Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day.

I'm Andrew Limbong.

The Tony Awards are coming up this Sunday.

And if you are at all a fan of Broadway musical theater, heck, even if you aren't, you're

probably familiar with the work of today's guest.

Jeffrey Seller is the producer behind Rent, Avenue Q, Hamilton, and more.

He's a giant in the field. And his new

book, Theodore Kid, is about how he worked his way up in the scene, because he wasn't born and

raised in New York with the money to experience all the culture the city has to offer. Now, he grew up

outside of Detroit, in a lower-income family. His dad served warrants for a living.

But Seller tells M.P.R. Scott Simon that his dad briefly took on another job, one that showed him both the power and the cost of making someone smile with your art.

That's ahead.

Jeffrey Seller is the producer of Rant Avenue Q in the Heights and a little modest worldwide

success of which you may have heard called Hamilton. He grew up in a suburb of Detroit called

Cardboard Village in a home with parents who could be quarrelsome and found another kind of

home on stage from an early age. Let's ask him to read a section

from his new memoir where he was a kid appearing in a community theater musical.

On the final weekend of the play, I sit in the men's dressing room looking into a mirror

surrounded by light bulbs. My blue eyes are illuminated by the bright lights. They are luminescent and powerful.

I understand why sometimes I'm mistaken for a girl. I've had family members tell me I'm handsome,

and aunts call me gorgeous. But I don't usually feel handsome or gorgeous. At school,

people reserve those adjectives for more athletic boys like my

...