This year’s Oscar ceremony will give Marc Shaiman not one, but two chances to join an elite club of award-winning artists. Shaiman is only an Oscar win away from becoming just the 16th artist to earn EGOT status, a designation referring to artists who have scored Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony wins.
Shaiman’s two Oscar nominations are for his Original Score of “Mary Poppins Returns,” as well as for co-writing– along with Scott Wittman— the Oscar-nominated Original Song from the same film, “The Place Where Lost Things Go.” He has earned five previous nominations for his musical contributions to “Sleepless in Seattle” (Best Original Song), “The American President”(Best Original Score), “The First Wives Club” (Best Original Score), “Patch Adams” (Best Original Score), and “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut” (Best Original Song).
Shaiman began his EGOT journey in 1992 when he won an Emmy as part of the writing team of the 64th Annual Academy Awards. He has an additional 10 nominations for multiple Oscar telecasts, as well as “Saturday Night Live” and “Smash.”
But it was his score for the 2002 stage adaptation of John Waters’s classic film “Hairspray” that has earned Shaiman two of the four awards necessary for EGOT. The musical brought him both a Tony for Best Original Score–shared with Wittman– and a Grammy as producer of the long-running musical’s cast album. He received an additional Tony nomination for his orchestrations for 2011’s “Catch Me If You Can,” as well as four more Grammy nominations.
Shaiman would be the fifth composer to achieve EGOT status, following in the footsteps of Richard Rodgers (the first EGOT recipient), Marvin Hamlisch, Robert Lopez and the most recent winning composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber, who reached EGOT with an Emmy win for producing 2018’s live television adaptation of his hit musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.” That show also pushed two more into the EGOT world: Webber’s lyricist Tim Rice, as well as John Legend, who not only co-produced the show but starred as the title character.
PREDICT the Oscar winners now; change them until February 24
Be sure to check out how our experts rank this year’s Oscar contenders. Then take a look at the most up-to-date combined odds before you make your own Oscar predictions. Don’t be afraid to jump in now since you can keep changing your predictions until just before winners are announced on February 24.
SIGN UP for Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions
