Theodore Shapiro

Theodore Michael Shapiro, known professionally as Teddy Shapiro, entered the world on September 29, 1971, in Washington, D.C. After completing a B.A. in music at Brown University he pursued graduate studies at the Juilliard School of Music. His earliest screen credit arrived in 1993 when he supplied music for episodes of the television series The State. Two features reached theaters in 1998: the crime drama Hurricane Streets, his first theatrical assignment, and the comedy Safe Men, which marked his initial foray into that genre. The following year brought Six Ways to Sunday along with the boxing documentary On the Ropes, the latter scored jointly with Ray “Web” Davis.

Early 2000 saw the release of the drama Restaurant. Later that year Shapiro contributed scores to Prince of Central Park, the boxing-centered Girlfight, and David Mamet’s State and Main. Three projects occupied him in 2001—Wet Hot American Summer, Heist, and Not Another Teen Movie—while 2002 yielded only Love in the Time of Money. Two comedies arrived in 2003: Old School, featuring Luke Wilson, Will Farrell, and Vince Vaughn, and View from the Top. Four more comedies followed in 2004: Along Came Polly with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston, Starsky & Hutch reuniting Stiller with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, 13 Going on 30, and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story again pairing Stiller and Vaughn.

In 2005 Shapiro scored The Baxter and Fun with Dick and Jane, the latter starring Jim Carrey. The next year he composed for The Devil Wears Prada, You, Me and Dupree featuring Owen Wilson, and Idiocracy with Luke Wilson. Although Bug leaned dramatic when it appeared in early 2007, Blades of Glory, Mr. Woodcock, and The Girl in the Park all leaned comedic, the first of them again starring Will Farrell. Three additional titles filled 2008—Semi-Pro with Farrell, Tropic Thunder uniting Ben Stiller and Jack Black, and Marley & Me pairing Owen Wilson with Jennifer Aniston—while 2009 delivered I Love You, Man, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and Year One starring Jack Black.

Because the bulk of Shapiro’s assignments were comedies, he frequently crafted pastiche cues that lampooned traditional film scoring conventions; his command of cinematic history proved especially useful on Tropic Thunder, a satire of war-movie conventions. Contemporary comedies also relied heavily on pop source tracks, so his underscore often vied for space both within the finished films and on their soundtrack albums, limiting his representation on disc relative to some colleagues. Original-score albums appeared for State and Main, Fun with Dick and Jane, Idiocracy, Blades of Glory, Tropic Thunder, Marley & Me, and Year One, while selections from his work also surfaced on albums tied to Six Ways to Sunday, On the Ropes, Restaurant, Girlfight, Starsky & Hutch, The Baxter, and I Love You, Man. By contrast, the albums issued for Not Another Teen Movie, View from the Top, 13 Going on 30, The Devil Wears Prada, You, Me and Dupree, Bug, and Semi-Pro contained only songs performed by various artists and omitted Shapiro’s music entirely, although both Blades of Glory and Tropic Thunder received separate pop-song and score editions.