Latest news with #JeffreySeller
CBS News
4 days ago
- 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.
Chicago Tribune
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
‘Hamilton' will return to Chicago in 2026 following Kennedy Center cancellation
The Broadway musical 'Hamilton' will return to Chicago in 2026, the producer Jeffrey Seller announced Sunday at a Chicago Humanities Festival event. The first national touring company of Lin-Manuel Miranda's smash hit will play the CIBC Theatre (18 W. Monroe St.) from March 4 to April 26, 2026. Group tickets are now available; individual tickets will go on sale later this year, presenter Broadway in Chicago said. Those dates roughly coincide with the previously planned dates for the show to play the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Seller had announced the cancellation of those dates after President Donald Trump announced plans to install himself as Kennedy Center chairman and change the arts center's programming to be more in line with his administration's priorities. Beginning in 2016 and concluding in 2020, 'Hamilton' had a dedicated, 171-week run in Chicago, the first city to present the show after its Broadway opening. The Chicago company played to more than 2.5 million people and grossed more than $400 million at the Chicago box office over three and a half years. It was an economic driver in the Loop, with more than half of its audience coming from more than 100 miles away. Updated 'Hamilton' timeline: From Miranda's 'joke' to Obama's White House to Broadway to Chicago and back A touring production of the musical came back in 2023 for a fall run at the Nederlander Theatre. This new engagement will represent a promised return. Seller was in Chicago for an event at the Francis Parker School to talk about his new memoir, 'Theater Kid.'
Straits Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Power producer of musicals Rent and Hamilton is now telling his own story
Power producer of musicals Rent and Hamilton is now telling his own story NEW YORK – American Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller is, by any measure, enormously successful. He has produced – always in collaboration with others – about 10 shows that have collectively grossed US$4.74 billion (S$6.1 billion) , about one-third of which was profit for producers, investors and others. His first big hit was Rent (1996) and his most recent, Hamilton (2015). In between were Avenue Q (2003) and In The Heights (2008), but also plenty of others that did not flourish. For a long time, Seller, now 60 and the winner of four best-musical Tony Awards, had complicated feelings about how he fit in. He was adopted as an infant and grew up in a downwardly mobile and fractious family in a Detroit suburb. Theatre was where he found pleasure and meaning – a way out and a way up. Now, he has written a memoir, Theater Kid, published on May 6. It is a coming-of-age and rags-to-riches story that is unsparing in its description of his colourfully challenged and challenging father, unabashed in its description of his sexual awakening, and packed with behind-the-scenes detail, especially about the birth of Rent. In an interview at his office in the theatre district, Seller spoke about his life, his career and his book. These are edited excerpts from the interview. Producer Jeffrey Seller accepts the Tony Award for Hamilton, which won for Best Musical at the 70th Annual Tony Awards in New York in June 2016. PHOTO: SARA KRULWICH/NYTIMES You do not need the money or the attention. Why write a memoir? I wrote it to figure out why I am here. I wrote it to try to figure out how I fit in. And I guess I wrote it as an exercise in squashing all of my shame at being an adopted, gay, Jewish, poor kid and always feeling like an outsider. What did you learn about yourself? I think maybe we adoptees are never sure we are going to be okay. There is something so deep about what it means to not know where you come from, and to feel that you have been rejected by the very people who created you. That has affected every part of my life. And I think that through some process of psychoanalysis, therapy and this book, I maybe have come to see that I am okay, and I am going to be okay. You grew up in a Detroit suburb, among far more affluent families, in a neighbourhood nicknamed Cardboard Village. I was so ashamed of it that I would experience extreme anxiety if someone aske d w here I lived. Everybody else was doing a little better every year, including my cousins and my friends. I just remember being so angry, like why can't we get out of here? And we never did until I produced Rent. The story of Rent is so complicated because it is this enormous success wrapped up with the enormous tragedy of the death of Jonathan Larson, the show's composer and author, hours before the first off-Broadway preview. The cast of Rent during a rehearsal in New York in March 1996. PHOTO: SARA KRULWICH/NYTIMES For many years, I felt guilty. I reap these benefits from Rent, and Jonathan never got to see it. But with the passage of time, my feeling has changed because now I realise that Jonathan changed American musical theatre forever, and all contemporary American musical theatre now stands on his shoulders. Jonathan changed Broadway, and Broadway is better for it. Your other key creative relationship has been with Hamilton's creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda. In the book, you describe wondering if his gift was divine. Actor and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda on stage during a Hamilton performance at Richard Rodgers Theatre in New York City in February 2016 for the 58th Grammy Awards. PHOTO: AFP I remember two things the first time we did a reading of In The Heights. The first was the opening number. Every hair on my arm rose because the juxtaposition of this warm rap with this Broadway choral singing was completely new to my ears. And a half-hour later, when this older woma n s ings about her experience arriving on the shores from Cuba as a little girl and becoming a housekeeper on the Upper East Side, I thought it was one of the most beautiful arias I 'd heard in my life. But I also went, 'How does this young man understand the lifeblood of a 70something Cuban woman?' And that's when I thought for the first time, 'Is he channelling God?' You knew from the beginning that Hamilton would be amazing? I knew from the beginning that Hamilton was yet another step forward. I did not know from the beginning that it would become a phenomenon. That came with time, and with the audience. We talked a lot about your successes. You've also had failures. How do you handle that? Failure at making a new musical is crushing to me, and I spend hours, days, weeks, months, years after analysing what went wrong. What could I have done differently? I was developing The Last Ship (a musical with a score by English singer-musician Sting) at the same time that I was developing Hamilton, and I was a fervent believer in both. And when The Last Ship could not find a Broadway audience, it broke my heart. I love all of my shows, and all I can do is my best, and know that ultimately I do not control their destiny. What I must do as a producer, though, is accept their fate. And that means making the tough decision to close when you know it is not working. How are you feeling about the state of Broadway, artistically and financially? I'm going to equivocate. On a positive level, this year, we are going to do the highest attendance we have had since 2018 to 2019. We have seen the arrival of more than 10 new musicals. Both of those facts are cause for celebration. But it is getting harder and harder to make money, and I am concerned about if and when the investment money starts drying up. We have not had a megahit since Hamilton, and that is a problem. What is your advice for someone who wants to be a theatre producer? Find the next Jonathan Larson. Find the next Lin-Manuel Miranda. Everything else will fall in place if you get the team. Find the artists. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
New York Times
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jeffrey Seller Produced ‘Hamilton.' Now, in ‘Theater Kid,' He's Telling His Story.
The Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller is, by any measure, enormously successful. He's produced (always in collaboration with others) about 10 shows that have, collectively, grossed $4.74 billion, approximately one-third of which was profit for producers, investors and others. You've probably heard of several of those shows. His first big hit was 'Rent.' His most recent: 'Hamilton.' In between were 'Avenue Q' and 'In the Heights,' but also plenty of others that didn't flourish. For a long time, Seller, now 60 and the winner of four best-musical Tony Awards, had complicated feelings about how he fit in. He was adopted as an infant and grew up in a downwardly mobile and fractious family in a Detroit suburb.
Hamilton Spectator
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
Theater producer Jeffrey Seller, behind ‘Rent' and ‘Hamilton,' shines a light on his own journey
NEW YORK (AP) — 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 theater 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 neighborhood 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.' Unpacking Jeffrey Seller It is the story of an outsider who is captivated by theater 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.'' What about 'Hamilton'? 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. In 1995, the year before 'Rent' debuted off-Broadway, there was only one Tony Award-eligible candidate for best original musical score and the same for best book — 'Sunset Boulevard.' This season, there were 14 new eligible musicals. 'I think that's just such a great moment in Broadway history to say, 'This is before 'Rent,' and then look what happens after. Not because 'Rent' brought in an era of rock musicals, but it opened the doors to more experimentation and more unexpected ideas, more variety.' He is drawn to contemporary stories with modern issues and all four of his Tony wins for best musical are set in New York. 'For me, shows that were about people we might know, that were about our issues, about our dreams, about our shame, about things that embarrass us — that's what touched me the most deeply,' he says. 'I was looking to have the hair on my arms rise. I was looking to be emotionally moved.'
