Theater Kid
A Broadway Memoir
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4.4 • 16 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A New Yorker, NPR, and Washington Independent Review Best Book of 2025
A coming-of-age tale from one of the most successful American producers of our time, Jeffrey Seller, who is the only producer to have mounted two Pulitzer Prize–winning musicals—Hamilton and Rent.
Before he was producing the musical hits of our generation, Jeffrey was just a kid coming to terms with his adoption, trying to understand his sexuality, and determined to escape his dysfunctional household in a poor neighborhood just outside Detroit. We see him find his voice through musical theater and move to New York, where he is determined to shed his past and make a name for himself on Broadway.
But moving to the big city is never easy—especially not at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis—and Jeffrey learns to survive and thrive in the colorful and cutthroat world of commercial theatre. From his early days as an office assistant, to meeting Jonathan Larson and experiencing the triumph and tragedy of Rent, to working with Lin-Manuel Miranda on In the Heights and Hamilton, Jeffrey completely pulls back the curtain on the joyous and gut-wrenching process of making new musicals, finding new audiences, and winning a Tony Award—all the while finding himself.
Told with Jeffrey’s candid and captivating voice, Theater Kid is a gripping memoir about fighting through a hardscrabble childhood to make art on one’s own terms, chasing a dream against many odds, and finding acceptance and community.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tony Award winner Seller traces his path from oddball "theater kid" to Broadway producer in his candid and affectionate debut. Seller recounts his small-town Michigan childhood spent clashing with his hotheaded father—whom he later learned was not his biological dad—and escaping into theater, which filled him "with purpose for the first time." A later stint as a drama counselor sparked his desire to be a producer. He moved to New York City in 1986, where he parlayed a job as a booking agent into launching his own agency with Kevin McCollum. The two would go on to produce such hits as Rent (which Seller helped shepherd from messy early workshops to cultural phenomenon), Avenue Q, and In the Heights. Throughout, Seller provides colorful, behind-the-scenes peeks into the challenges and joys of producing a musical. Especially memorable are his accounts of helping Avenue Q surmount the "puppet prejudice" that initially prevented it from taking off, and witnessing Rent's emotional impact on audiences. Unfortunately, the narrative wobbles in its final third, which speeds through more than 20 years of Seller's prolific career. Still, theater buffs would do well to check this out.
Customer Reviews
A wonderful read!
What a fun and fascinating book! I loved learning about how shows like Rent come into being. Thank you, Mr. Seller, for your openness and honesty. Thank you as well for pulling Hamilton from the Kennedy Center. I applaud you!