In January last year, I got a call about playing drums for the summer revival of Cats: The Jellicle Ball. A long-time friend and colleague, Trevor Holder, the "beat maker" for the production, a phenomenal drummer who's toured extensively with Memphis The Musical, Motown, and The Wiz, called me and asked if I would be interested in playing the show. He then connected me to William Waldrop, the music director who had been the conductor for the 2016 Broadway revival of Cats. William was now leading The Jellicle Ball, and we were planning how things would pan out. Things were lining up when a call from David Lai completely upended my week - and the first half of 2024.
David, a Broadway contractor and producer known for his work on shows like The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, and West Side Story, had an interesting and urgent request. The Hadestown national tour was in Greensboro, North Carolina, and their drummer had to step away due to severe tendonitis and possible carpal tunnel syndrome in his wrist.
With seven shows left in Greensboro, the tour was in a bind. During their opening performance, the drummer managed to get through Act I, playing the show with one hand, but Act II went on without drums altogether. David had reached out to several drummers familiar with the show, but no one was available. With time running out, he asked if I could step in, sight-read the music, and fly out to Greensboro in time for the Wednesday night performance.
Thrown Into the Fire
When I arrived in Greensboro that Wednesday morning, I was off to the races. On the flight, I listened to the cast recording, studied audio from the show, and watched conductor cam footage. By 2 p.m., I was at the theater for a whirlwind rehearsal. We ran through Act I and a few key moments from Act II, but there wasn't enough time to cover the entire show.
By 7 p.m., I was in the pit, staring down an audience of 3,000 people, sight-reading one of the most intricate and groove-heavy drum books I'd ever encountered. As Eric Brown once said on the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast, subbing can feel like "a two-hour heart attack." That night, I thought I might need a defibrillator.
The show went well, but it wasn't perfect. After the show, the music director, Eric Kang, and the associate music director, Dionne Hendricks, handed me five pages of notes. Well, it wasn't actually handed to me; it was emailed. Their feedback was quite detailed and direct. In Hadestown and most other shows, almost everything we play as drummers serves a purpose and is often tightly tied to the choreography, lighting, and storytelling. Those notes became my guide, and by the final Greensboro performance, I'd settled in with the band and the cast. I also got fewer and fewer notes!
The Road Ahead
After Greensboro, I traveled with the Hadestown cast to Toledo, Ohio, for another week of performances. When that run ended, other drummers rotated in to sub for a few weeks, as the chairholder's condition wasn't improving. About three weeks later, I got the call again, and I rejoined the tour, playing shows in Birmingham, Alabama; Norfolk, Virginia; Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Syracuse.
I hadn't toured a show since 2000, and this was my first time experiencing a SET tour. A SET (short engagement tour) is different from the bus-and-truck tour I did many years ago. With SET tours, you typically stay in each city for a week at a time. While it's less grueling than bus-and-truck tours—which involve shorter stops and more frequent travel—it still comes with challenges. Each week meant a new city, a new hotel, a new theater, and the need to find a rhythm in unfamiliar surroundings. Travel days were a constant, as were the logistics of finding food and maintaining focus in an ever-changing environment.
Bus-and-truck tours, which often involve playing one or two nights in a city before packing up and hitting the road, are much more taxing. I could handle them easily in my thirties, but at my "advanced" age now, they'd be a whole different ballgame. Touring is one of the best options when you're young, mobile, and not tied to any one city. It's an incredible way to see the country, hone your craft, and experience the unique demands of live theater.
Lessons From the Road
Jumping from Greensboro to Toledo and eventually crisscrossing the country—was a crash course in preparation. There were several things I learned from that experience. Here are a few takeaways that you might find useful:
