Marc Shaiman
Shaiman (left) with Martin Short, 2006
Born	(1959-10-22) October 22, 1959 (age 52) Newark, New Jersey
Residence	Los Angeles & New York City
Nationality	American
Known for	Multiple awards as composer and lyricist
Partner	Scott Wittman

Marc Shaiman (born October 22, 1959) is a Tony, Grammy, Emmy winning and Oscar nominated American composer, lyricist, arranger, and performer for films, television, and theatre. He is perhaps best known for writing the music and co-writing the lyrics for the Broadway musical version of the cult John Waters film Hairspray.

Personal life[link]

Shaiman was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Claire (née Goldfein) and William Robert Shaiman.^[1] He went to Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. He lives in both Los Angeles and New York City. Shaiman and Scott Wittman have been partners in life and collaborators in theater since 1979.^[2]

Career[link]

Shaiman started his career as a theatre/cabaret musical director. He then became vocal arranger for Bette Midler, eventually becoming her musical director and co-producer of many of her recordings, including The Wind Beneath My Wings and From a Distance. He helped create the material for her performance on the penultimate Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His work with both Bette Midler and Billy Crystal led to his involvement on their films.

His film credits include Broadcast News, Beaches, When Harry Met Sally..., City Slickers, The Addams Family, Sister Act, Sleepless in Seattle, A Few Good Men, The American President, The First Wives Club, George of the Jungle, In & Out, Patch Adams, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Team America: World Police, Flipped, and HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, and 61*. He frequently works on films by Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner. He has also appeared in many of these films.

Shaiman has earned five Academy Award nominations, a Tony Award and a Grammy Award for his work on the musical Hairspray, and an Emmy Award for co-writing Billy Crystal's Academy Award performances. He has also been Grammy nominated twice for his arrangements for Harry Connick Jr.'s recordings When Harry Met Sally... and We Are in Love and Emmy nominated for his work on Saturday Night Live. In 2002, he was honored with the "Outstanding Achievement in Music-In-Film" award at The Hollywood Film Festival, and in 2007 he was honored with ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award in recognition of his outstanding achievements and contributions to the music of film and television.^[3] He is the first recipient of the Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for a Comedy Feature Film.

Fans of Saturday Night Live may recognize Shaiman as Skip St. Thomas, the accompanying pianist for The Sweeney Sisters, a singing duo played by Nora Dunn and Jan Hooks, which earned him an Emmy nomination.^[4] He began his professional relationships with Billy Crystal and Martin Short during his tenure at SNL. He wrote and sang a song for his agent's film Finding Kraftland; the song was called Yes.

To protest the passage of California Proposition 8 in November 2008, Shaiman wrote a satiric mini-musical called "Prop 8 — The Musical". The 3-minute video was distributed on the internet at FunnyOrDie.com beginning on December 3, 2008. It was written and produced in just a few days. The cast includes Jack Black (who plays Jesus), Neil Patrick Harris, John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Margaret Cho, Rashida Jones and other celebrities. Shaiman plays the piano and appears briefly on the video. It received 1.2 million internet hits in its first day.^[5][6]

Most recently, he has co-written (with partner Wittman) songs for Neil Patrick Harris when Harris hosted the 63rd Tony Awards (2009) and the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (2009) and was Emmy nominated for musical directing and co-writing the 82nd Academy Awards (2010).

Shaiman co-produced and co-wrote cuts on Mariah Carey's new CD Merry Christmas II You.

He is writing original songs for the new musical-based television show for NBC, Smash, premiering February 2012, as well as serving as Executive Producer.^[4]

Filmography[link]

† = Oscar Nominee

Television[link]

Trivia note: He has co-written and performed with Bette Midler, Nathan Lane and Billy Crystal on the penultimate shows of Johnny Carson, Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno.

Theatre[link]

Internet[link]

• Prop 8 - The Musical (2008) (Composer, Lyricist, Pianist) 2009 "Webby" winner-Best Comedy:Short or Individual Episode

Discography[link]

Concert/cabaret work[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• MusicalTalk Interview with Marc Shaiman.
• The Musical Mind of Marc Shaiman
• Marc Shaiman at the Internet Movie Database
• Internet Broadway Database entry
• The Marc Shaiman non official site

Hunter Doherty "Patch" Adams
Adams in Anaheim, California, May 15, 2008
Born	(1945-05-28) May 28, 1945 (age 67) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nationality	United States
Education	M.D., Virginia Commonwealth University
Alma mater	George Washington University
Home town	Arlington, Virginia
Spouse	Linda Edquist (1975–98; divorced)
Children	Atomic Zagnut Adams Lars Zig Edquist Adams

Hunter Doherty "Patch" Adams (born May 28, 1945, in Washington, D.C.) is an American physician, social activist, citizen diplomat and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971. Each year he organizes a group of volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries where they dress as clowns in an effort to bring humor to orphans, patients, and other people.^[1]

Adams is currently based in Urbana, Illinois. In collaboration with the institute, he promotes an alternative health care model, not funded by insurance policies.^[1]

Early life[link]

Adams had a difficult childhood. His father, an officer in the United States Army, had fought in Korea, and died while stationed in Germany when Adams was still a teenager.^[1] After his father's death, Adams returned to the United States with his mother and brother. Upon his return, Adams has stated that he encountered institutional injustice which made him a target for bullies at school. As a result, Adams was unhappy and became actively suicidal. After being hospitalized three times in one year for wanting to end his life, he decided "you don't kill yourself; you make revolution."^{[citation needed]}

Early career[link]

After graduating (1963) from Wakefield High School,^[2] Adams completed pre-med coursework at the George Washington University. He began medical school without an undergraduate degree, and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at Virginia Commonwealth University (Medical College of Virginia) in 1971. In the late 1960s one of his closest friends (a man, not a woman as depicted in the Patch Adams film) was murdered. Convinced of the powerful connection between environment and wellness, he believes the health of an individual cannot be separated from the health of the family, community, and the world. While working in an adolescent clinic at MCV, in his final year of med school, he met Linda Edquist, a fellow VCU student who volunteered in the clinic. Soon after graduation, Patch, Linda, and friends founded the Gesundheit! Institute (originally known to many as the Zanies), which ran as a free community hospital for 12 years.

Adams and Edquist married in 1975 and had two sons, Atomic Zagnut "Zag" Adams and Lars Zig Edquist Adams. The couple divorced in 1998.^[3]

Gesundheit! Institute[link]

A revamped Gesundheit! Institute, envisioned as a free, full-scale hospital and health care eco-community, is planned on 316 acres (128 ha) in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Its goal is to integrate a traditional hospital with alternative medicine, with the organization developing educational programs in sustainable systems design targeted to medical students and the general public.

Since the 1990s Adams has supported the Ithaca Health Alliance (IHA),^[4] founded as the Ithaca Health Fund (IHF) by Paul Glover. In January 2006 IHA launched the Ithaca Free Clinic, bringing to life key aspects of Adams' vision. Adams has also given strong praise to Health Democracy, Glover's book written and published the same year.

In October 2007, Adams and the Gesundheit Board unveiled its campaign to raise $1 million towards building a Teaching Center and Clinic on its land in West Virginia. The Center and Clinic will enable Gesundheit to see patients and teach health care design.

Adams urges medical students to develop compassionate connections with their patients. His prescription for this kind of care relies on humor and play, which he sees as essential to physical and emotional health. Ultimately, Adams wants the Gesundheit! Institute to open a 40-bed hospital in rural West Virginia that offers free, holistic care to anyone who wants it.^[5]

Adams was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award on January 29, 1997.^[6]

In 2008, Adams agreed to become honorary chair of the "International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment" or IAACM. In a number of his speeches and essays, Martin Luther King, Jr. had called for such an IAACM, but none was ever created. MindFreedom International, a nonprofit coalition that Gesundheit! belongs to as a sponsor group, launched the IAACM to support "creative maladjustment" and social change.^[7]

In media[link]

The 1998 film Patch Adams was based on Adams' life and views on medicine. Adams has criticized the film, saying it eschewed an accurate representation of his beliefs in favor of commercial viability. He said that out of all aspects of his life and activism, the film portrayed him merely as a funny doctor.^[8] Patch Adams also said of Robin Williams in an interview, "He made $21 million for four months of pretending to be me, in a very simplistic version, and did not give $10 to my free hospital. Patch Adams, the person, would have, if I had Robin's money, given all $21 million to a free hospital in a country where 80 million cannot get care."^[9]

However, in another interview, Adams did clarify that he did not hate Williams^[10], and Williams has actively supported St. Jude Children's Research Hospital for several years.^[11]

As a speaker, Dr. Adams travels around the globe lecturing about his medicine methods. ^[12].

Bibliography[link]

• Adams, Patch; Maureen Mylander (1998). Gesundheit! : bringing good health to you, the medical system, and society through physician service, complementary therapies, humor, and joy. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press. ISBN 978-0-89281-781-8. http://lccn.loc.gov/99187488. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
• Adams, Patch; Maureen Mylander (1993). Gesundheit! : bringing good health to you, the medical system, and society through physician service, complementary therapies, humor, and joy. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press. ISBN 978-0-89281-442-8. http://lccn.loc.gov/92007008. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
• Adams, Patch; Maureen Mylander (1998). Gesundheit! [sound recording]. Los Angeles, California: NewStar Media. ISBN 978-0-7871-1828-0. http://lccn.loc.gov/00717433. Retrieved 2008-12-16.  4 sound cassettes (ca. 6 hr.) : digitally mastered, Dolby processed.
• Adams, Patch (1998). House calls. cartoons by Jerry Van Amerongen. San Francisco, California: Robert D. Reed Publishers. ISBN 978-1-885003-18-8. http://lccn.loc.gov/98034266. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 
• Bourque, Judith (1999). The real Patch Adams (videorecording) / a film by Judith Bourque. Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films. ISBN 978-1-56029-811-3. http://lccn.loc.gov/2003389123. Retrieved 2008-12-16.  1 videocassette (53 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.
• Graham, John (1999). It’s up to us. foreword by Patch Adams. Langley, Washington: Giraffe Project. ISBN 978-1-893805-00-2. http://lccn.loc.gov/99097193. Retrieved 2008-12-16. 

References[link]