Marc Shaiman chronicles career highs and setbacks in new memoir

Marc Shaiman, the Broadway and Hollywood composer best known for the 2002 hit Hairspray, has written a memoir titled Never Mind the Happy, subtitled Showbiz Stories From a Sore Winner, to be published this week by Post Hill Press.

The book traces a 50-year career that includes early work with Bette Midler, a longtime collaboration with lyricist Scott Wittman, dozens of film scores (including Sister Act, Beaches and When Harry Met Sally …), a Tony Award and multiple Emmys and Grammys. It also dwells on the theme of alternating triumph and setback — what he calls the “plotzes and zetzes” — noting seven Academy Award nominations without a win and several post-Hairspray Broadway failures, including Catch Me If You Can (2011), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2017), Some Like It Hot (2022) and Smash (2025).

In an interview conducted in the equipment-crammed music room of his New York City apartment, Shaiman, 66, said he still struggles with persistent pessimism and worries that Broadway has shifted away from the large-scale, period-rooted scores he prefers. He said he might retire — an answer the piece frames as possibly an exit interview — and described the memoir as partly motivated by the sense that few people know who he is anymore, noting he almost titled the book "Google Me!"

Key Topics

Culture, Marc Shaiman, Hairspray, Scott Wittman, Bette Midler, Shaiman Memoir