Jeffrey Seller — Theater Kid - with Scott Simon

Watch author Jeffrey Seller's book talk and reading at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.

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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.

Jeffrey Seller is one of the masterminds behind the Tony Award–winning musicals Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton.

His shows have garnered twenty-two Tony Awards, including four for Best Musical, and his Broadway productions and tours have grossed more than $4.6 billion and reached more than 43 million attendees. Jeffrey is the only producer to have mounted two Pulitzer Prize–winning musicals—Hamilton and Rent. He also revolutionized theater accessibility with the $20 ticket lottery for Rent, making theater affordable for many. This passion for accessibility underscores his belief in the power of the stage, which was his ticket out of his hometown.

Jeffrey’s affiliation with Washington, D.C. spans from fall of 1993 when his production of The Real Live Brady Bunch premiered at the Kennedy Center, to his many engagements of Rent at The National Theater; to his pre-Broadway engagement of West Side Story at The National Theatre in 2008, to Hamilton’s sold-out engagements in 2018 and 2022.

Seller is in conversation with Scott Simon. Simon is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning writer and broadcaster. He is the host of NPR’s “Weekend Edition Saturday”, which The Washington Post has called “the most literate, witty, moving, and just plain interesting news show on any dial.” He is also a Special Contributor to CBS Sunday Morning. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador and Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His nonfiction books include Unforgettable: A Son, a Mother, and the Lessons of a Lifetime; Home and Away: Memoirs of a Fan; Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball; and Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other, about the joys of adoption. He is also the author of several novels, including Pretty Birds, Windy City, Sunnyside Plaza, and his new audiobook Swingtime for Hitler. He has danced as Mother Ginger with Ballet Austin, thrown out the first pitch at Wrigley Field, and is a member of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

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Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics and Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.'s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics and Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online.

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