Jeffrey Seller has produced quite a few of musicals, including two mega-hits that were both hugely influential and hugely successful at the box office: “Rent” and “Hamilton.”

Naturally, we had to ask him: What makes a good producer?

Seller dropped by the podcast to talk about his new memoir, “Theater Kid,” in which he takes us from his childhood near Detroit to his early years in New York, when he worked in the office of the producers Barry and Fran Weissler, and on to his fateful meetings with Jonathan Larson and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

He had quite a few thoughts about the state of Broadway, and in particular what’s happening with musicals. Even if you haven’t seen his shows — but if you listen to his podcast, chances are that you have — Seller will make you ponder where the industry’s at these days.

Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme music.

“Maybe Happy Ending’ is the Broadway hit that nobody really saw coming. On this episode we welcome its stars, Helen J Shen and Darren Criss, who was just nominated for a Tony Award in this role.

Darren and Helen portray a pair of HelperBots who have been cast out by their owners and end up living in a robot retirement community. What happens to them is, well, the stuff of the classic story of boybot meets girlbot.

The show premiered in Seoul, South Korea, in 2016. Its unlikely premise was brought to fruition by Will Aronson (music, lyrics and book) and Hue Park (lyrics and book). The Broadway version has been mounted at the Belasco Theatre by director Michael Arden, with a cast that also includes Marcus Choi and Dez Duron.

Criss you probably know: He made his name in “Glee” and went on to credits in very different Broadway shows, replacing Daniel Radcliffe in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and appearing in a revival of David Mamet’s “American Buffalo” alongside Sam Rockwell. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his portrayal of Andrew Cunanan “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.”

As for Shen: she is making her Broadway debut, but eagle-eyed Elisabeth had spotted her in the Off Broadway musicals “Teeth” and “The Lonely Few.”

Both were the kind of guests we can only dream of, so tune in!

Thanks to Christian Huygen for our theme music.

Kate Valk joined the Wooster Group in 1979 and never looked back. We think she’s one of America’s greatest actresses, but because she’s spent her entire career with the experimental New York company, even hardcore theatergoers may not have seen her work on stage or onscreen. Fellow Woosters like Willem Dafoe (former) or Scott Shepherd (current) are easy to find because they work pretty much everywhere but Valk’s IMDB page is practically nonexistent and she’s never been on Broadway — when Elisabeth checked IBDB, the answer was“Did you mean Kate Hall? Nate Sack? Grace Falk?”

Kate joined us for a free-spirited conversation in which she talked, among other things, about the Wooster Group’s idiosyncratic approach, why she’s never strayed from the company, turning to directing and her delight in educational projects. Of course she also talked about the company’s latest show, “Nayatt School Redux” (check out Ben Brantley’s terrific piece about it in the New York Times).

Oh, and in August you can check out a Wooster show in a New York venue other than the company’s own Performing Garage when Eric Berryman performs “Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me” (which Valk directed) at Joe’s Pub.

If you saw the Broadway productions of “She Loves Me” (for which he won a Tony), "Hairspray," "Legally Blonde," "Lucky Guy" or "Kinky Boots," you saw sets by this episode’s guest, David Rockwell.

Rockwell is back on Broadway with designs for two shows this spring: “Pirates! The Penzance Musical” and “Boop!” We spoke with him to discuss at what stage he engages a project, the challenges he might encounter, and what he considers important in theatrical set design.

We also talked about another big source of activity for his company, Rockwell Group (which he founded in 1984): restaurants, hotels and performing venues — including the new revamp of the Laurie Beechman Theater, underneath the West Bank Café.

Rockwell is just our second set-designing guest, the first being Beowulf Boritt back in Oct. 2022. Make it a twofer listen!

Since taking over the role of the Emcee in Rebecca Frecknall’s Broadway revival of “Cabaret” in September, Adam Lambert has made his mark on one of musical theater’s most iconic roles. We were impressed when we revisited the show recently, because it has finally found its footing. Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho as Sally Bowles follow through on choices tha…

On this episode, Elisabeth and Peter interview Brian Doerries, founding artistic director of Theater of War Productions. The group is made up of dozens of well-known actors, including the likes of Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright and Elizabeth Marvel — and Peter has been known to join it, too. Theater of War travels the country and the globe with readings of plays that inspire and provoke audiences, including “Antigone in Ferguson,” “Oedipus the King,” and a recent “An Enemy of the People” on Times Square. The company’s latest project is a collaboration with WNYC that has it reading long-form pieces of journalism, starting with “How Daniel Penny Was Found Not Guilty in a Subway Killing That Divided New York” (originally published in The New Yorker) read by Chad Coleman, Amy Ryan and David Strathairn.As Doerries explains in a wide-ranging conversation, it’s the audience’s contributions that are the key to Theater of War’s success. But where will you stand, dear listeners, in the debate that came up between him and Elisabeth?

Peter and Elisabeth have been doing podcasts together for years now, but this was the first time a guest turned the tables and asked them what their three favorite musicals are!

But don’t listen to this episode just for that. Listen to it because the guest is Stephanie Styles, a young musical-theater performer who’s going places — although right now she’s parked in the Encores! production of “Urinetown” at New York City Center, which you can see until Feb. 16 (Elisabeth reviewed it very favorably in the New York Times).

Stephanie talked to us about growing up a musical-theater fan in Houston, Tex.; touring with “The Sound of Music” and “Newsies”; the Broadway shows that almost made it, like a revival of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” with James Corden; and the Broadway shows that did make it, like the 2019 revival of “Kiss Me, Kate” with Kelli O’Hara and Corbin Bleu.

We were delighted to hear that Stephanie identifies as a comic soprano, and she certainly belongs in a lineage that also includes Madeline Kahn, Kristin Chenoweth and Annaleigh Ashford. Take it away, Stephanie!

You may have read Elisabeth’s article about the Off Strip theater scene in Las Vegas — and if you haven’t, here is a gift link. To give listeners the lay of the land in Sin City (or rather Sin County, to be exact), we welcomed Daz Weller, artistic director of the Vegas Theater Company, who talked to us about what it’s like to do small plays and musicals in a city best known for pop residencies and Cirque du Soleil extravaganzas. There are many obstacles, but the talent pool is fantastic and locals are getting thirstier for home-grown shows.

Vegas Theater Company is one of the three professional companies Elisabeth mentioned in her feature. The other two are Majestic Repertory Theater and A Public Fit Theater Company. They are both well worth a visit if you find yourself in southern Nevada.

Over the past decade, Marjan Neshat has become a welcome presence on the Off Broadway scene, and it’s rewarding to see her finally make her Broadway debut. And she’s in a mighty fine play, too: “English,” which Peter and Elisabeth loved when they saw it at the Atlantic Theater in 2022.

Sanaz Toossi’s play, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in drama, is about a small group of Iranians of various ages who are learning English near Tehran. Neshat plays their teacher, who repeatedly brings up her time living in Britain. We had a wonderful time chatting with her about her Iranian roots, her working relationship with Toussi (they also did “Wish You Were Here” together), a production of “The Seagull” starring Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming that turned out to be important for her as an actress, and what it was like being in the Public Theater’s infamous production of “Julius Caesar” at the Delacorte that sparked controversy and protests in 2017.

Elisabeth put her foot in her mouth again: she said that Melissa Errico was “lovely” — as it turns out, that’s an adjective that has often been used to describe our latest guest. But Melissa is lovely, dammit!

For (we think) our first holiday episode, we were delighted to welcome one of New York’s finest songbirds. She talked to us about her new show with Billy Stritch at 54 Below, “’Twas the Night After Christmas” (naturally, it starts Dec. 26 and runs through Dec. 30), and many other things.

Peter and Elisabeth both have a long history with Melissa, having converted to fandom with her revelatory performance in the Encores! production of “One Touch of Venus,” back in 1996. In the intervening years, she has emerged as a top-shelf interpreter of two songwriters we are especially fond of: Stephen Sondheim and Michel Legrand. She talks about her relationship with them, and how they differed from each other, about working on and off Broadway, and her career as a traveling concert performer.

Oh yes, she also talks about meeting her husband, Patrick McEnroe — and singing the National Anthem at the U.S. Open. Why does tennis come up so often in this podcast?!?