beaten path.”
Whatever path it lands on, many will be there to follow.
Marc Shaiman’s Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories From a Sore Winner will be released Jan. 27.
