Marc Shaiman

A leading composer for Broadway musicals and hit Hollywood movies, Marc Shaiman made his name working with Bette Midler and Billy Crystal in the 1980s and went on to establish himself as a master of musical theatre songwriting.

Growing up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, Shaiman was taken by show business at an early age and would entertain his family by singing and playing the piano, becoming obsessed with musical theatre after discovering Bette Midler's first two albums. By the age of 16 he was playing in small clubs in New York and, after befriending Midler's back-up singers The Harlettes, he ended up working and living with his hero two years later, starting a long-running relationship that included collaborations on her hit albums 'Thighs and Whispers', 'Some People's Lives' and 'It's the Girls!' and a famous performance on the last ever episode of 'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'.

Shaiman also worked as an arranger on TV sketch show 'Saturday Night Live' from 1984 to '87 and played piano accompaniment for comedian Billy Crystal on stage before his film career began when he worked on 'Big Business', 'Beaches' and 'When Harry Met Sally'. Other major film scores include 'Misery', 'Sister Act' and 'Sleepless in Seattle', and his partnership with Scott Whittman produced Broadway hits 'Catch Me If You Can', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'Hairspray', for which he won a Tony Award and a Grammy in 2002.

Over the years he also regularly worked on cabaret performances with stars including Martin Short, Harry Connick Jr. and Will Ferrell, and in 2018 he composed the music for the musical movie 'Mary Poppins Returns'.