Because the artistic forces behind Broadway reveals like Hairspray and Catch Me If You Can, in addition to the cult hit TV present Smash, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman have written a few of the most beloved musicals of the previous couple many years (Shaiman composes; the 2 write lyrics collectively).
This spring is especially eventful for the pair. Their new musical Some Like It Scorching — a well timed adaptation of the basic 1959 movie which occurs to additionally provide a poignant, considerate tackle drag tradition and gender identification — is successful with each critics and audiences. And in the end, as Shaiman and Wittman lately revealed, a much-awaited stage adaptation of Smash is slated to hit Broadway subsequent yr.
Beneath, the duo converse to Billboard in regards to the Smash information, the prescient timing of Some Like It Scorching (together with its shock, reimagined twist) and the way they’ve maintained profession longevity amid the uneven waters the Nice White Approach.
It’s secure to say the information that Smash is coming to Broadway shook the web. Are you able to speak in regards to the path to the massive announcement?
Scott Wittman: Nicely, it’s been within the works for awhile. A couple of yr and a half in the past, we did a studying with a script from Rick Elice and Bob Martin, who’ve written many reveals, together with The Drowsy Chaperone and Jersey Boys.
Marc Shaiman: They’re nice writers who got here to the producers of Smash and stated they’d like to take a crack at writing a script. For just a few years earlier than that, everybody was attempting to create a musical of Bombshell, the precise Marilyn Monroe musical we have been writing [within] the present, and the unique plan was on the finish of the season to have a musical we’d produce on Broadway. So it truly was at all times the concept to carry a present to Broadway.
However what’s completely different right here is that it not turned possible to do a model of Bombshell, as a result of the songs we wrote have been at all times attempting to talk to what the characters on Smash, the TV present, have been going by way of. We’d discover moments from Marilyn Monroe’s life that mirrored what was occurring on Smash, so all of those songs had double meanings, and the lyrics have been at all times skewed. Additionally, if anyone lady tried to sing the entire songs we wrote for Marilyn in Bombshell — which have been at all times these large, 11 o’clock showstoppers — they’d die by the tip of the efficiency. Lastly our producers stated, “Let’s take heed to what Rick and Bob would wish to pitch us.”
Wittman: We had an incredible studying a couple of yr in the past. Steven Spielberg got here and stated, “That is improbable, let’s do it.” In order that’s the way it occurred.
So this can be a present about placing on a musical. A musical model of the TV present.
Wittman: It’s like Noises Off. You’re doing a musical however every thing goes completely flawed.
Shaiman: What it says on the title web page is A Comedy A couple of Musical. We don’t know in the event that they’ll truly name it a play or a musical. So it’s just like the TV present Smash — solely, we hope, funnier.
Wittman: It’s very humorous. There have been very humorous individuals within the studying; who is aware of in the event that they’ll be within the present.
I assume the following logical step then is to make a film model of the stage musical impressed by the TV present?
Shaiman: [Laughs.] It’s all so complicated. Then you definately throw in Some Like It Scorching, and it’s actually weird. It’s a multiverse.
It should be creatively energizing for you guys to take a look at one thing from so many various angles.
Wittman: It’s nice enjoyable. Even in the course of the read-through, all of us laughed loads and even Steven Spielberg went nuts. He truly additionally got here to Some Like It Scorching a pair weeks in the past.
Shaiman: [Laughs.] He’s our greatest fan.
Does he give artistic notes?
Wittman: Sure, very a lot! What makes him so nice is that he’s like an viewers member. He watches issues like an viewers, with a eager eye.
Can we count on Smash solid members from the TV present within the stage model?
Wittman: A few of them helped out on the studying, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a methods off. It wouldn’t truly go till perhaps round this time subsequent yr.
Shaiman: The truth that it’s not precisely the TV present means it’s not precisely the characters from the TV present. So it doesn’t essentially make sense for individuals on the TV present to play them. However one by no means is aware of.
Will there be songs from the present or will there be unique songs?
Wittman: It’ll be songs from Bombshell, together with some extra we’ll write.
The announcement had fortuitous timing, coming when you will have Some Like It Scorching — the musical model of the basic film — on Broadway. When have been the seeds planted for that exact undertaking?
Wittman: It’s a humorous, meta world. We had executed Smash and inside that’s the musical about Marilyn Monroe. And we even wrote a Some Like It Scorching quantity for Marilyn in that musical. However the producers of the TV present, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, had gotten the rights to the film they usually have been pondering of doing the model of it. We have been in London doing Mary Poppins Returns once they known as. So we’ve been engaged on it for six years, on and off.
Marc J. Franklin
That’s fairly par for the course, proper?
Shaiman: Sadly as of late, sure. In case you look again on the golden age of Broadway — and I’m not saying we’re Rodgers and Hammerstein — however they did a present yearly! These days it takes an countless quantity of workshops and readings, and months in between all of them, so it’s not like a steamroller or a practice that’s continually shifting.
Wittman: After which after all with Covid, we have been a practice caught in a tunnel for some time.
It’s a musical that couldn’t have come at a greater time, particularly with the present bans on drag and discourse round it. It looks like a present that might open individuals’s eyes to pull basically.
Shaiman: That’s the hope. I imply, Hairspray was an analogous scenario. Folks simply would possibly go away somewhat bit extra open-minded about some issues they might haven’t been three hours earlier.
Wittman: It’s at all times good when a present can incite dialogue.
Shaiman: However as Mary Poppins stated, a spoonful of sugar helps the drugs go down. We simply wish to entertain, that’s our foremost focus. That’s what we like to do, that’s what we like to go and see and expertise ourselves. We write reveals we’d wish to go see. Such as you stated, on this case it so occurred that the story was filled with issues that have been so prescient.
Wittman: That’s what made it extra intriguing to do. There already had been [the original Some Like It Hot-inspired musical] Sugar, so there was no purpose to do one other movie-to-stage model of that. So it actually needed to be one thing new.
Spoiler: there’s an enormous twist when the character Jerry, who’s hiding out from the mob by dressing in drag, realizes that they really feel rather more alive dressed as a girl. It turns into a life-changing and eye-opening expertise for the character, which is a stark departure from the unique story. How did you understand that was going to be a flip that character was going to make?
Wittman: Proper from the very starting we thought that, together with our Sugar being performed by a Black actress [Adrianna Hicks]. These are two issues that made us say sure.
Shaiman: Scott and I had lived our entire lives round trans individuals from when the phrases weren’t at all times used. However actually for the reason that time we moved to New York, we’ve lived, labored, liked and have been pals with trans individuals.
Wittman: Going again to after I did plenty of reveals with the entire Andy Warhol crowd at Max’s Kansas Metropolis within the ’80s, with all of those performers like Jayne County.
I do know the tune “Let’s Be Unhealthy” uniquely made the bounce from Smash to Some Like It Scorching. What’s the story behind that?
Shaiman: We had a special tune that we had executed a studying or two with when the ladies, Osgood and Daphne, resolve to interrupt curfew and go to Mexico. The unique tune that we had was known as “The Good Neighbor Coverage,” and it was a sort of sly, horny South of the Border sort of tune. However after the studying, [director and choreographer] Casey Nicholaw stated, “Can it’s one thing hotter and sexier? Possibly one thing rather less laid again?” So Scott and I went dwelling and have been pondering of the road “Let’s be..” After which we stated, “Didn’t we already write this tune, ‘Let’s Be Unhealthy”?
We stored attempting to determine different methods to say what we had already stated in a tune. Possibly 20 % at a lot of the lyrics are from Smash; for essentially the most half it’s newly written lyrics for a tune that now takes on a joyous and enjoyable expertise. It actually works. We truly requested everybody engaged on these reveals, from Smash and now the Broadway present, if we might use it. We didn’t know in the event that they have been going to say, “No, you may’t use that tune, we’re gonna have it on our personal present.” However fortunately, everybody stated, “Yeah, my God. That might be good.” We signed off by saying if the worst factor that occurs is that there are two musicals directly with this tune in it, then that’s a improbable dialog piece.
Michaelah Reynolds
Talking of songwriting, I keep in mind listening to Stephen Sondheim stated that he’d by no means write lyrics with out consuming a glass of one thing. Do you will have any artistic aids if you’re writing?
Shaiman: Yeah, I noticed that. Nicely, I used to smoke dope earlier than I wrote any music or association, however then I began scoring films. The primary film I scored was Distress, so I’d smoke a joint at ten within the morning simply to compose as a result of I had by no means executed something with out taking a puff. However by the tip of the second day, I noticed I couldn’t do it; they have been 12 hour days and I’d should do all of this math with the frames and it was so concerned. So at some point I stated, “Let me see, can I do it [without]?” And that at some point became the remainder of my life.
You’ve been churning out reveals for many years now. What have you ever discovered about navigating the ups and downs of a notoriously tough enterprise over time?
Wittman: Over the tears, you imply. [Laughs.]
Shaiman: I’m horrible at it. I’ve grown extra thin-skinned versus thicker-skinned over time.
Wittman: We’re like Eeyore and Tigger. So it really works in some methods.
Shaiman: I’m Eeyore.
Wittman: It’s not like a film or a TV present the place you do it and then you definitely transfer onto the following one. It’s such a giant chunk of your life. It’s plenty of time funding and typically heartbreak and typically nice pleasure.
Shaiman: If you work on this stuff for years, it’s not that individuals are blowing smoke up your ass the entire time. You’re employed exhausting to make it’s one of the best you can. So that you’re surrounded by people who find themselves encouraging you and are like, “Sure, that’s it, that’s nice.” And then you definitely’re in a room with the solid and also you’re all having fun with it and you’re feeling such as you’ve executed an excellent job, and placing all this cash into it and months of rehearsals. So by the point opening evening comes, you will have this sense that it’s price it and it’s worthy. After which you may out of the blue, in a single evening, in essentially the most off-handed or nasty or impolite methods, be shot down typically. There’s no method that that’s simple, or simple to disregard.
Wittman: However the opening evening of Some Like It Scorching was spectacular. We had a really personal celebration with simply shut pals, most of them being well-known. I stated, “We don’t wish to know in regards to the evaluations or something like that,” however the entire sudden I hear this chant of “Rave! Rave! Rave!” from Bridget Everett. In order that was a pleasant feeling.
