Marc Shaiman: Making Hairspray Sing on the Big Screen

About the author:
One of Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman's most endearing qualities is his enthusiasm. Shaiman is so witty and approachable, it's easy to forget that he's a seriously accomplished musician, with a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy Award and five Oscar nominations to prove it. After achieving great success composing scores to hit movies ranging from Sleepless in Seattle to South Park, Shaiman joined with co-lyricist Scott Wittman to write the Tony-winning score of Hairspray. Five years later, their "baby" is coming to the big screen—and Shaiman was there all along the way to ensure that the music of Hairspray would make a seamless transition to the big screen. Just before opening day, the obviously excited composer took time to share his show's musical journey with the readers of Broadway.com. Congratulations, Marc!

I was writing and performing Fame Becomes Me with Marty Short on Broadway last summer when the movie version of Hairspray went into rehearsals. So I would fly to Toronto where the film was to be shot on Sunday night and stay till Tuesday, where I would help set keys, massage arrangements and then record the original Broadway band for the actors to sing and film to.

I missed almost all the filming, which was truly heartbreaking, but, on the other hand, I was getting to expose myself literally! to Broadway audiences nightly!

Filming was completed just as we were ending our run of Fame Becomes Me on Broadway. I flew back to L.A. to start post-production. Because I had no time for a much-needed break, I splurged like never before and rented a house in Malibu so I could work there but pretend I was on vacation. Kinda like The Secret: I figured if I acted like I could afford to live there, I suddenly would be able to!

And it was there, in a house that was literally on the beach, that I had the greatest six months a composer/arranger/orchestrator/control freak could have. I started at the top of the film, and one after one, got to create the ultimate orchestrations and underscoring that I had been hearing in my head for five years. For the Broadway pit, finances and the lips of the poor musicians require a lot of reality-based decisions as far as instrumentation is concerned—but now I was a kid in the Hollywood Orchestra Candy Store!

Hopefully I wasn't just musically masturbating, I was getting to let the orchestral writing help define characters. Now, for instance, as Tracy sings "Welcome to the '60s" to Edna, melancholy strings help to underscore Edna's lack of self-confidence. They are I hope subtle and still in keeping with the pop musical vernacular of the time, but add an extra texture. I was able to do lots of stuff like that throughout the film.

I got to do a horn chart for "Big, Blonde & Beautiful" that might kill the pit band on Broadway who have been, at that point in the show, blowing their asses off for over an hour. I got to make "Without Love" the ultimate version of Motown meeting Broadway and settling down in Hollywood. And as I wrote those string lines, I swear to you, dolphins swam past the house, seemingly jumping for joy. Or perhaps they were swimming in a perfect straight line and I was the one jumping for joy—for if I haven't made it clear, those months in Malibu, spending 15 hours a day at my music keyboards and computers, the ocean joining in with the rhythm, was just about the greatest time in my life.

Well, the greatest, that is, until it was time to go in with the orchestra and horn sections and record. Glory hallelujah! Could I have been more on top of the world? I was standing in front of some of the best musicians in the world, and they were playing the shit outta the music. Composing is fabulous, writing lyrics is intensely gratifying, but hearing brilliant, caring, virtuosic musicians play your orchestrations is a joy unparalleled.

Then comes the mixing, first for the CD, then all over again for the film two different mediums, with different needs. I was racing between three studios, where different engineers were mixing all these separate recordings, waiting for me to show up and add my two cents, then race to another studio across town. My head almost exploded during those weeks.

Then comes the final chapter, the film's "dub," where three separate mixers sit, one with dialogue, one with sound effects and one with music, and cook up the final stew that goes to the theaters. For all their shared experiences, no one had mixed a musical this full of…stuff…before, and many long days and nights were spent, finessing things that would never nor should they enter your mind.

And now, I am on a plane next to Scott Wittman, flying to New York. The L.A. film premiere was a couple of nights ago, and only the words "Super Bowl" could describe the reaction the crowd had to the movie. Which, amazingly, has been what's been going on since we first showed the movie at a test screening in Nevada.

Next up is the New York premiere, and then poor little Hairspray goes out on its own to battle the Transformers, the Harry Potters, the Die Hards, the Pirates and the Spidermen. Let us all pray that God finds us a spot amidst the Goliaths!

OK, now listen, the word "I" shows up a lot in what I just wrote. But, for every function I mention, there are brilliant craftsmen and women who helped and collaborated on every blessed note. So, do me a favor: GO BUY THE CD, read every name, and smile as you do it, for I am telling you, these are the most wonderful friends and partners a chubby middle-aged Jew could ever hope for.

And GO SEE THE MOVIE! MORE THAN ONCE!!