2025 GMHC Cabaret & Howard Ashman Award

Cabaret

We're thrilled to announce that the GMHC Cabaret & Howard Ashman Award is officially SOLD OUT!

While tickets are no longer available, you can still make a donation to celebrate our 2025 award recipients, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Your gift will honor these remarkable artists and sustain GMHC’s essential work.

Join us at the 2025 GMHC Cabaret & Howard Ashman Award on Monday, February 10, 2025, at Joe’s Pub in NYC, as we honor Broadway legends Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

We are beyond thrilled to present the Howard Ashman Award to Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the award winning songwriters behind favorites such as “Hairspray,” “SMASH,” and “Some Like It Hot.”

Their collaborations have won the pair Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Awards, as well as Academy Award nominations. Stars they’ve worked with span the gamut from Patti LuPone, Bette Midler, and Martin Short, to Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, and Sarah Jessica Parker!

With careers so rich, the night is sure to be one for the books.

The GMHC Cabaret is a star-studded event featuring Broadway stars and celebrities performing musical selections. The evening includes the Howard Ashman Award, named for the Oscar and Grammy winning lyricist who passed away in 1991 from AIDS-related complications.

MARC SHAIMAN is an award-winning lyricist, composer, orchestrator and performer, who has successfully created music and lyrics for TV, films, recordings, and theater since entering show business at the age of 16 in 1976.

Shaiman has been OSCAR® nominated seven times (for “Mary Poppins Returns,” “Sleepless In Seattle,” “Patch Adams,” “The First Wives Club,” “The American President,” and “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut”). 

He has received three TONY® Award nominations (winning one for co-writing the score to “Hairspray” with co-lyricist Scott Wittman), eight GRAMMY® Award nominations (winning two for The Original Cast Recordings of “Hairspray” and “Some Like It Hot”), twelve EMMY® Award nominations (winning two, for his work on Billy Crystal’s Academy Award hosting and for co-writing, with Wittman and Pasek & Paul, “Which Of The Pickwick Triplets Did It?” for “Only Murders In The Building”), two Golden Globe nominations (for the song “The Star” (co-written with Mariah Carey) and his score for “Mary Poppins Returns”), and two BAFTA nominations (for “Sleepless In Seattle” and “Mary Poppins Returns”).

Shaiman’s other film work includes “Beaches,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “Misery,” “City Slickers,” “The Addams Family,” “Addams Family Values,” “A Few Good Men,” “Sister Act” (1 & 2), “George of the Jungle,” “In and Out,” “Hocus Pocus” (1 & 2), “The Bucket List,” “Parental Guidance,” and “Bros.” He served as an Executive Producer of the successful film adaptation of his Broadway musical “Hairspray.”

The original musicals he has co-written for Broadway and The West End are “Hairspray” (Tony and Olivier Award winner for Best Musical), the Tony-nominated “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me,” the Tony-winning “Catch Me If You Can,” the Olivier Award-winning “Charlie & The Chocolate Factory,” and most recently, the Tony and Grammy Award-winning “Some Like It Hot.”  The most award-winning musical of last season, “Some Like It Hot” is currently on tour in North American. Next up is the Broadway version of “Smash,” the television show for which Marc & Scott were nominated for two Emmy Awards.

SCOTT WITTMAN is a Tony, Emmy, two-time Grammy, and Olivier Award winning lyricist, director, writer, and conceiver. He co-wrote the lyrics for the hit musical Hairspray (Tony, Grammy, Olivier Award winner) with creative partner Marc Shaiman. Wittman also served as an executive producer on the hit film starring John Travolta.

Scott was nominated for a Golden Globe, Grammy, and two Emmy Awards for the original songs on NBC’s musical drama Smash. While working on the show, he co-wrote songs for Jennifer Hudson, Uma Thurman, Bernadette Peters, and Liza Minnelli. Shaiman and Wittman’s original score for the Marilyn Monroe musical Bombshell was released by Sony Records.

Scott’s Broadway credits include Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, which he also directed, Catch Me If You Can (Tony nom. for Best Musical), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Broadway and the West End. Some Like it Hot (13 Tony nominations) and upcoming, Smash on Broadway Spring of 25.

Scott has created and directed two Broadway shows, and four sold-out Carnegie Hall concerts for Patti LuPone. He has created and directed solo shows for Christine Ebersole and Nathan Lane, as well as writing for Bette Midler’s 2015 Divine Intervention World Tour. Off-Broadway, he conceived and directed Jukebox Jackie starring Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, and Cole Escola at LaMama, Also, Rockbottom with Bridget Everett at The Public Theatre.

Scott also co- wrote the score to Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns starring Emily Blunt, Lin Manuel Miranda, and Meryl Streep. Directed by Rob Marshall. The song, “The Place Were Lost Things Go” was nominated for an Oscar

He recently joined the Marvel Universe with his song cowritten with Marc Shaiman for “Rodgers: The Musical in “Hawkeye”. Also, for Murders in the Building, he co-wrote The Pickwick Triplets for Steve Martin which recently won an Emmy

Scott directed and conceived several evenings for GMHC at Carnegie Hall featuring Patti LuPone, Cyndi Lauper, Rufus Wainwright, and The B52’s. Also for GMHC, Scott directed on Broadway Doin’What Comes Naturally: A Tribute to Ethel Merman starring Bette Midler, Patti LuPone, Madeline Kahn, and Elaine Stritch.