'Rent,' 'Hamilton' Producer Jeffrey Seller Returns to Detroit with Memoir about Growing up Gay, Transforming Broadway
Originally from Oak Park, Michigan's 'Theater Kid' wrote his new book with other outsiders in mind
Jeffrey Seller, one of America's most successful Broadway producers, returns home May 6 to launch his memoir "Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir," a story deeply rooted in his Detroit upbringing and journey as a gay man who revolutionized the theater industry.
Seller will join actor Douglas Sills at the Berman Center at the Jewish Detroit Community Center for a conversation about his life and work. "This is going to be a great homecoming event in which we can all share how important our temples, churches, theaters, schools, proms, homes and parks have been to us throughout our lives," Seller told Pride Source.
The Oak Park native isn't just another check-writing producer — he's a hands-on collaborator who has fundamentally changed Broadway. Seller produced groundbreaking musicals including "Rent," "Avenue Q," "In the Heights" and "Hamilton," with his shows winning 22 Tony Awards and grossing more than $4.6 billion. He holds the distinction of being the only producer to have brought to life two Pulitzer Prize-winning musicals with "Hamilton" and "Rent."
Detroit shapes nearly every aspect of Seller's identity. "I can't separate who I am with where I came from," Seller said. "I can't separate who I am from being born at Sinai Hospital, being adopted three months later, growing up in a Jewish household that was getting poorer by the year and being a gay kid who fell in love with theater. It all happened in Oak Park."
In "Theater Kid," Seller details a challenging childhood in the 1970s and early '80s. A motorcycle accident left his father brain-damaged and without short-term memory. While unflinching about his parents' shortcomings, Seller shows compassion for them as struggling human beings who tried their best despite their failures.
Seller identifies Stagecrafters and the Fisher Theatre as places where he discovered his lifelong passion. These venues helped shape the artistic aesthetic that would later inform his producing career. "When I think back to the shows I was most powerfully affected by and informed by as a kid, the first was 'Chorus Line,'" Seller recalled. "It was a contemporary musical in which the characters were revealing the most profound feelings and secrets about themselves."
The impact is evident in his career choices. "If you look at my musicals 'Rent,' 'Avenue Q' and 'In the Heights,' they all fit into that mold," Seller said.
Though Detroit fostered his love of theater, Seller knew he needed to leave to fulfill his dreams. "I didn't know anybody in New York; I didn't know how to do it," Seller said of a summer after his sophomore year at the University of Michigan. "Of course, the answer, which the book reveals, is you just put one foot in front of the other. You get one foot on the first rung of the ladder and then pull yourself up."
When Seller arrived in New York in the mid-'90s, he tackled two significant Broadway challenges. First was the lack of support for new talent and young creators — no one was holding the door open for people like Jonathan Larson, who would go on to create "Rent."
The second challenge was ticket affordability. "I was 31 years old and I could barely afford a ticket," Seller said. "We wanted to make sure everybody could afford it in some way, shape or form."
This led to Seller's revolutionary $20 ticket lottery, replacing the existing student rush tickets that relegated budget-conscious theatergoers to the worst seats. "Let's do it in the first two rows so that those people who paid $20 and showed up will bring the greatest amount of enthusiasm,” he recalled of the idea. “Their infectious enthusiasm will start in the first two rows and take us all the way to the last rows of the balcony."
Seller's work with Larson opened doors for a new generation of Broadway creators. "It opened the floodgates for many future young authors to work on their own terms at their own unique shows, whether that was Lin-Manuel doing 'In the Heights' and then 'Hamilton' or Benj [Pasek] and Justin [Paul] doing 'Dear Evan Hansen,'" Seller said. "All these contemporary, wonderful Broadway musicals are on the shoulders of Jonathan Larson and 'Rent.'"
"Theater Kid" also chronicles Seller's coming-of-age as a gay man without language to express his identity or guidance to understand it. With remarkable vulnerability, he details discovering his sexuality, often in confusion. While he lacked support in understanding his attractions, he encountered acceptance from those who mattered most.
Though his productions revolutionized how LGBTQ+ characters and stories appeared on stage, Seller said he didn't set out with an agenda. "When I'm in the theater, whether I'm looking at a new show or an old show, I want to be surprised," Seller said. "I want to feel deeply about the show. I want to have my ear pricked in a whole new way."
He cites moments like hearing "Light My Candle" in an early "Rent" workshop or "If You Were Gay" at an "Avenue Q" workshop as transformative experiences. The first time he met Larson, who was performing what would later become "Tick, Tick … Boom!,” Seller felt profound connection despite their different orientations. "He was a straight guy, but I felt like he was telling my life story," Seller said.
Seller's return to Detroit is particularly fitting as he maintains strong local connections — his partner, Yuval Sharon, is Detroit Opera's artistic director. Both of Seller's parents passed away before reading his memoir, his father 10 years ago and his mother just after the book was completed, following cancer treatments.
"I wrote this book as an act of service and inspiration for people who feel like they're outsiders," Seller said. "I wrote this book about feeling like an outsider and how I found my way in."
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