Marc Shaiman, an Oscar-nominated and Emmy and Tony Award-winning composer, is being honored on Monday evening by the Screen Actors Guild Hollywood Singers Committee. His achievements range from “Hairspray,” to “South Park’s” enduring “Blame Canada” to the score to the “First Wives Club.” Shaiman was grilled by TheWrap’s Sharon Waxman about dressing in drag, Tom Hanks’ singing chops and his FunnyOrDie smash hit, “Prop 8: The Musical.”
Aren’t you the guy who dressed up in drag with Trey Parker at the Oscars?
I wish. Trey and Matt (Stone) didn’t let me know what they were doing until the day before. I was like – ‘F---, I wanna dress up in drag too!’ And they were doing iconic Oscar outfits. I’d have easily put together Cher’s outfit. But the guys left me no time.
So I was the pimp between the two ladies. And they also held out on me that they took acid. I didn’t believe or know until afterwards. That would’ve been the greatest speech ever. They screwed up by giving the Oscar to Phil Collins. If only I’d dressed up.
That was 10 years ago. Have you changed a lot in those 10 years?
It’s a very different ball of wax. I’m lucky I got to do what I should be doing once I hit 40, which is compose for Broadway, rather than one score after another. I got in such a rut. I was offered the same kind of movies, I found myself writing the same chords, the same transitions, same tricks of the trade. In "Out of Towners," "Speechless," they were middle of the road movies. Movie scoring fell in my lap. I wanted to be writing Broadway.
So what’s the reason you’re being honored by SAG?
It’s the singing compartment of SAG. I do end up hiring SAG singers. They know I’m a ham. And they probably figured by honoring me they’d get special celebrities to show up. But when they called me I forbade them to call anyone to get them to show up. I feel bad that my friends get called constantly – I don’t want to put them on the spot. But I hear they have a great line-up prepared.
So, no Tom Cruise?
Maybe Suri. I heard she watches “Hairspray” every morning.
Where do composers rank in the pecking order of Hollywood?
(Deep sigh.) I think music ranks high. Composers themselves are, I think, more and more treated as generic. There’s a little less respect for the individual things that a specific composer can bring. And more and more it’s, ‘Hire two guys, we’ll get it done faster.’ It’s not like the old days when composers had a trademark sound, like Max Steiner and Franz Waxman. There’s a specific sound to a Bette Davis movie, or Alfred Hitchcock. So when you go see a movie, you’re rarely surprised by what the music might be.
So how did you get back to Broadway?
‘South Park,’ thank God, came out at the same time as this woman Margo Lion bought the rights to ‘Hairspray.’
