Subtitled A Broadway Memoir, Jeffrey Seller’s Theater Kid recounts his life in a poor neighborhood in the Detroit suburbs, his discovery of theater when he was in fourth grade, and his dream of escape. However, Seller’s dreams were to produce plays on Broadway, not to act in them.

Seller had a troubled childhood. When he was five, his father was in a motorcycle accident that changed his personality. He had already lost the business that was in his wife’s family. Now, he was unable to hold a job or remember conversations. He was violent at times and abusive to Jeff. Jeff’s parents fought all the time, and it was his mother who was the breadwinner while his father spent money. But, Jeff’s father took him to play rehearsals once Jeff discovered his love of musical theater and took him to see shows. Although Seller was an undersized boy, late to puberty, who then questioned his sexuality, he found a refuge in theater, at school, in community theater, and camp. He continued to be involved in theater in college at the University of Michigan. He eventually found a way to make his way to New York City, and learn the business of Broadway.

Theater Kid is an honest, in-depth look at a difficult childhood, and an insecure personal life as Jeff struggled with his sexuality and insecurity in his relationships. Seller questioned his sexuality at a time when men were dying of AIDS, and some of his friends fell victim to the disease.

It’s a book that goes hand in hand with Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Eduction of an Artist as an insider’s story of the theater world. Seller is a successful producer of the Tony Award-winning musicals Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Hamilton. Theater fans will recognize many of the names involved in Seller’s world from Jonathan Larson to Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Behind that successful producer, though, there was an insecure boy and young man who tells his story with candor.

There are wonderful stories about the Tony Awards, both the ones Seller watched on TV from his childhood home, and the ones he attended as a hopeful producer. He speaks for every theater lover when he talks about watching his first Tony Awards ceremony when he was in eighth grade. “I’ve watched the broadcast from numerous couches every single year ever since. Why? Because musicals unlock feelings inside of me that no other experience can. Because musicals radiate unique aural and visual stimulation. More laughter. More tears. More goose bumps. More yearning and longing and hope than other forms of art.”

And, sadly, Sellers, the producer of Hamilton, ends the book with a few political comments. He was behind the statement that addressed Vice-President elect Pence when he went to see Hamilton. Sellers’ comments are particularly poignant now, although he wrote this before the current political turmoil in this country. He said “Hamilton depicted America at its best: who we can be, who gets to be included, what kind of a nation we can build – a nation that sustains disagreement, conflict, and imperfection, and manages to progress, sometimes slowly, toward the values set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.” If only.

Theater Kid is a Horatio Alger story about a kid who makes it. It’s worth reading if you love musical theater and its history.

Theater Kid: A Broadway Memoir by Jeffrey Seller. Simon & Schuster, 2025.351p.

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