Composer Marc Shaiman & HAIRSPRAY Star Clash Over Marriage Equality

UPDATE: Today, Marc Shaiman shared his reaction to today's story published in the Daily News. Read his comments here

In the Tony Award winning Broadway musical HAIRSPRAY, actress Charlotte Crossley Fortier portrayed Motormouth Maybell, who sang the beautiful lyrics: "There's a road/We must travel/There's a promise/We must make/But the riches/Will be plenty/Worth the risk/And the chances that we take."

While the words pertained to the civil rights movement, they could easily have been sung in support of gay rights.

At the start of New York's Gay Pride Day, HAIRSPRAY composer Marc Shaiman used Facebook to 'unfriend' actress and longtime friend Fortier following her recent disapproval on social media of a marriage between two mutual male friends.

Without mentioning Fortier's name specifically, Shaiman posted, "How sad that she sang that song so beautifully and yet never listened to what she was singing," He continues, "I hope she continues to sing it and always remembers it was written by two gay men [Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman] who love each other."

After the New York Daily News asked Fortier for a comment on Shaiman's words, the paper reports that the actresss wrote an email to Shaiman, saying, "Marc Shaiman! I am not in a fetal position in bed with the covers pulled over my head, crying about this fiasco! It is comical and very sad ... sad that the FREE SPEECH RIGHTS are taken as an insult." She added "I ain't playin' the Matron in THIS musical, Maestro."

The actress explains that as a vocational minister of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, she is forbidden to recognize the legitimacy of same-sex marriage and that a reference to her comments as "hate speech" is "a lie straight out of the pits of hell."

While Shaiman did not reply directly to The News, he did respond to Fortier's email, writing, "Separation of church and state, you ought to read up on what our Founding Fathers intended Also, you might want to check up on what Jesus said about homosexuality. Nothing. He was too busy talking about love." He added: "I do not ask for your forgiveness, nor do I offer any to you. I am ashamed of you."

Source: The NY Daily News

Marc 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 hosting performances. Along with partner Scott Wittman, he composed music for Broadway's CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and NBC's SMASH.

His film credits include Broadcast News, Beaches, When Harry Met Sally..., City Slickers, The Addams Family, SisterAct, 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."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos

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