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This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest was a key behind-the-scenes figure in Rent and Hamilton,

two Broadway mega hits that opened the door to new kinds of musicals, each won a Pulitzer Prize for drama,

and multiple Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

My guest, Jeffrey Seller, produced rent with his business partner.

Sellers' own company produced Hamilton. He was also a producer of Lin-Manuel Miranda's first

musical in The Heights, as well as the satirical adult puppet musical Avenue Q, and the recent

revival of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, starring Josh Grobin as Sweeney.

You may assume that since his skills include raising money to produce shows, that he's from money,

but he's most definitely not. His family was often broke or close to it. He grew up in a

neighborhood outside Detroit that was nicknamed Cardboard Village because the

houses were so cheap and shoddy. His father worked serving papers, 20 bucks for each summons served.

His mother worked for low wages as a clerk at a neighborhood pharmacy. The family couldn't afford

health insurance, and Seller had serious respiratory problems.

Seller has written a new memoir called Theater Kid. That's a fascinating look into his own life

and into different parts of the theater world. His life in the theater started when he was a child

and landed a role in his synagogue Purim play. After many

stops along the way, he became a booker with the job of booking touring companies of popular

musicals into theaters around the country. That work led him where he always wanted to be, producing

musicals. He also writes about coming out during the AIDS epidemic and how

...