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Jeffrey Seller

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Jeffrey Seller
Born1964 (age 60–61)
Alma materUniversity of Michigan (1986)
OccupationProducer
Years active1996 – present

Jeffrey Seller (born 1964)[1] is an American theatrical producer.

He is known for his work on Rent (1996), Avenue Q (2003), In the Heights (2008), and Hamilton (2015), as well as inventing Broadway's first rush ticket and lottery ticket policies.

Biography

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Seller was born in Oak Park, Michigan, in 1964 at Sinai-Grace Hospital. He was adopted three months later into a Jewish family,[2] and considers himself Jewish.[3] Seller is a 1986 graduate of the University of Michigan.

After school, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a publicist, booking agent and theatrical producer.[4] With his business partner, Kevin McCollum, he produced three Best Musical Tony Award-winning Broadway shows; Rent (1996), Avenue Q (2003), and In the Heights (2008).[5]

With Broadway ticket prices increasing through the 1980s and 1990s, Seller and McCollum invented Broadway's first rush-ticket policy early on in the production of Rent. The idea was to keep the show accessible for people "in their 20s and 30s, artists, Bohemians—the people for whom Jonathan Larson wrote the show."[6] A select number of front-row tickets would be sold for $20 on a first-come first-serve basis. Rush tickets became so popular that people began to sleep on the streets outside the theater to get a spot at the front of the line. Out of concern for the safety for those who participated in the rush ticket policy, Seller and McCollum created Broadway's first lottery ticket policy, which kept cheap tickets accessible to a young audience by selling $20 tickets to the winners of a drawing.[7]

Together, Seller and McCollum also produced De La Guarda (1998), Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party (2000), High Fidelity (2006), [title of show] (2008), the revival of West Side Story (2009), and Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo (2011). They also executive produced the 2005 film adaption of Rent.[8] In 2012, McCollum and Seller ended their 21-year partnership.[9]

Seller went on to produce Sting's musical The Last Ship (2014) based on the concept album of the same name. After working with Lin-Manuel Miranda on In the Heights, he produced Miranda's next show, Hamilton (2015).[10][11] Hamilton has gone on to receive widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. In June 2016, Hamilton received 11 Tony awards of a record-breaking 16 nominations, including a Best Musical win for Seller, his fourth Tony Award overall, and his first since his separation from McCollum. Hamilton's success makes Seller the only producer in Broadway history to have produced two Pulitzer Prize-winning musicals.[12]

Shortly after the debut of Hamilton, Seller directed a workshop of a musical made from Jules Feiffer’s young-adult novel, The Man in the Ceiling.[13]

In March 2021, Seller took the Hamilton production to Australia, selling more than 250,000 tickets before the first preview, which Seller stated was "the largest advance in the history of Australia".[14]

Seller's memoir, Theater Kid, is set for release in May 2025.

Personal Life

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Seller is gay, and has stated "I can't separate who I am from...being a gay kid who fell in love with theater."[15] He has a partner, opera director Yuval Sharon, and two children from a previous relationship.[16]

References

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  1. ^ "Jeffrey Seller". Playbill. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
  2. ^ "'Rent,' 'Hamilton' Producer Jeffrey Seller Returns to Detroit with Memoir about Growing up Gay, Transforming Broadway". Pride Source. April 30, 2025. Retrieved May 1, 2025.
  3. ^ Tablet Magazine: "Dream Team To Produce Pilot of Michael Sokolove’s 'Drama High' – Two Jewish producers—Jeffrey Seller of 'Hamilton' and Jason Katims of NBC's 'Friday Night Lights'—will help create a pilot for Sokolove's critically-acclaimed book about high school theater in Levittown, PA", by Zoë Miller Archived October 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine retrieved October 22, 2017.
  4. ^ "History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian". www.smithsonianmag.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  5. ^ "Jeffrey Seller". Broadway Teaching Group. Retrieved May 1, 2025.
  6. ^ "Jeffrey Seller". Broadway Teaching Group. Retrieved May 1, 2025.
  7. ^ "From Sleeping on the Streets to Swiping on a Screen: The Evolution of Rush Tickets From Rent to Digital Lotteries – Playbill.com". playbill.com. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  8. ^ "Jeffrey Seller". IMDb. Archived from the original on April 8, 2016. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  9. ^ "Producing Partnership Behind 'Rent' and 'Avenue Q' Comes to an End". ArtsBeat. January 6, 2012. Archived from the original on October 24, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  10. ^ Sun, Rebecca (April 5, 2016). "'Hamilton': Who's Making Millions Off Broadway's Hottest Show". The Hollywood Reporter. New York. Archived from the original on April 8, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  11. ^ "Jeffrey Seller | IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information IBDB: The official source for Broadway Information". www.ibdb.com. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  12. ^ "Home Page". Theater Kid. Retrieved May 1, 2025.
  13. ^ Sokolove, Michael (April 5, 2016). "The C.E.O. of 'Hamilton' Inc". The New York Times Magazine. New York. Archived from the original on April 8, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  14. ^ Cooper, Nathanael (March 18, 2021). "Hamilton sets Australian box office record with more than 250,000 tickets sold". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  15. ^ "'Rent,' 'Hamilton' Producer Jeffrey Seller Returns to Detroit with Memoir about Growing up Gay, Transforming Broadway". Pride Source. April 30, 2025. Retrieved May 1, 2025.
  16. ^ "Jeffrey Seller | LGBTHistoryMonth.com". lgbthistorymonth.com. Retrieved May 1, 2025.
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