Ken Fallin Illustrates Special: Happy Birthday Marc Shaiman!

Multi award-winning music master Marc Shaiman celebrated a very special event last Thursday, October 22nd...his 50th birthday!  This past Saturday, the Hairspray maestro and Tony and Grammy award winner celebrated in style with a large birthday bash.  

Childhood friend of Shaiman's and BWW contributor, illustrator Ken Fallin, was naturally on hand with caricature in tow, which he has graciously shared with the BWW community.  In this Ken Fallin Illustrates Special, the artists brings us Marc Shaiman and his longtime partner and collaborator Scott Wittman.

Marc Shaiman has earned five Academy Award nominations, a Tony Award and a Grammy Award for his work on the musical Hairspray, on which he wrote all the music for and was co-lyricist on, and an Emmy Award for co-writing Billy Crystal's Academy Award hosting performances. 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 and HBO's From the Earth to the Moon, and 61*. He frequently works on films by Billy Crystal, Rob Reiner, and Trey Parker, and has also appeared on screen in many of these films. He also wrote the viral media sensation PROP 8 THE MUSICAL which became a massive hit on FunnyOrDie.com and received a live Broadway premiere on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at the Gershwin Theatre as a special part of the "Defying Inequality- The Broadway Concert, A Celebrity Benefit for Equal Rights."

Scott Wittman is a director, co-lyricist, and writer for Broadway, concerts, and television.
He has directed concerts for such artists as Bette Midler, Christine Ebersole, Raquel Welch, Dame Edna Everage, and Lypsinka, among others. In 2002, Shaiman and Wittman collaborated on Hairspray, which won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, the Tony Award for Best Original Score, and a Grammy Award. In addition to Hairspray, Wittman conceived, was co-lyricist on, and directed Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me and conceived and directed Matters of the Heart, a solo concert by Patti LuPone.

At the present time, the partners are working on Catch Me If You Can, a musical adaptation of the 2002 Steven Spielberg film together with Terrence McNally, which celebrated its World Premiere at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre.

Since 1985 Ken Fallin has achieved an enviable reputation as an internationally known illustrator and caricaturist. His instantly recognizable doodlings of hundreds of notables from the worlds of entertainment, sports, finance, politics, and culture have graced the pages of The Wall Street Journal as well as many other fine publications. He has also produced stylish and witty art for major ad campaigns, eye-catching CD covers, bold and imaginative theatrical posters and even the occasional prison mural. His work additionally appears in The Los Angeles Times, In Style Magazine, The Boston Globe, Barron's, The Chicago Tribune, and for a little razzle-dazzle, The Hollywood Reporter. Other clients include HBO and Showtime cable television, BMG records, CBS News, Tommy Bahama, American Express, Belvedere Vodka, Walt Disney Productions, and the long-running Forbidden Broadway. In addition to his published commercial work, Mr. Fallin's specially commissioned portraits have proudly found their way into the private collections of such diverse celebrity clients as Patti LuPone, CarolChanning, Barbara Cook, Bernadette Peters, Madonna, Frank Langella, Doris Roberts, Mario Lopez, Bette Midler, and Sir Cameron Mackintosh. Ken presently lives in New York City.

Once again, best wishes to our friend and legendary talent from everyone here at BWW!

                                                Marc Shaiman & Scott Whittman

Illustration by Ken Fallin; www.kenfallin.com