Broadway Drumming 101 - The Podcast

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 The Dust Bowl Radio Hour, a new musical with a concept album.
In this conversation we get into how all of it happened. How she chose the University of Minnesota specifically to study with Fernando Meza, the original percussionist for The Lion King. How she wrote a letter to the drummer from The Band’s Visit as a high school student, had it delivered to the stage door, and how that relationship eventually led to her finding out about the Blue Man audition years later.
And the audition itself. She was in a remote desert town in Spain — 400 people, no drum set anywhere nearby — when she got the call. She drove two and a half hours, rented the one kit in a back room, and filmed her audition in 115-degree heat with no air conditioning. She booked the role.
We also get into what it means to originate a role versus step into a chair, how the Book of Mormon book is one of the most technically demanding on tour right now, and why following curiosity sideways — marimba physicality, Ableton, a fun cover video — has shaped her career in ways she never planned.
Catch this episode wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you’re finding value in these conversations, please leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts — it helps other musicians find the show.
Resources
If you’re serious about landing a gig in this business, start with the free How to Land a Broadway Gig Roadmap. It breaks down how the industry actually works — who the key players are, how relationships drive hiring, and how to position yourself to get the call. Free with any subscription to Broadway Drumming 101.broadwayboundbook.com/roadmap
For the full picture, pick up Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career. Everything the roadmap introduces, the book goes deeper on — the mindset, the preparation, the relationships, and the financial side of sustaining a career long-term.broadwayboundbook.com
And coming soon — Broadway Bound and Beyond: The Course. The Career Foundation Every Working Musician Needs (But Nobody Teaches). More details dropping soon. Stay subscribed.
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


Get full access to Broadway Drumming 101 at broadwaydrumming101.substack.com/subscribe

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 goes deep into the jazz world. He’s played with Freddie Hendrix, Roberta Gamberini, Mark Gross, and Eric Alexander. He’s worked with Michael Urbaniak and Andy Snitzer. He was part of The New Voices of Freedom and joined Howard Paul for sessions with Tom Scott and Anat Cohen. He’s played with Ali Ryerson alongside Mark Egan and Pete Levin, and worked the Wolfgang Lackerschmid group with Attila Zoller, Ed Cherry, Cameron Brown, and Mark Egan. He’s also recorded with pianist Johannes Mossinger’s band, a lineup stacked with Joel Frahm, Calvin Jones, Don Braden, Boris Kozlov, and Kermit Driscoll.
He’s subbed on Broadway too: Hamilton, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Ain’t Too Proud, Bring It On, and Two Strangers. And when he’s not touring or subbing, he’s teaching. Karl is Co-Chair of the Percussive Arts Society Education Committee and adjunct faculty at four schools: Drew University, County College of Morris, Raritan Valley Community College, and Blair Academy.
Karl is an endorsing artist for Yamaha Drums, Paiste Cymbals, ProMark Drumsticks, Evans Drumheads, Big Fat Snare, AEA Microphones, Radial Engineering, Heil Sound, ProLogix Percussion, and RME.
Press play. And if this episode gives you something, leave us a five-star review wherever you listen. It takes thirty seconds and it means a lot to the show.

Broadway Bound and Beyond isn’t theory. It’s twenty-six years on Broadway broken down into what actually works: how auditions really get decided, how reputation gets built or destroyed, how money works in this business, why versatility keeps you employed, and what it takes to last decades instead of one season. If you want the full career picture, the hardcover is at broadwayboundbook.com.
If subbing is specifically your way in, the book gets you the mindset and the etiquette, but the Broadway Sub Playbook goes further. It’s the actual system: the four-week prep formula, the show-day routine, how to take notes that stick, how to handle a pit you’ve never sat in before. It’s built for one job — getting you ready for that call when it comes — and it’s the resource a lot of working subs wish they’d had before their first one.
Grab both at signaturebrandworks.com.
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


Get full access to Broadway Drumming 101 at broadwaydrumming101.substack.com/subscribe

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 Broadway Orchestra under Ted Sperling. Over 40 theatrical productions in New York City.
That’s not a resume. That’s a body of work built one gig at a time.
He also came up the right way — NYU Steinhardt, Percussion Performance, University Honors, with minors in Business of Entertainment and Producing.
In this episode, we get into what it actually took. How he approached learning difficult books. How he thinks about subbing. What touring taught him about professionalism. How electronic drumming and programming became part of his toolkit — not as a novelty, but as a necessity.
We also talk about his studies with James Saporito, Shawn Pelton, and Valerie Naranjo. Three teachers who shaped how he hears music and approaches the instrument.
This is a conversation about longevity. About what it actually takes to last in this business. About being the kind of drummer people call — and call back.
If you’re serious about how to get into subbing on Broadway, or getting a tour, this one’s worth your time.
For more: https://www.jared-shaw.com
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



Get full access to Broadway Drumming 101 at broadwaydrumming101.substack.com/subscribe

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 who else they put in the band. There was one guy he wanted on drums. Not Chuck Burgi — who had literally replaced Phil Collins in Brand X and was calling in every favor he had to get the gig. Gary Seligson. The one he heard play in the theater when nobody knew he was watching.
That’s the kind of reputation you build over a career that most Broadway musicians would trade anything for.
I chatted with Gary on August 24, 2021. The video is on the Broadway Drumming 101 YouTube channel. Now the audio is available everywhere you get your podcasts — Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen.
Gary is a Grammy Award winner who originated the drum books and recorded the cast albums for Aida, Wicked, Tarzan, A Little Princess, School of Rock, and Soft Power. He held the drum chair on Billy Elliot for over three years. He’s on the Motown: The Musical cast recording playing percussion. His Broadway credits span more than two decades — from The Gershwins’ Fascinating Rhythm in 1999 through Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ and Harmony in 2023. In 2025, he headed back out on the road with the Beauty and the Beast revival. He’s also subbed on more than 20 Broadway productions, including Chicago, The Lion King, Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, Cats, and Rent.
Gary grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, banging on his mother’s pots and pans before his father bought him a tiny metal snare drum at age three. He studied with the same teacher from second grade through twelfth grade. He went to the Hartt School of Music in Hartford. He found his way to Gary Chester in New York, who completely rewired how he thought about the instrument, and then told him flat out: never leave town for more than four weeks.
Gary took a touring gig anyway.
Nine years on the road followed. And the moment he pulled into his mother’s driveway after finally deciding to come home, the phone rang. It was Bob Billig calling about Chicago. That’s how this business works when you’ve done the groundwork.
We get into his first Broadway subbing experience at The King and I — walking into the pit two hours before curtain, sitting down at a drum set that felt completely foreign, getting thrown out by the stage manager before the show even started, then spending an hour and forty-five minutes walking around Midtown getting more nervous with every step. Trial by fire. He made the cut, and word traveled fast.
We talk about what it felt like to play alongside Elton John in an Aida rehearsal room. We talk about Phil Collins tapping a pencil on a desk during Tarzan rehearsals — not even playing, just tapping — and how the groove was so wide the entire room felt it. And we talk about the moment Gary flew himself to San Francisco on JetBlue just to watch Wicked out of town, because he needed to know for himself whether to leave Aida for it.
He knew by the first number.
Gary is a Pearl Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Pro-Mark Sticks, Grover Percussion, and Remo Heads endorser, and has been featured in Modern Drummer and DRUM magazine multiple times.
Press play. And if this episode gives you something, please leave us a glowing five-star review wherever you’re listening. It takes 30 seconds and it means everything to the show.
If you’re serious about your own path in this industry, pick up Broadway Bound and Beyond at broadwayboundbook.com. Signed copies at signaturebrandworks.com.
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


Get full access to Broadway Drumming 101 at broadwaydrumming101.substack.com/subscribe

This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I chatted with Rodney Howard in February of 2022. He was in his drum room — blue kit behind him, Meshell Ndegeocello shirt on — and what started as a podcast felt more like a conversation between two guys who just happened to both live in this world.
I had a great time revisiting this one.
The Lost Boys is now running at the Palace Theatre with 12 Tony nominations, including Best Musical. It’s the most Tony-nominated musical of 2026. Rodney is the percussionist on that show. Before that, he held the drum chair at Mrs. Doubtfire, subbed some of the hardest chairs on Broadway, and spent years on the road with Avril Lavigne, Gavin DeGraw, and Regina Spektor.
This episode is about how you build that kind of career. He started on saxophone. Switched to drums at 17. Moved to New York not thinking about Broadway at all. Then Jeff Campbell put his name in front of Chris Parker, and the rest is a masterclass in being ready when the call comes.
Two things from this conversation I almost forgot about that were really important. First, he said, take notes literally and broadly, but not too literally. He learned that the hard way at Lion King, following a sub-conductor’s shaky conducting because Tommy told him to follow the conductor. The notes you get points you somewhere, but it doesn’t replace your judgment.
Second, when you sub, use what the drummer uses for monitoring. Not your nice headphones. Not your in-ears. Whatever they use. The mix was built around that. He said he’s personally tanked a sub gig because he didn’t. Said it like a man who doesn’t enjoy repeating the experience.
The video drops this Friday. Go listen.
Originally released February 2022 on the Broadway Drumming 101 Podcast.
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


Get full access to Broadway Drumming 101 at broadwaydrumming101.substack.com/subscribe