Best Of: 'Hamilton' Producer Jeffrey Seller / Ebon Moss-Bachrach On 'The Bear'

Fresh Air

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Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jeffrey Seller has been a key behind-the-scenes figure for some of the Broadway's biggest hits including, Hamilton and RENT, but he got his start on a much smaller scale. He looks back in a new memoir called Theater Kid.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach has won two Emmys for his portrayal of Cousin Richie, the abrasive and ornery cook/maître d' on the FX series The Bear. He talks about the making of the show.

Ken Tucker reviews a new collection of Bruce Springsteen music, songs he wrote and recorded from the mid '80s to the late 2010s, but hadn't released until now.

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0:00.0	On NPR's ThruLine,
0:02.8	Schoolhouses are less expensive than rebellions.
0:06.0	We've been debating the government's role in education since the Civil War.
0:10.5	A tenth of our national debt would have saved us the blood and treasure of the late war.
0:15.7	How the Department of Education tried to fix a divided nation.
0:19.6	Listen to ThruLine, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:24.1	From W. H.Y.Y. in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Sam Brigger.
0:29.2	I am not thrown away my shot. I am not thrown away my shot. I'm just like my country.
0:35.7	That's one of the songs that convinced Jeffrey Seller to produce Hamilton.
0:39.9	You know what the most important decision I ever make is as a producer?
0:43.8	What play to produce?
0:46.2	He made some great decisions.
0:47.8	He also produced Rent, In the Heights, and Avenue Q.
0:51.2	His new memoir is Theater Kid.
0:57.3	Also, the new season of the FX show The Bear is now streaming. We hear from actor Eben Moss Bachrack, who plays Cousin Richie. He'll talk about his
1:02.6	character's transformation over the years and what it's like to act out such frenetic scenes.
1:08.2	And Ken Tucker has a review of a new collection of Bruce Springsteen music.
1:12.5	Songs Springsteen wrote and recorded from the mid-1980s to the late 2010s but hadn't
1:17.2	released till now. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend.
1:22.9	At Planet Money, we know that economic jargon can sometimes feel like speaking another language.
1:28.2	Yeah, like arbitrage, alpha, autarchy.
1:32.2	That's just what's in the news these days.
	...

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