Never Mind the Happy: Showbiz Stories from a Sore Winner

Film and theater composer Shaiman delivers a rollicking debut memoir about his decades-long career in entertainment. From his days as a 13-year-old piano prodigy sight-reading Funny Girl for a New Jersey community theater in the early 1970s to collaborations with luminaries including Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Harvey Fierstein, and Bradley Cooper, Shaiman recounts his career highs with exuberance and his misfires with humble wit. He shares behind-the-scenes accounts of collaborating with Lorne Michaels on Saturday Night Live sketches and composing music for the short-lived TV show Smash, infusing his anecdotes with the humor that has long defined his songwriting. (In a characteristic quip, he recalls Streisand’s rendition of “Ave Maria” as “the greatest Jewish Christmas miracle since Irving Berlin wrote ‘White Christmas.’ ”) Amid the laughter, Shaiman movingly recalls the loss and fear of the 1980s AIDS epidemic, writing somberly of scanning the newspaper for young men’s obituaries. Throughout, Shaiman’s narrative sparkles with personality and affection for the performers and collaborators who shaped his life. The result is a lively, heartfelt chronicle of creativity, survival, and the enduring pull of the spotlight. Agents: Cait Hoyt and Julie Flanagan, CAA. (Jan.)