‘The Man In The Ceiling’ Will Make Its World Premiere At Bay Street Theater

Originally a children’s book by Jules Feiffer, and now a musical with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, “The Man in The Ceiling” tells the tale of 12-year-old cartoonist Jimmy Jibbett; his Uncle Lester, an incorrigible writer of Broadway musicals; his father, a businessman; his mother, his older sister and his best pal.

Talking to the director, Jeffrey Seller, and writer, Mr. Feiffer, about the show’s premiere at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, running from May 30 to June 25, is a shot in the arm. A reminder of the innocence of the American musical, expressing our sanguine spirit, our sense of opportunism, and manifest destiny that allows us to feel like we are “Beguiled again/A simpering, whimpering child again,” as Rodgers and Hart would have it.

Speaking to The Press from his home in Sagaponack, Mr. Seller talked about his own Peter Pan dilemma. “The Fred Astaire drawing,” which Mr. Feiffer creates and re-creates every morning when he wakes, “is to Jules, what the kid bounding out of bed and going out to swing on the swing set is to me. I’m the kid who wants to swing on the swings, still,” he said.

Yet, few Broadway producers can boast a track record such as Mr. Seller’s, whose hits—beginning with “Rent,” “Avenue Q,” “In the Heights” and now “Hamilton”—are bringing young people back to Broadway. And each of these shows, from the lost bohemian souls in “Rent,” to the spirited college grads of “Avenue Q,” to the birth of a nation in “Hamilton” are resounding stories about America’s youth.

As Mr. Feiffer explains it, Jimmy and Uncle Lester are two halves of the same character. “Lester is Jimmy as an adult. Both of them are dealing with forces that want to take them away from what they think they know is right, and what they feel they know is right, to what is more acceptable. These are the authority figures in their lives—whether it’s Charley Beemer, the kid who Jimmy idealizes and who tries to take him over, or Uncle Lester and the producers of his forthcoming musical.”

Indeed, the conflict over authority is the quintessential theme to the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. Be it Joseph McCarthy, or parents and teachers, “there are forces in this very complex world who know better than us.” And while they believe their way is the best, their way is “the enemy of art … of the individual … of creativity,” Mr. Feiffer asserts.

But Mr. Seller takes this perspective to another level. More than making enemies, his focus is reconciliation. “I fell in love with ‘The Man in the Ceiling’ because I was, and am, yearning to tell stories about families, and how they come together, and how they find love for each other in spite of their own prejudices, differences and idiosyncrasies,” he opined. His first New York show, “Rent,” which he produced when he was 31 years old, and “Avenue Q” are both about the families we create as youth, when we move to a new city, and need to build a support system. Similarly, “Hamilton,” Mr. Seller explained, “is about the nuclear family, about the creation of country, the creation of self.”

Now that Mr. Seller, 52, and his husband of 20 years, Joshua Lehrer, have become parents, with two children, a 12-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl, “I am more interested in the dynamic, in the psychological complexity of the nuclear family,” the director, who is unusually open about himself, shared. But as Mr. Seller explores his interest in this dynamic, it becomes clear that this is a matter of more far reaching concern. And one that speaks in a simple, fundamental, essential way to the national, nay global, divide between peoples.

As is his wont, Mr. Sellers is known to develop shows over a lengthy period of time. His work on Mr. Feiffer’s first children’s book, from 1993, “The Man in the Ceiling,” began four years ago, when Andrew Lippa showed him the work in progress. Energized by the way the dialogue flew off the page, and by the emotional power of the songs, he thought, “I love these characters. I want to be in the room with them.”

Originally, it was Mr. Lippa who approached Mr. Feiffer with his interest in developing the musical about the boy cartoonist, because as Mr. Feiffer recalled it, “He felt that it was his story.” It’s no irony, in that regard, that the Tony Award winning composer/lyricist will be playing the role of Uncle Lester (nicknamed Mr. Floppo) in the Bay Street Theater production.

When it came to adapting the book to the stage, however, Mr. Lippa was concerned that Mr. Feiffer “might be frozen in place, in terms of the presentation,” the author confided. Undaunted, Mr. Feiffer called on his experience as a playwright, having written “Little Murders” many years earlier, in the 1960s, along with a host of other plays and screenplays. Beyond his appreciation of stagecraft, however, Mr. Feiffer’s primary concern was remaining true to the story, about how the creative process is destroyed, and its integrity usurped by those who know better—the authorities.

“Andrew continually surprised me, Mr. Feiffer expressed, “by taking speeches that I would write and turning them into music and lyrics, such as Uncle Lester’s credo, a song called ‘I Do What I Do.’ It goes like this: ‘I do what I do/’Cuz I like what I do/And if I do, do, do like you/And if you like graphic novels/I’ll be promptly graphic too.’”

As Mr. Feiffer stated, “There’s not a line in there that I’m responsible for, but every bit of it comes out of Andrew and my discussions about what Lester is about, and what the play is about.”

As for the future of the production, Mr. Seller’s approach is simply, “We’re going to make this play, damn the torpedoes, and the world is going to tell us what to do with it … By the way, that’s how we made our decision regarding ‘Hamilton.’”

In the meantime, Mr. Seller is managing worldwide productions of the Pulitzer Prize winning, multiple Tony Award winning musical, and is executive producing a new NBC drama, “Rise.” The latter is based on the nonfiction book “Drama High,” about an inspirational drama teacher, who in his 30-plus year career in a working-class town, fraught by unemployment and industrial decline, managed to inspire his students, lift up the school, and change the town.

And Mr. Feiffer, who told The Press in a 2015 interview that he’ll probably be 95 before “The Man in the Ceiling” finds a home on the stage, beat his prediction. And he is now at work on a comic opera, based on his second children’s book, “A Barrel of Laughs,” in collaboration with a 28-year-old composer, Julia Adolphe, who recalls her father reading it to her when she was a little girl. Since his move to Shelter Island, Mr. Feiffer told The Press, “My writing is stronger, if not stronger than ever.”

About the three-man cabal (Feiffer-Lippa-Seller) helming the show at Bay Street, both Mr. Seller and Mr. Feiffer appear to have enjoyed the riches of a playful, albeit earnest collaboration.

They bring their love of putting on a show just as Mr. Feiffer’s childhood movie musical heroes, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, did—like a bunch of kids. Adults? Yawn!

“The Man in the Ceiling” runs May 30 though June 25, Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursdays at 8 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. at Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor. Call 631-725-9500 or visit baystreet.org.