Jeffrey Seller

Where are we in a situation where we can actually lose something?

And in those instances I gave, and there were others in Act Two as well, that we succeeded.

Because we give our greatest amount of energy to the show for the first act.

That's where you're establishing character, plot, the rising dramatic action, that big dramatic question, what is the major dramatic question.

And then in act two, we just really want to see it resolved.

And if you look at West Side Story, that's a show that has a 90-minute first act and a 45-minute second act.

Well, Lynn shared with me the first songs probably around 2010, 2011.

And when I heard my shot for the first time, I was like, whoa.

Like, if In the Heights was this warm Caribbean embrace, my shot was lightning.

It was a wallop.

And I knew he was taking this form to a deeper place that had even more impact.

And I knew he was on another creative tear.

Oh gosh, no.

Hamilton had this incredible power to galvanize audiences almost within minutes of any performance starting.

So when we started to share readings of Hamilton with people in the industry, they were going crazy for it.

So I raised the money for Hamilton

faster and easier than I had raised money for anything else before.

Oh, my gosh.

You know, up on that stage was just this piano, bass, drums, guitar.

And out came this guy named Jonathan, who I'd never known in my life before.