Latest news with #JeffreySeller
Forbes
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Telling The Story Of Tonight—And Beyond
This past week, Hamilton celebrated ten epic years on Broadway. After a joyous performance on August 6—a fundraiser for the Hispanic Federation's Immigrants: We Get the Job Done Coalition and the Public Theater, where Hamilton began—Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller got onstage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre and addressed the crowd. 'How lucky are we to be in this room right now?' said Seller, who went on to share, 'There's a lot of history around us.' He noted that the Richard Rodgers Theatre was home to the original productions of Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Chicago. 'But guess what?' he added. 'Hamilton is the longest-running show in the history of the Richard Rodgers Theatre.' More than 100 Hamilton performers, including swings, standbys, and 23 original cast members, stood onstage to honor the show. As Lin-Manuel Miranda made his entrance, he fittingly led with the song lyrics, 'I may not live to see our story, but I will gladly join the fight, and when our children tell our story, they'll tell the story of tonight.' The night was a major milestone for many. For Jeffrey Seller, it marked another professional triumph in his storied career." In Seller's memoir Theater Kid, he recounts how he was taunted for living in a low-income neighborhood just north of Detroit, in a place mockingly nicknamed 'Cardboard Village.' The cheaply made homes could not withstand tornadoes, and their inhabitants were considered just as defective. 'It's the neighborhood where parents have less: less money, less education, less stability. And the kids are deemed less: less smart, less cooperative, less likely to succeed,' writes Seller in Theater Kid. But as a child, he found refuge climbing the massive backyard maple tree that had two giant trunks, strutting branches, and thousands of green leaves. 'I would be Jack, the tree my beanstalk,' says Seller, as he imagined himself climbing to the top of the tree, flying over the clouds, and soaring through the sky. Not only would Seller take flight, he soared to unimaginable heights. A producing legend, his shows—Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton—transformed musical theater and won a collective 22 Tony Awards. The only producer who has mounted two Pulitzer Prize–winning musicals, his productions have reached more than 43 million people and grossed over $4.6 billion. A groundbreaking musical, Hamilton seamlessly incorporates pop, R&B, and hip-hop into a Broadway musical. It also inspires new generations to go to the theater. The show also casts actors of color so that a diverse audience can see themselves included in the story of how the nation came to be. As Miranda has said, 'The show reflects what America looks like now.' And if that's not enough, the show's Hamilton Education Program (aka EduHam) incorporates the musical to get high school students seriously juiced about American history and the Founding Era. Inspiring thousands of students from more than 1,300 schools to learn about the show's context in history—and engaging them to create their own creative expressions—EduHam is a springboard for them to make their own magic. In his deeply personal memoir, Seller reflects on his incredible journey from a childhood marked by poverty and pain, with a father who bankrupted the family, to becoming a Tony Award–winning force. Not only is Theater Kid a master class in storytelling, the book is about art, life, and the complexity of family—and having the courage to soar through the sky. Especially when you don't have all the points on your proverbial roadmap figured out. Seller shares the inspiration behind Theater Kid, his evolving relationship with risk and resilience, and how EduHam continues to shape future citizens—on and off the stage. Jeryl Brunner: What inspired you to write Theater Kid?Jeffrey Seller: I have been asking myself for years: How did I get from here to there? From this neighborhood the kids derisively called Cardboard Village—a neighborhood in Oak Park, Michigan, just north of Eight Mile—to doing Rent on Broadway and then to Hamilton. I had no connections, no money. I thought, how do you do it? So this book is my way of answering that question. Brunner: What kept you going when you first got to New York?Seller: Drive. I thought, I will not stop. I will persevere. I didn't use highfalutin words like persevere, but I just knew nothing is going to stop me. I have so much love for these musicals. I have so many ideas. And I had the arrogance to think I was better than everybody else. So I was like, so you better go prove it. Brunner: How has your relationship with risk, rejection, and resilience evolved since those early days? Seller: I have always had courage. It's a quality that I believe is innate. And in spite of my courage, I'm super afraid of rejection. If I'm asking someone to go to a movie and they say, 'I'm not available,' it can be very painful. But finally, through my own late-life maturation, I have gotten over that, where I have finally taken in that it's not about me. Brunner: How did you get over it?Seller: I remember when I was a booker I used to sweat when I would try to sell a one-week engagement of Blood Brothers. If they said no, I would take it as rejection. But I needed to make a living. You have to make the booking. You have to raise the $10 million. I never had a net. If I don't make the rent, no one else will. I moved to New York in 1986. At my first job I made $205 a week. That was $820 a month, minus $400 for rent, minus $120 for the guaranteed student loan payments. So now we're down to less than $300 a month to pay for utilities, subway, The New York Times, and food. When you don't have a net, you make it work. Brunner: This year marks the 10th anniversary of Hamilton. And EduHam, the educational program connected to the show, has connected thousands of students to theater in profound ways and also connected them with history and their own creativity. Why is the program important to you? Seller: We are creating the citizens of tomorrow. Not just the theatergoers. Not just artists, but teachers, doctors, engineers, community leaders, representatives and mayors, cooks and hairstylists. We are creating the citizens of tomorrow. And the most important ways in which I've wanted to use my resources is to help children receive opportunities they otherwise would not have been able to receive. That includes after-school theater programs, college tuition, and EduHam. And the chance to learn American history, see the power of theater unfold on that stage, and participate in its very creation through their creation of scenes and monologues and songs and poems and dances. When we participate, our experience is richer and the outcomes are deeper. Brunner: Theater Kid is filled with so many great stories—like the devastating pain of Rent creator Jonathan Larson's death while dealing with the meteoric success of the show and bringing it to Broadway, or unexpectedly winning the Tony for Avenue Q. What was one of the most challenging sections to write? Seller: Writing the Rent section just kind of came right off of my fingertips on the computer. I have lived with the experiences of developing the show for 30 years now. So it just poured out of me. The hardest part of the book to both write and reread was my father asking 19-year-old me for money. It was very painful for me to read it out loud, and then to do it again with Danny Burstein [who played Seller's father on the audiobook], who was so brilliant. I still cry when I read that because I'm so sad, angry, and ashamed of my father. I'm a 60-year-old man. I have a 22-year-old daughter and a 21-year-old son. And the notion of me showing up and asking them for money is still unbelievable to this day. Brunner: How did writing Theater Kid change you? Seller: It was a catharsis and a great sense of accomplishment. I had wanted to do this for many years. I had been frightened. I was stymied by the question, how do you connect the dots? I questioned whether or not I had the skill and talent to pull it off, and writing it was ultimately an amazing challenge. And by writing the book, my own appreciation for and love for my father grew. While I was holding him accountable for his many decisions and behaviors that harmed our family, I was also zeroing in on any time I ever asked him to take me to an audition. A rehearsal. A performance of a show at another theater. He always answered with the same sentence—because he had brain damage, so his vocabulary wasn't as big anymore. And the answer was, 'Get in the car.' By repeating that quote over and over in the book, I thought, yes. He always said, 'Get in the car.' And wasn't that a beautiful thing?
Fox News
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Democratic senators host Pride concert at Kennedy Center to protest Trump takeover
Five Democratic senators joined forces with a "Hamilton" producer to stage a gay pride concert on Monday night in protest of President Donald Trump's takeover of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The New York Times reported that Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado along with Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren rented the Justice Forum, a lecture hall within the Kennedy Center, for a 90-minute concert expected to feature "gay characters, gay culture, gay music and gay pride." "What's happening in the world is deeply concerning, but even in our darkest hours, we must continue to seek out the light," Hickenlooper said in a statement. "The L.G.B.T.Q. community has long embodied this resilience, maintaining joy and creativity in the face of adversity." The concert will be produced by Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of "Hamilton" who described how he was asked to take part in "guerrilla theater" to the New York Times. "This is our way of reoccupying the Kennedy Center," Seller said. "This is a form of saying, 'We are here, we exist, and you can't ignore us.' This is a protest, and a political act." Seller and "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda previously canceled a planned production of the popular rap musical at the Kennedy Center for 2026 in protest of the Trump administration. The concert will feature several Broadway artists as well as the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, whose May performance at the Kennedy Center was canceled. Fox News Digital was told, however, that the decision came before the center's leadership change due to lack of ticket sales rather than politics. Fox News Digital reached out to the Kennedy Center and the five Democratic senators' offices for comment. In February, Trump fired several Kennedy Center board members, including the president and chairman, and replaced them with pro-Trump figures, who then named the president as chairman. Trump later appointed Richard Grenell, who was the first openly gay Cabinet member after serving the first Trump administration, as president and interim executive director.
Washington Post
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
A producer of ‘Rent' and ‘Hamilton' dishes about his Broadway career
As the producer behind 'Rent,' 'Avenue Q,' 'In the Heights' and 'Hamilton,' Jeffrey Seller has an eye for turning an unconventional musical into a hit. After all, none of those contemporary classics — about Bohemian artists, inappropriate puppets, a striving immigrant community and a go-getting treasury secretary — seemed poised for mainstream appeal. Yet each show won over audiences, snatched the best-musical Tony and entrenched itself in Broadway lore.
Gulf Today
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Producer Jeffrey Seller shines a light on his own journey
Jeffrey Seller, the Broadway producer behind such landmark hits as 'Rent,' 'Avenue Q' and 'Hamilton,' didn't initially write a memoir for us. He wrote it for himself. 'I really felt a personal existential need to write my story. I had to make sense of where I came from myself,' he says in his memento-filled Times Square office. 'I started doing it as an exercise for me and I ultimately did it for theatre kids of all ages everywhere.' Seller's 'Theater Kid' — which he wrote even before finding a publishing house — traces the rise of an unlikely theater force who was raised in a poor neighbourhood far from Broadway, along the way giving readers a portrait of the Great White Way in the gritty 1970s and 80s. In it, he is brutally honest. 'I am a jealous person. I am an envious person,' he says. 'I'm a kind person, I'm an honest person. Sometimes I am a mean person and a stubborn person and a joyous person. And as the book shows, I was particularly in that era, often a very lonely person.' Seller, 60. who is candid about trysts, professional snubs, mistakes and his unorthodox family, says he wasn't interested in writing a recipe book on how to make a producer. 'I was more interested in exploring, first and foremost, how a poor, gay, adopted Jewish kid from Cardboard Village in Oak Park, Michigan, gets to Broadway and produces 'Rent' at age 31.' 'Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir' by Jeffrey Seller. AP It is the story of an outsider who is captivated by theatre as a child who acts in Purim plays, directed a musical by Andrew Lippa, becomes a booking agent in New York and then a producer. Then he tracks down his biological family. 'My life has been a process of finally creating groups that I feel part of and accepting where I do fit in,' he says. 'I also wrote this book for anyone who's ever felt out.' Jonathan Karp, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, says he isn't surprised that Seller delivered such a strong memoir because he believes the producer has an instinctive artistic sensibility. 'There aren't that many producers you could say have literally changed the face of theater. And I think that's what Jeffrey Seller has done,' says Karp. 'It is the work of somebody who is much more than a producer, who is writer in his own right and who has a really interesting and emotional and dramatic story to tell.' The book reaches a crescendo with a behind-the-scenes look at his friendship and collaboration with playwright and composer Jonathan Larson and the making of his 'Rent.' Seller writes about a torturous creative process in which Larson would take one step forward with the script over years only to take two backward. He also writes movingly about carrying on after Larson, who died from an aortic dissection the day before 'Rent's' first off-Broadway preview. ''Rent' changed my life forever, but, more important, 'Rent' changed musical theater forever. There is no 'In the Heights' without 'Rent,'' Seller says. 'I don't think there's a 'Next to Normal' without 'Rent.' I don't think there's a 'Dear Evan Hansen' without 'Rent.'' So enamored was Seller with 'Rent' that he initially ended his memoir there in the mid-'90s. It took some coaxing from Karp to get him to include stories about 'Avenue Q,' 'In the Heights' and 'Hamilton.' ''Hamilton' becomes a cultural phenomenon. It's the biggest hit of my career,' Seller says. 'It's one of the biggest hits in Broadway history. It's much bigger hit than 'Rent' was. But that doesn't change what 'Rent' did.' In a sort of theater flex, the memoir's audiobook has appearances by Annaleigh Ashford, Danny Burstein, Darren Criss, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lindsay Mendez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Andrew Rannells, Conrad Ricamora and Christopher Sieber. There's original music composed by Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Kitt. The portrait of Broadway Seller offers when he first arrives is one far different from today, where the theaters are bursting with new plays and musicals and the season's box office easily blows past the $1 billion mark. Associated Press
CBS News
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
"Hamilton" original cast to reunite for Tony Awards 2025 performance in June
How Jeffrey Seller became one of Broadway's biggest producers Members of the original cast of the hit Broadway musical "Hamilton" will reunite for an anniversary performance at the Tony Awards on June 8. Stars Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom, Jr., Philippa Soo, Daveed Diggs, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson, Jasmine Cephas Jones and Okieriete Onaodowan will perform alongside other original ensemble cast members, CBS and Tony Award Productions announced in a news release Thursday. The announcement did not say what the cast would perform. The performance will celebrate the record-breaking musical's 10th anniversary. "Hamilton" opened on Broadway in 2015 and became an immediate sensation. It received a record-breaking 16 nominations at the 2016 Tony Awards and took home 11, including "Best Musical." It also received a Grammy Award, an Olivier Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. A filmed version of the musical featuring most of the original cast was released on Disney+ in 2020. Lin-Manuel Miranda with the cast and creative team during the Broadway opening night performance of 'Hamilton' at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on August 6, 2015 in New York City. Walter McBride/WireImage The performance is not the only celebration of the musical's milestone year. Odom Jr. is set to return to the Richard Rodgers Theatre to reprise his role as Aaron Burr from Sept. 9 to Nov. 23. Who else will perform at the Tony Awards? Other performances have not yet been announced. Typically, shows nominated for Best Musical and Best Revival of a Musical perform. Musicals "Buena Vista Social Club," "Death Becomes Her" and "Maybe Happy Ending" were each nominated for 10 awards, including "Best Musical." Plays "John Proctor is the Villain" and "The Hills of California" each received seven nominations. The full list of Tony Award nominees is available here. How to watch the Tony Awards Broadway's biggest night, hosted by "Wicked" star Cynthia Erivo, will be held at New York City's Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 8, at 8 p.m. ET. The Oscar-nominated actress said she is proud to take on the "glorious honor." The Tony Awards will air on CBS and Paramount+. Before the awards are broadcast, nominee Darren Criss and Goldsberry will host "The Tony Awards: Act One," a live preshow that will be available to viewers for free on Pluto TV.
