A month ago, Cats: The Jellicle Ball played its final show at the Broadhurst. Eight shows a week, gone. We recorded the cast album before closing during several sessions at Power Station at BerkleeNYC. There wasn’t even a countdown to something unfinished. Just a closing notice, a last show, and nothing on the calendar with my name on it.

I wrote about that moment a few weeks back, what actually happens the day a Broadway show closes, and it traveled further than I expected, including a mention in The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of the closing itself. Apparently, a lot more people than I thought were interested in what happens when a show like Cats: The Jellicle Ball gets its closing notice, and what a musician does the day after the marquee comes down.

I remember exactly how it went after Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations closed in January of 2022. The contractor suggested we start making calls to our colleagues and get back into subbing. I was still furious about how that show had gone, the COVID protocols included, and I had zero interest in asking my colleagues to sub for me. I’d already started this platform by then and was looking forward to doing other things. I never went back to subbing on that show.

I decided to move differently in 2022 than I had the last few times a show closed. I kept the club dates going, and instead of waiting on the industry to remember me, I stayed inside the ecosystem by interviewing almost everyone who was on a Broadway show, or had ever been on one. I started building something different for myself instead of chasing the next chair.

That building started with books, getting everything out of my head and into my computer instead of just letting it sit there, and publishing what came out of that. Here’s where it’s landed:

The free roadmap, How to Land a Gig on Broadway, is up at broadwayboundbook.com/roadmap, the same four-step system built around the idea that Broadway isn’t a meritocracy, it’s a trust economy. The Broadway Sub Playbook, the deeper, tactical breakdown of what it actually takes to sub on Broadway, is still up at signaturebrandworks.com for $7.99.

The book, Broadway Bound and Beyond, is still selling on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, and I’m proud of the numbers it’s been putting up. If you’ve picked up a copy, thank you, and if not, you can grab it directly at broadwayboundbook.com. And if you’ve purchased anything from the merchandise at signaturebrandworks.com, there’s a lot of new gear up there now. A few items are almost sold out.

None of that stopped because a show closed. It started because one did, back in 2022. And that same decision, build instead of chase, is what led to the newest thing I’ve built: Broadway Bound and Beyond: The Course.

Relationships, versatility, financial resilience aren’t theory. They’re the actual mechanics of staying working in an industry that hands out zero guarantees. I learned them the hard way, over three decades, mostly by getting them wrong first.

That’s the whole case for the course. Six modules built around exactly those three things, for musicians who’d rather not learn them the way I did.

It’s not open yet. If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll be the first to know the moment it is, before it’s announced anywhere else.

Free subscribers get this post, plus everything else on the free side: the podcast, all 110 episodes and counting, audio and video, the Resources page, and the Notes section, where I drop quick things as I think of them. There’s also the Chat, where I post job leads as they come in, a few community members have landed actual gigs just from responding to one, so that’s worth being in there for on its own.

Paid subscribers get all of that, plus:

• Full access to Real-World Training, the section where pieces like “Why You’re Not Getting Sub Gigs (And How to Fix It Now),” “Beyond the Gigs: Why Musicians Must Face Real-Life Responsibilities,” “I Bombed My First Sub Gig—Now What?,” and “What If Your Dream Gig Isn’t on Broadway?” break down the actual how behind everything this post only points at.

• A discount on the course, plus early access before it opens to the public.

All of it, for $10 a month.

Upgrade for $10/Month

Click HERE to see exactly what’s inside, module by module, and get in before it opens to everyone else.

Clayton

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 real stretch where going back to the cruise ships looked like the only way to stay afloat.

Tanner’s on the Book of Mormon tour now. This clip is about the part before that, the part where the city doesn’t care how good you are and rent still shows up every month whether the gigs do or not.

Full conversation with Tanner coming soon to the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast.

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Drummer Joel “Jay-Ray” Anderson went from his brother’s lap at six years old to the drum chair on The Wiz national tour, and he says it all comes down to one thing: networking.

Joel “Jay-Ray” Anderson is a drummer who was recently touring with The Wiz. I caught up with him mid-tour for this episode of Broadway Drumming 101. 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 graduation, and transitioning to The Wiz through a network built one relationship at a time.

In this episode:

• Growing up in a house full of musicians in Fort Lauderdale

• Teaching himself drums on YouTube starting at age six

• Coming up through the Dillard Center for the Arts drumline

• Gospel drumming history and the lineage behind his influences

• Studying at Broward College and Florida Memorial University

• Landing his first national tour (Pretty Woman) a week after graduation

• Running click tracks and Ableton on the road

• A month spent touring Japan

• The relationships that led to landing The Wiz

• Why networking, not just chops, is what actually opens doors

INSTAGRAM: (https://www.instagram.com/jay.ray04/)

Email: joel.r.anderson04@gmail.com

RESOURCES Free: How to Land a Broadway Gig Roadmap. Subscribe to Broadway Drumming 101 (free or paid) and grab it at broadwayboundbook.com/roadmap

The Broadway Sub Playbook ($7.99), available at signaturebrandworks.com

Broadway Drumming 101 merch (backpacks, tees, hats, mugs, and more) at signaturebrandworks.com

WANT THE FULL ROADMAP? If this episode has you thinking about your own path to a career in theater, my book has the full breakdown. Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career is out now at broadwayboundbook.com.

It’s everything I wish someone had handed me when I was starting out, how the industry actually works, how to build relationships that lead to real work, and how to make the leap from student to working musician.

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

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 graduation, and transitioning to The Wiz through a network built one relationship at a time. We got into gospel drumming history, drumline battles, a month spent touring Japan, and why networking, not just chops, is what actually opens doors.

Jay-Ray comes from a house full of musicians. His father plays guitar and sings; his oldest brother plays drums and keys; another brother sings, plays drums, and plays saxophone; and a third brother plays bass, guitar, and keys while producing. Jay-Ray’s own introduction to the drums came at six years old, when his oldest brother sat him down in front of a kit for the first time. By twelve, he had his own Sonor drum set, a gift from that same brother, and was already teaching himself by copying drumming videos on YouTube.

Jay-Ray attended Dillard Center for the Arts, where he played in two jazz bands, marched snare in the wind orchestra and drumline, and got pulled onto snare drum as a freshman after impressing section leader Javon with a string of paradiddles. He talks about the discipline instilled by band directors Christopher Dorsey and Dr. Sheldon McClain, learning traditional grip for the first time, and the intensity of real drumline battles.

Jay-Ray studied at Broward College (Associate’s in Music Performance) before transferring to Florida Memorial University for his bachelor’s degree, where he played under percussion director Taurus Lovely, a 25-year Broadway touring veteran (including Tina Turner: The Musical) who would later become the person who got Jay-Ray his first tour. Jay-Ray’s first trip to New York came in 2018, when Dillard’s jazz band won the Essentially Ellington competition at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the same trip where he first saw a Broadway show, Ain’t Too Proud.

The day after Jay-Ray graduated from Florida Memorial in May 2023, Taurus Lovely called with an audition opportunity for the Pretty Woman national tour. Jay-Ray recorded four songs from the show, landed the gig, and was in rehearsals in Syracuse, New York within months. He talks candidly about the learning curve of running click tracks and Ableton on the road, getting walked through the system by original drummer Kevin Maynard, and the parts of touring nobody warns you about, like setting up and breaking down your own kit on travel days. Over roughly two years with the show, he toured extensively across the U.S. and spent a month performing in Japan (Shinjuku, Tachikawa, Kyoto, and Osaka).

Jay-Ray’s move to The Wiz came through his network: Sammy Merandino and Quentin “Q” Robinson recommended him, and MD Michael Aarons brought him in. Jay-Ray left Pretty Woman in Wichita and, within a week, was in New York starting rehearsals, spending his off-hours studying original drummer Trevor Holder’s book and comparing the Broadway cast recording to the touring arrangement. He also shares how he first met Q Robinson years earlier, showing up at Hamilton’s closing show in Fort Lauderdale just to introduce himself.

Asked what he’d tell a high school or college drummer chasing a career like his, Jay-Ray’s answer is simple: networking. Every opportunity in his career, from Pretty Woman to The Wiz to this very podcast episode, traces back to a relationship someone else made on his behalf.

Where to Find Jay-Ray

• Instagram & TikTok: @jay.ray04

• Facebook: Joel Anderson

• Email: joel.r.anderson04@gmail.com

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Resources

• Free: How to Land a Broadway Gig Roadmap — subscribe to Broadway Drumming 101 (free or paid) and grab it at broadwayboundbook.com/roadmap

• The Broadway Sub Playbook ($7.99) — available at signaturebrandworks.com

• Broadway Drumming 101 merch (backpacks, tees, hats, mugs, and more) — signaturebrandworks.com

• Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career by Clayton Craddock — out now

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

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 at her final masterclass of the summer. We’re not talking about how to land your first Broadway chair, we’re talking about what happens after. How relationships open doors that auditions never will. Why versatility keeps you working when one show closes. What financial resilience actually looks like when your paycheck depends on a contract that could end tomorrow. This is the part of the business almost nobody talks about.

$5 gets you in the door. Sign up here today: https://calendly.com/mackennatolfamusic/clayton-craddock-masterclass/2026-08-27T17:00:00-04:00

Spots are filling up fast. See you there!

Save My Spot!

Clayton Craddock is the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Sign Up for the Masterclass,

Growing up, Jay-Ray watched other touring drummers from the outside and assumed the job came with a drum tech, someone else to handle the setup and breakdown. It wasn’t until he was living the touring life himself that he realized how much of it falls squarely on him.

On the latest episode of Broadway Drumming 101, Jay-Ray Anderson, drummer for the latest touring production of The Wiz, pulls back the curtain on exactly that, and on what it really takes to bring a show to life night after night.

“That was something that I didn’t understand at first,” he says. “Like, oh, I’m going to have to set up my drums. I’m going to have to break down and still get on the bus and go to the hotel and get on like a three-hour flight the next day and make soundcheck the next day.”

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It’s a reminder that the unglamorous parts of touring, the packing, the breakdown, the redeye flights, are the price of admission for the moments that actually matter: the ones shared with an audience.

More from Jay-Ray Anderson is on the way. His new podcast episode is coming soon. Subscribe below so you’ll be notified of when it is released.

Leave a comment

Clayton Craddock is the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Broadway Bound and Beyond: The Course

The Career Foundation Every Working Musician Needs (But Nobody Teaches)

The book is out now. Read it here.

This page is for the course that builds on it, opening to the public in January.

For the musician who can play and wants the calls, the callbacks, and the career that comes with them.

From 26 years on Broadway, including Memphis: The Musical, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball.

Three pillars, every time:

Relationships. How trust actually gets built, and why it has nothing to do with networking.

Versatility. Why the musicians who work the most are the ones who can play anything.

Financial resilience. Treating your career like an asset instead of a series of gigs.

Twenty people. ABBA covers. Nobody there to be impressed.

That gig at a Ramada Inn in New Rochelle in 1993 is the reason I have a Broadway career. Not because it was glamorous. It wasn’t. It’s where I met a guitar player named Matt Beck, already deep into the Broadway world, who pulled me aside on a break one night and asked if I’d ever thought about playing musical theater. That conversation got me a bus and truck tour of Footloose. The tour led to my first off-Broadway show, Tick, Tick... Boom!, written by the same guy who wrote Rent. That show is how the drummer at Rent heard my name and called me to sub on Broadway for the first time. And subbing on Rent is how I built the reputation that eventually landed me my first Broadway chair, Memphis: The Musical, in 2009.

None of it started with an audition.

All of it started with a Friday night gig nobody was watching. It’s where I learned the three things nobody teaches you in music school: how relationships actually work in a small industry, why versatility is a career strategy and not a nice-to-have, and how to think about money like you’re running a business instead of chasing a gig.

You already know me from Broadway Drumming 101: the podcast, the interviews, the week to week of life in the pit.

This is different.

The book laid out the foundation.

The course is where I’m turning it into something you can actually work through, module by module, with the tactics the book didn’t have space to unpack.

Here’s exactly what’s inside:

Module 1: The Reality Check. Why talent is only the entry fee, the four questions everyone who actually hires you is asking, and the three pillars this whole course is built on. You rate yourself honestly on all three before you know which one is your biggest gap.

Module 2: The Trust Economy. How relationships actually get built in a small industry, the full story of the Ramada Inn gig that led to my entire Broadway career, and exactly what to say, and never say, when you reach out to someone you don’t know yet.

Module 3: Reputation. What people say about you when you’re not there to hear it, why being a good hang matters more than being the most talented player in the building, and how to recover professionally when something goes wrong, because it will.

Module 4: Versatility as a Career Strategy. A genre by genre breakdown of what Broadway actually demands, funk, jazz, rock, Afro-Cuban, and more, plus a concrete way to close whichever gap is costing you work right now.

Module 5: Financial Resilience. How to structure your business, build a six-month runway, and run every gig decision through the same rule of three I use myself: the money, the people, and the music.

Module 6: Putting It All Together. How the three pillars compound instead of working alone, and a specific 90-day action plan you build yourself: one relationship, one genre, one financial move, each one dated on your calendar.

Every module comes with its own worksheet: a self-assessment, a trust audit, a relationship plan, a versatility plan, a financial resilience plan. By the end, you’re not just informed. You walk out with an actual plan.

If you’ve read the book, this is the deeper layer. If you haven’t, start with the book first.

More coming soon, including a first look at the course before it opens. Glad to have you here.

Clayton

Still reading? Then you’re not subscribed yet.

The course opens to the public in January. If you’ve made it this far without hitting subscribe, this is the moment.

Free gets you every post in this section: the relationships, the versatility, the money conversations, all of it.

Paid gets you the Real-World Training posts, the full tactical breakdowns that go past the free version, plus the chance to enroll in the course before it opens to the public.

Either way, subscribing is the only way in. There’s no other list.

Subscribe now

Already read the book and want the next layer before the course opens? The Broadway Sub Playbook picks up where the book leaves off, at signaturebrandworks.com.

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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 Prom, West Side Story, and more, plus chairs on Bandstand, Jerry Springer the Opera, and Clueless the Musical. A classically trained percussionist with serious drum set chops, Adam is the kind of hybrid player who can walk into almost any pit and hold it down.

In this conversation, Adam talks about what it actually took to build that career: the prep, the trust-building, and the versatility that keeps the calls coming.

If you want the roadmap for building a career like this, grab a copy of Broadway Bound and Beyond. It’s the book I wish I had when I started, and it lays out the actual sequence: how to build the reputation, the relationships, and the readiness that get you in the pit and keep you there. Get it at broadwayboundbook.com.

And if you’re already working toward sub gigs, check out The Broadway Sub Playbook. It’s a short, direct four-week guide covering pit prep, etiquette, and the habits that get you called back. Get it at signaturebrandworks.com.

Watch the full interview, then go get both. Nobody hands you a career in this business. You build it.

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Quick question: who’s playing in the pit of every show currently running on Broadway, right now, tonight? Not the ones you sub for — all of them.

You could actually find that out in about thirty seconds. Most musicians never do, not because it’s a secret, but because nobody ever pointed them to where that information lives. That’s the gap I built the Resources page to close.

It’s a tab at the top of Broadway Drumming 101, and it’s easy to miss if all you’re doing is reading the newsletter — which is exactly the problem. The emails are one channel. The Resources page is the archive: every link a working Broadway musician actually needs, in one place, free, no opt-in required.

It’s not a link dump. Everything on it earns its spot. A few for instance:

IBDB settles the “who actually played that show” argument every time. Full production and credit history, going back decades.

Local 802’s Resource Center is where your pension, health fund, instrument insurance, and unclaimed checks live — the money and coverage you’ve already earned, if you know where to look.

Maestra Music is the directory for women musicians who are looking to build teams and get hired.

The Broadway Musician’s Roadmap is a free download that lays out how to think about this career, not just how to play it.

That’s four. There’s a full section each for unions, industry news, casting research, health and pension, and career building — union contracts, touring itineraries, emergency financial assistance, the works. All vetted, all still active links, all things I’d tell a friend about over a beer.

The musicians who move fastest in this business aren’t always the best players. They’re the ones who know where the information is. This page is my attempt to close that gap for everyone, not just the people already plugged in.

Go find something you didn’t know existed. Bookmark it. And if there’s a musician in your life still digging through twelve tabs to find what’s on one page, send them here:

The Resources Page →

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Clayton Craddock is the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician's Guide to Building a Theater Career. His credits include Broadway's Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Ain't Too Proud, Memphis, and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, plus off-Broadway's tick, tick…BOOM! and The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical. He now helps musicians build sustainable careers in theater.

Get Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician's Guide to Building a Theater Career at broadwayboundbook.com.

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 percussion throughout his education, Adam also actively performed as a freelancer on drum set — his classical background combined with his drum set skills gave him a unique blend that turned out to be very well-suited for musical theater.

After playing its out-of-town tryout at Houston’s Alley Theatre, Adam had his Broadway debut as the drummer on Frank Wildhorn’s WONDERLAND when it transferred to Broadway (Spring 2011). OBCR on Sony Masterworks.

With his foot in the door from his first Broadway show, Adam set about the work of subbing and building a reputation in and around the city. Subbing on NYC productions as diverse as RENT, EVITA, MATILDA the Musical, AVENUE Q, CATS, HELLO DOLLY, ANASTASIA, THE PROM, WEST SIDE STORY, COME FROM AWAY, and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS — and many more — Adam routinely demonstrates a wide-ranging versatility. A unique hybrid player, Adam is equally at home on drum set and percussion, excelling in situations that demand both contemporary drum set styles and legit classical/orchestral sensibilities.

Adam’s most recent NYC chairs include 2017’s BANDSTAND on Broadway (TONY Nomination for Best Orchestrations, TONY WINNER for Best Choreography), Jerry Springer the Opera, and Between the Lines with acclaimed writers Samsel & Anderson — where Adam not only played drums and percussion but helped create the percussive mix elements. Adam is often found developing new works in NYC’s rehearsal studios, working with established and new writing teams whenever possible. Most recently, Adam subbed on CATS: The Jellicle Ball.

Adam has supported many of NYC’s finest singers, including Caroline Bowman, Austin Colby, Jordan Dobson, Natalie Weiss, Justin Guarini, Sierra Boggess, Laura Osnes, Josh Young, Orfeh, Andy Karl, Patti LuPone, Jeremy Jordan, Ben Fankhauser, Brian Justin Crumm, Jenna Ushkowitz, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Kacey Velazquez, Loren Allred, Andy Mientus, and Crystal Monee Hall, among many others.

When not in the theater, Adam is often found in NYC recording studios playing for singer/songwriters and composers like Desi Oakley, The Jack Mosbacher Band, Michael Mott, and David Mallamud — playing cabaret spots like Feinstein’s 54 Below, performing at Lincoln Center, and downtown venues such as Rockwood Music Hall, Piano’s, and The Bitter End. Adam also records drum tracks and produces at his studio in Midtown Manhattan.

Recordings Adam Has Played On:

• Between the Lines Original Cast Recording

• BANDSTAND Original Broadway Cast Recording

• Desi Oakley, “Repeat”

• Michael Mott, “Abandoned Heart” (Released on Broadway Records, September 15, 2017)

• A Rockin’ Midsummer Night’s Dream – World Premiere Recording

• You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (2016 Off-Broadway Cast Recording) — available on iTunes, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble

Collaborators featured on these recordings include David Mallamud, Nat Zegree, The Jack Mosbacher Band, and Desi Oakley.

Connect with Adam:
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Contact form for bookings and inquiries.
Site: home | about | media | recording/programming

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

I can speak about Adam from firsthand experience too. He was my only sub on Cats: The Jellicle Ball for a long stretch, until I eventually brought in someone else, a great young drummer who I helped get his first ever Broadway show subbing gig. I was about to start bringing in more subs as the show went on, but we are closing today.

That’s a story for another time.

The point is, that kind of trust doesn’t happen by accident. I even heard him play the show himself on Monday, and he’s fantastic! I’m genuinely glad to know him and even more glad I get to call him a colleague.

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In this episode, we get into what it really takes to sub a Broadway show, the times he had weeks to prepare and drilled every bar until he was almost tired of the show before opening night, and the times he got the call with barely any notice and had to cram a stack of fast, dense charts while still working.

Make sure you subscribe so you’re notified the moment this episode drops. And if you know a drummer who needs to hear this, send it their way.

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Short answer: Yes, most working musicians should incorporate once they’re earning consistently outside their union wages. It protects your personal stuff, your savings, your home, if something goes wrong, and it opens up tax write-offs you can’t get as a regular freelancer. I didn’t understand any of this until 2021, when I finally formed my own company. I wish I’d done it a decade earlier.

Let me back up and tell you what actually pushed me to do it. It wasn’t a business class. It was watching my father get sick.

The Moment It Actually Clicked For Me

My dad ended up in a nursing home, and I got handed all of it. The paperwork. The fees. The state regulations. I learned something fast: when you own things in your own name, especially a house, the state can come after them to pay for long-term care. If he’d moved the deed to that house into someone else’s name years earlier, none of that would’ve touched it.

That hit me hard. It wasn’t about music at all. It was about protecting what you build, so life doesn’t just take it from you later. That’s when I really understood why you separate your personal life from your business life. On paper, and legally.

I used to think incorporating was for people running “real” businesses. Not musicians. Not me. Then I formed Broadway Drumming 101 Inc., and everything changed. Gear, travel, rehearsal space, all the stuff I was already spending money on? Suddenly those were legitimate business write-offs. I wasn’t just a guy playing gigs anymore. I was running a media company, an education brand, and a platform.

What Incorporating Actually Gives You

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Tonight, we load into a studio to start recording the Original Broadway Cast album for Cats: The Jellicle Ball — six days before the show closes for good on Broadway. Five sessions. The whole show, tracked in the same week we’re saying goodbye to the run.

The schedule:

• Sunday, 8/2: 7:30–10:30 PM

• Monday, 8/3: 10–1 and 2–5, plus the evening show

• Tuesday, 8/4: 10–1 and 2–5, plus the evening show

I love being in the studio. I’ve loved it since the first time I sat behind a kit. My very first session, we cut the track, then went back in to layer the handclaps. For those of you too young to remember: back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, many R&B, funk and disco songs actually had handclaps on them, and somebody had to sit there and manually clap through the entire song, over and over, take after take. I remember that one distinctly because my hands were raw by the end of it. But it was fun.

Cast albums? No handclaps. Not a lot of grooving and dancing happening on these things. But five cast albums in, I’ve learned that loving the process and loving the finished product are two different things. Broadway has taught me that the hard way more than once.

tick, tick... BOOM! was my first cast album. I didn’t overthink it. I just played it like I’d play any session. We were supposed to have our record release party on September 11, 2001. That party never happened, for reasons nobody needs explained. But the record itself? I was happy with it. Still am.

Altar Boyz is a blur. I was on V-Drums, which tells you most of what you need to know about how that one got captured. I think we recorded it on the stage because I certainly don’t remember going into a studio.

Memphis the Musical is the best thing I’ve ever done (so far). The show and the album were both great to me. The Noble & Cooley drums I played on, the mix, the writing — I love everything about it. When people ask what my favorite thing I’ve ever done is, this is the answer, and it isn’t close. It is the best example of who I am as a musician. Fun fact: the beginning drum beat of this cast recording (the song Underground) is the intro to many of my podcast episodes.

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill was recorded live, and I remember all of us in that band walking away with the same complaint: records from 1959 sounded better than the record we made trying to sound like 1959. We liked what we played. We didn’t like what we heard back.

Ain’t Too Proud was a great show, a great band, and a cast album where the vocals sat so far up front and so compressed that the playing underneath got flattened out. I liked what I played but I wasn’t a fan of the final mix.

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So today I have tempered expectations. Not pessimism — just five albums’ worth of knowing that great playing and a great-sounding record aren’t the same thing, and one doesn’t guarantee the other.

This will be my fourth Broadway cast album and second Off-Broadway. I didn't plan for that number. It's just what happens when you keep ending up in the right places, with the right people, ready when the call comes.

But this one’s different because of the timing. Most cast albums get tracked at the very beginning of the run of a show, with the rest of the show ahead of you. We’re recording this one in its final week, which means every take is doubling as a goodbye — to the songs, the orchestra and the short run we had.

If you're out there and you get the call someday, enjoy the experience of recording a cast album. It can be intense: you don't get the luxury of take after take like you would on other sessions. There are too many people involved, so you've got to get it right the first or second time, if you even get that many. But here's the thing. However it turns out sonically, you'll have a permanent piece of something you worked hard on, and that's worth more than the mix.

I hope every one of you reading this gets your own souvenir like that one day. It’s a great experience, and it’s one nobody can take back from you once it’s made.

See you on the other side of five sessions.

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Clayton Craddock is the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

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 that kit like it was a Stradivarius

• He studied classical percussion at Penn State, then pivoted to jazz drum set at the University of Miami’s Frost School — going from big fish to small pond overnight, and what he did about it

• He did multiple contracts on cruise ships right out of grad school, playing everything from waltzes to Glenn Miller to German polka with no internet and no time to prepare — and why he says he learned more there than in six years of school

• He toured the country opening for the Counting Crows with singer-songwriter Seán Barna — playing to amphitheater crowds of 3,000 to 7,000 people, and the moment the Counting Crows’ drummer handed him the sticks to close out a show

• He spent a year and a half on the Come From Away national tour playing bodhran — on stage, in the action, 467 shows — after saying yes to an instrument he’d never played before

• He’s now on the Water for Elephants national tour, a gig that came directly through the music director he built a relationship with on Come From Away

The throughline in Spencer’s story isn’t talent. It’s relationships, saying yes, and taking every single gig seriously — no matter what it is. The polka gig. The Les Mis at a children’s theater. All of it.

Watch the full episode above!

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Clayton Craddock is the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

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 tour. Then came sub work on Head Over Heels (drumset book) and Ain’t Too Proud, plus Off-Broadway runs of Merrily We Roll Along and Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.

Today she holds the percussion chair at the hit Broadway show SIX.

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But watch this interview and you’ll see the chair is just one piece of a much bigger career.

Mariana began her studies at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, where she won the percussion position at the Carlos Chávez Youth Orchestra, then earned her Bachelor of Music at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, picking up the Percussive Arts Society Thomas Siwe Scholarship along the way.

She founded Percussion Quartet Excelsis — the first multinational all-female percussion quartet in the U.S. — which Jonathan Haas, head of the NYU Percussion Department, called one of the most innovative and exciting ensembles of this era of chamber music. Excelsis has performed twice on NPR’s From the Top, at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Tippet Rise in Montana, and the Newport Classical Music Festival, and in 2024 the group received Chamber Music America’s highest grant.

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Her recording credits include Platinum Girls and Song of Solomon on Broadway Records, and a concerto for bandoneon and violin with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has performed with the National Symphony of Mexico, the first all-women orchestra of Mexico, and premiered new works at Alice Tully Hall. She’s appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and in Mozart in the Jungle. She won the FONCA grant for Mexican artists twice in a row, touring an original percussion-and-dance project across five Mexican cities. She teaches. She’s endorsed by Sabian, Pearl, and Innovative Percussion.

Traditional Mexican music. Symphony halls. Chamber ensembles. Television. Education. And eight shows a week on Broadway.

Nobody builds a career like that by waiting for the phone to ring. Watch the conversation and you’ll understand exactly how she did it — starting with a Santana concert in Mexico City when she was 11 years old, watching three percussionists light up a stadium and deciding, right there, what her life was going to be.

Watch the full interview above.

The audio version is available now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify if you’d rather listen on the go.

And coming up next on the podcast: Spencer Inch. Stay tuned — that one’s going to be worth the wait.

For the complete roadmap to building a career in theater, grab Broadway Bound and Beyond at broadwayboundbook.com.

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Clayton Craddock is the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

I wrote a post two weeks ago called “What Do You Do When Your Show Closes?” 26 years, four closing notices, and the question you need to answer before you take this on as a career.

A journalist from The Hollywood Reporter found it. She reached out and we talked for twenty minutes. I could’ve talked for an hour.

I’m quoted in the piece that ran a few days ago: “Cats’ Closing: Is It Curtains for Broadway Musicals?”

A few things I said made it into print.

“A lot of my colleagues have never had a show that has lasted more than a year.”

The reporter wrote:

The piece ended with:

“I didn’t know how much longer it could last since it’s a new show,” Craddock says. “Even though people that have come to see it love it, the energy is electric inside the theater, and the band is great, the vibe in the pit is great, but there just weren’t enough people to keep this afloat.”

That’s not a complaint. That’s just how it is for most new musicals now.

Since the closing notice, Andrew Lloyd Webber has been talking publicly about what’s actually broken. He said our production, capitalized at 18 million dollars, had a weekly operating cost of more than 1 million dollars. That means even with solid houses, we were still losing money every single week just to keep the lights on.

And here’s something our own producer told the company directly, in a meeting before the closing announcement:

“The truth is we’re not meeting the expenses of the show each week, and we haven’t since the first day we started.”

We were playing to good houses, we won three Tony Awards, critics loved us, and the show still never once cleared its own weekly cost. That’s not a knock on the show. That’s just what the math looked like every single week.

That's the part that's hardest to explain to people outside this business. It's not about talent or reviews. It's about money moving in places most of us never think to look, money that decides whether your show survives, whether your next gig exists, whether this business holds up long enough for you to build a career in it. So over the next few posts, I'm pulling it apart. Starting with who really owns it.

Here’s what’s coming:

Part 1 — Who Owns Broadway? The air rights deal I didn’t know existed until this week, and where that money actually goes.

Part 2 — Why anyone still invests. The odds of losing your money on a Broadway show are brutal. People keep writing checks anyway. I wanted to know why.

Part 3 — The union question. What looked like a PR move by the Broadway League turned out to be something else: two sides protecting different things — the show and the person — and never quite talking to each other.

Part 4 — Where new work should start. Should a musical launch on Broadway, or arrive there only after it’s proven itself somewhere else?

Part 5 — Who actually matters. Who gets treated like part of the show, and who doesn’t, no matter how many shows they’ve been part of.

Get more from Broadway Drumming 101 in the Substack app

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READ: ‘Cats’ Closing: Is It Curtains for Broadway Musicals? - ‘Jellicle Ball’ shutting down is sending alarm bells across the Great White Way as producers contend with rising costs and changing audience behaviors.

READ: Only Andrew Lloyd Webber is brave enough to tell the truth about Broadway - Major musicals are going bust at New York’s biggest theatres because the economic model is broken. But there is a way to fix it

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Clayton Craddock is the founder of Broadway Drumming 101.

His Broadway and off-Broadway theater credits include Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Memphis, Altar Boyz, and tick, tick... BOOM!, plus subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour. He’s appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards, performing alongside artists from Chuck Berry to Kristin Chenoweth.

His book, Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at Signature Brandworks. His course, Broadway Bound and Beyond: The Course — The Career Foundation Every Working Musician Needs (But Nobody Teaches) — is coming soon.

www.claytoncraddock.com

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 approaches charts, styles, and preparation

• Going from a classical undergrad at Penn State to a jazz grad program at UM Frost and feeling completely out of his league — and why that was the best thing that ever happened to him

• What cruise ships actually teach you that school never will: making people dance, reading a room, and playing polka music with no internet and no prep time

• How his first connection into the New York theater world came from a drummer he barely knew who shared a rehearsal space in Williamsburg — that drummer went on to play with Billie Eilish

• The real reality of life on a rock tour — the routine of it, the grind of load-in and load-out, and why it felt more like going to work than living a dream

The advice he got on a cruise ship about playing polkas at the Blue Note — and why Wynton Marsalis walking in the door shouldn’t change anything about how you play.

The throughline in Spencer’s story isn’t talent. It’s relationships, saying yes, and taking every single gig seriously — no matter what it is. The polka gig. The Les Mis at a children’s theater. All of it.

Leave a comment

Clayton Craddock is the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Back in the ‘90s, I ran my whole career out of a Day Planner. Gig details, rehearsal times, addresses, call times and just about anything else. It was all scribbled in there, and I’d flip through the pages hoping I hadn’t forgotten anything. It worked, until it didn’t.

One night I was backstage at the Apollo, talking to Buddy Williams. If you don’t know the name, he’s one of the greatest musicians to ever pick up a pair of sticks. He’s played with everybody, held down a few Broadway chairs too. I asked him how he kept it all together, because the man never seemed rattled.

He just smiled and pulled out this tiny device. A Palm Pilot.

This was pre-smartphone. Digital calendars were barely a thing yet. And Buddy’s already on it.

“This keeps me sharp,” he said. “I know where I need to be, what I need to bring, and who I’m playing with — every day.”

That one sentence rearranged something in my head. I wasn’t just a musician showing up with sticks and a good feel. I was running a one-person business, and I’d been managing it like a hobby. That Palm Pilot wasn’t a gadget — it was Buddy treating his own career like it mattered enough to organize.

I went home and changed how I worked. The tools kept evolving after that — Google Calendar, the iPhone, whatever came next, but the mindset Buddy handed me backstage never did.

Manage your time like your career depends on it. Because it does.

— Clayton

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 a long time, and knowing he cared enough to track down the book rather than let a broken checkout page stop him is exactly the kind of support that keeps this whole project going.

But what really got me was what he said after he read it.

Leo described the book as “pure gold” — not just for drummers, and not just for musical theater players, but for any working musician taking on all kinds of gigs. That phrase has been stuck in my head ever since, because it’s exactly what I set out to make. This was never meant to be just a drumming book. It’s a career guide — contracts, negotiating with producers, breaking into a market, understanding the business side most of us were never taught. If you’re a professional musician of any kind, that’s information you need.

Leo put it better than I could, so I’ll let him say it in his own words:

“This is pure gold for anyone who’s interested, especially in musical theater, but it applies to any kind of musician doing all sorts of gigs. Beyond our instrument — we get really focused on the instrument — but looking up content and resources that are important for a professional musician’s training... financial education, negotiation, understanding contracts, and the laws that apply to musicians. I think all of that is important for us to become better professionals and to improve the market for everyone too.”

Coming from someone who’s spent 23 years developing his own teaching method, that’s not a compliment I take lightly.

Who is Leo?

Leo Bandeira is a Brazilian drummer, author, and educator — and honestly, someone every drummer reading this should be following. He’s the author of Teoria Musical para Bateria (Music Theory for Drums), the accompanying Livros de Exercícios volumes 1–3, and Leitura à Primeira Vista (Sight Reading). He also teaches A Bateria no Teatro Musical — Drums in Musical Theater — so when a guy who spends his career teaching this stuff calls my book pure gold, that means a lot to me.

His beginner-level video course builds directly on those books: over 400 exercises covering reading, writing, coordination, orchestration, and rhythmic dictation, all developed over two decades of teaching drummers how to actually read and understand music, not just play by feel. If you’re a drummer looking to get more literate on your instrument, his material is worth your time.

Follow Leo here: instagram.com/leobandeiramusico

Leo’s Full Review (translated from Portuguese)

I wanted to share it in full, exactly as he gave it, rather than just pulling the one line:

Guys, I want to share with you a book I just finished reading, and it’s amazing. Clayton is a Broadway drummer with a ton of experience. He has a podcast where he interviews Broadway musicians, so he really lays out how the industry works over there, you know? Which is basically the top of the musical theater world.

So, in this book, he explains exactly how everything works over there: contracts with producers, how negotiations happen, how you break into the market. He talks about networking — honestly, he covers so many topics. This is pure gold for anyone who’s interested, especially in musical theater, but it applies to any kind of musician doing all sorts of gigs, you know?

Yeah, it’s really important information that every professional musician should have access to.

So folks, I’m leaving his Instagram here so you can find his materials. I think being a good professional musician also means doing your research. Beyond our instrument — we get really focused on the instrument — but looking up content and resources that are important for a professional musician’s training, you know?

Financial education, negotiation, understanding contracts, and the laws that apply to musicians. I think all of that is important for us to become better professionals and to improve the market for everyone too.

Alright? So here’s the golden tip.

Follow him over there, and look for the book. Thanks!

And if you’ve been on the fence about the book like Leo was — go grab a copy on Amazon. Or get a copy from me here at SignatureBrandworks.com.

Also, Leo, if you’re reading this: I’m taking a lesson from you the day I finally make it to Brazil, no excuses.

I’m proud of this one, and it means the world that it’s resonating with musicians outside the Broadway pit too.

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Clayton Craddock is the founder of Broadway Drumming 101.

His Broadway and off-Broadway theater credits include Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Memphis, Altar Boyz, and tick, tick... BOOM!, plus subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour. He’s appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards, performing alongside artists from Chuck Berry to Kristin Chenoweth.

His book, Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and at Signature Brandworks. His course, Broadway Bound and Beyond: The Course — The Career Foundation Every Working Musician Needs (But Nobody Teaches) — is coming soon.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Wynton Marsalis walks into the Blue Note, and you’re on the drums playing polkas. What does he see?

That’s the question an older musician asked Spencer Inch on a cruise ship, years before Spencer landed the drum chair on the national tour of Water for Elephants. The old timer laid it out plainly. If Wynton sees you bored, phoning it in, and dragging through the set, he’s never calling you for anything. But if he sees you playing those polkas like they’re the greatest music ever written, locked into the style and putting out good energy, he just might call you for something.

Here’s what most young players get wrong. They save their best playing for the gigs they think matter, and they coast through everything else. The polka set. The children’s theater production of Les Mis. The Tuesday night when the house is half empty and nobody seems to be paying attention.

Those are exactly the gigs that matter. Somebody is always watching, and the person who hires you next is usually judging you on the gig you thought was beneath you.

Spencer understood this early, and he took every single gig seriously no matter what it was. He listened to the records, learned the styles, and showed up prepared. Today he’s one of the busiest drummers in the tri-state area — because he treated the polkas like they were Broadway.

My full conversation with Spencer is Episode 108 of the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast, and it’s dropping soon. We get into his path from cruise ships to the New York theater scene, the relationships that opened doors, and what it actually takes to build a career in this business.

Subscribe so you don’t miss it:

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For more: https://www.spencerinch.com

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Clayton Craddock is the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com