'The Man in the Ceiling' Set for 2017 Mainstage Debut at Bay Street

Bay Street Theater has announced that East Ender Jules Feiffer and Andrew Lippa’s new musical, The Man in the Ceiling, will be featured in the 2017 mainstage season, to be directed by Hamilton producer and Hamptonite Jeffrey Seller.

The show, based on Feiffer’s book of the same name, was warmly received at a staged reading (also directed by Seller) at Bay Street in May at the 3rd Annual New Works Festival. The Man in the Ceiling has been in various states of development for many years. At one point, the project was optioned by Disney. “They gave notes like it was Hollywood and the more notes they gave the more horrible it got,” Feiffer told Dan’s Papers in April.

The Man in the Ceiling is a coming-of-age story about a young boy who dreams of being an artist. His father disapproves, his mother doesn’t understand and his uncle writes flop musicals.

Feiffer, a storied illustrator and writer, is also working on a graphic novel series. Cousin Joseph, the second book in his planned trilogy that began with Kill My Mother, is set to be released on July 26 (though some Hamptonites got to read the book early). Seller continues to work on the Broadway smash Hamilton, which swept the Tony Awards this year with a record 16 nominations and 11 wins.

Read our review of ‘Last Night of Ballyhoo’ at Bay Street Theater