This is Fresh Air. I'm David B. in Cooley. The 2026 Tony Award nominees were announced this week,

with numerous nominations for the musicals Lost Boys, Shmigadoon, and the revival of Ragtime.

Our guest today was a key behind-the-scenes figure in two Broadway mega hits, Rent and Hamilton.

Each won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and multiple Tony

awards, including Best Musical. Our guest, Jeffrey Seller, produced Rent with his business

partner. Sellers' own company produced Hamilton. He also was a producer of Lynn Manuel

Miranda's first musical, in The Heights, as well as the satirical

adult puppet musical, Avenue Q, and the revival of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, starring Josh Groban.

You might assume, 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. Seller is the author of the memoir, Theater Kid.

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 it wiped out so many people who created and performed in Broadway shows, as well as a significant part of the audience.

Jeffrey Sellers spoke with Terry last June when his memoir was published.

It's now in paperback.

Jeffrey Sellar, welcome to Fresh Air.

Well, since this is the 10th anniversary of Hamilton, congratulations of Hamilton opening on Broadway.

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