Broadway Drumming 101

Touring drummer Marc McDuff (The Wizard of Oz, Legally Blonde, The Cher Show national tours) joins Clayton Craddock on Broadway Bound and Beyond, Episode #111. Marc grew up in a Vermont town of 1,200, studied at the University of Montana, moved to Seattle with no job and no contacts, and got his first national tour through a music director he had worked with in college. He talks about the cold ema...

Michael Keller has seen thousands of résumés. He’s contracted more than 100 Broadway shows, including The Lion King , Wicked , and Hamilton , and he told me something every musician should hear: “I can’t tell you how many fantastic résumés I’ve seen, but the execution on the other side hasn’t been what it needs to be.” Paper doesn’t get you hired. Being heard does. In the video version of our conv...

When I landed my first Broadway chair on Memphis , one name kept coming up: Michael Keller. He has contracted more than 100 Broadway shows, including The Lion King , Wicked , The Book of Mormon , and Hamilton . Before that, he was a drummer from Queens wheeling his kit through Manhattan. The Beatles got him started. He was subbing off-Broadway at 19, played his first Broadway show, Promises, Promi...

Tanner Schut moved to New York with close to $25,000 saved. Almost all of it was gone before his career caught up. That’s the part nobody tells you. You can have the chops. You can have the savings. But if you don’t know how the scene works, the money goes fast and nobody’s calling. Broadway Bound and Beyond is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider beco...

This week’s podcast guest is Tanner Schut, and he is currently out on tour with The Book of Mormon. When we recorded, Tanner was actually on a layoff. The tour was sitting in Toronto dealing with a musicians’ union situation, so the whole band got a few weeks off before picking back up. Tanner joined Book of Mormon mid run, which is its own story. The drummer before him left to rejoin Blue Man Gro...

Tanner Schut moved to New York with a decent cushion in his savings account, figuring he’d land a wedding band gig or two within a few weeks to keep the bills covered while he found his footing. That’s not what happened. Those gigs take months to break into, not weeks, and nobody tells you that part until you’re already living it. His savings drained a lot faster than he expected, and there was a...

Joel “Jay-Ray” Anderson is a drummer that was recently touring with The Wiz. I caught up with him mid-tour. We talked about growing up in a musical family in Fort Lauderdale, learning drums from YouTube and his oldest brother, coming up through the Dillard High School drumline, studying music at Broward College and Florida Memorial University, landing his first tour (Pretty Woman) the week after g...

Two months ago, Mackenna Tolfa was a guest on Episode 107 of the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast. She told us what it took to become the first featured female drummer for the Blue Man Group World Tour. Broadway national tours. Mean Girls. The Book of Mormon. Twenty plus countries. A career built one relationship, one gig, one yes at a time. Now she’s returning the favor. On August 27, I’m the guest...

The Adam Wolfe Interview — Now on Video This is the video version of a Broadway Drumming 101 classic, first published back in 2022. Adam Wolfe made his Broadway debut on Frank Wildhorn’s Wonderland after playing its out-of-town tryout at Houston’s Alley Theatre. From there he built one of the most versatile résumés in the city, subbing on Rent, Evita, Matilda, Cats, Hello Dolly, Anastasia, The Pro...

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Based in NYC since 2011, Adam came to New York by way of Houston, TX, where he completed his Master’s Degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music (2008). Adam grew up in Northeast Ohio, where he attended Cleveland State University (2006). Formally studying classical pe...

My next guest on the Broadway Drumming 101 Classic series is drummer Adam Wolfe, and this is actually a return visit. Adam first joined the podcast years back, when he was known for his work on Wonderland, Bandstand, and Clueless the Musical, on top of subbing everything from Evita to Matilda and Cats. I can speak about Adam from firsthand experience too. He was my only sub on Cats: The Jellicle B...

Spencer Inch is one of those musicians who makes you realize how wide this career can actually be. We talked about his path from Wilton, Connecticut to the national touring circuit, and I kept thinking: this is exactly what Broadway Bound and Beyond is about. Here’s what we got into: * Spencer started on drums at age six when his parents bought him a CB700 from a neighbor — he still talks about th...

Earlier this week I brought back the audio of one of my favorite conversations from the vault. Today, the full video version is here. If you missed the audio episode, here’s the short version: in 2018, Mariana Ramirez became the first female Mexican percussionist to ever perform on a Broadway show, subbing Once On This Island . A year later she held the percussion chair on that show’s national tou...

Spencer Inch is one of the busiest drummers in the tri-state area and has been doing it the right way for a long time. He’s currently on the Water for Elephants national tour, and how he got there is a masterclass in how this business actually works. What we covered: * How his drum teacher in Norwalk, Connecticut — a musical theater pit musician himself — shaped everything about the way Spencer ap...

A few weeks ago, a longtime listener and subscriber named Leo tried to order my book on Amazon. It didn’t go smoothly — stock issues, shipping headaches, the usual Amazon runaround. Most people would have just given up and moved on. Leo didn’t. He found his way to Signature Brandworks and ordered a copy directly from me instead. That alone means a lot. Leo’s been with the podcast and the site for...

In 2018, Mariana Ramirez walked into the pit at Once On This Island as a sub and made history. She became the first female Mexican percussionist to ever perform on a Broadway show. Nobody handed her that moment. She built it. I first published this conversation in March of 2022, and it remains one of my favorites. Most of you weren’t subscribed back then, so I’m bringing it back — the story is too...

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. She Was 11 Years Old at a Santana Concert. That Was It. From the vault: one of my favorite conversations on the Broadway Drumming 101 Podcast. Picture a stadium in Mexico. Bigger than Madison Square Garden. Open air. Packed. Santana is on stage with a humongous band — three per...

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Mackenna Tolfa grew up in Green Bay with a blue sparkle drum kit called “The Rock Star.” Decades later, she’s touring North America as the first featured female Rockstar character in Blue Man Group’s history. The name on the kit was foreshadowing nobody knew about until recentl...

Mackenna Tolfa is the first featured female drummer in Blue Man Group history. She plays ‘The Rockstar’ on the current North American Tour — the character she originated on the World Tour in 2021 after performing in more than 20 countries. Before returning to Blue Man, she held the drum chair on the national tours of Mean Girls and The Book of Mormon . She’s also the orchestrator and arranger for...

Dizzy Gillespie didn’t hand his name to just anyone. Karl Latham played in the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars. Then he played in the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience alongside Paquito D’Rivera. Two different bands carrying one legend’s name, and Karl had a chair in both. We recorded this conversation back in February 2022. It’s been sitting on the Broadway Drumming 101 YouTube channel for a...

There’s nothing quite like watching your colleagues light up a TV stage. The cast of Cats: The Jellicle Ball performed “Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat” on The Tonight Show last night. Every time I see something like this, I get excited. They always look and sound great, and there’s something special about watching people you work with get that kind of shine. I’ve been lucky enough to be on that si...

Karl Latham played in The Fantasy Band alongside Dave Valentin, Dave Samuels, Chuck Loeb, Noel Pointer, and Roy Ayers. Five names that don’t usually end up on the same bandstand. Karl made the cut for all of them. We recorded this conversation back in February 2022. A lot has changed for Karl since we sat down, including new credits that weren’t on his resume yet when we hit record. Karl’s reach g...

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Jared Shaw has held the drum chair on national tours of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and The Book of Mormon. He’s subbed on Broadway including Tommy, one of the most demanding drum books out there. He’s performed at the Kennedy Center and Ghana’s National Theater, and he...

Jared Shaw didn’t build his career on one big break. He built it on being ready. National tours of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and The Book of Mormon . Broadway sub credits on Tommy , Boop! The Musical , Beaches , and more. Four years as the drummer for Billy Mira & The Hitmen on the Howard Stern Show. Percussion guest with the National Symphony of Ghana. First drum chair of the NYU Broadwa...

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Gary Seligson: The Grammy-Winning Broadway Drummer Phil Collins Refused to Work Without Phil Collins snuck into a performance of Wicked one night without telling Gary Seligson he was coming. The next morning, he walked into Tarzan rehearsal and told the producers he didn’t care...