Podcast #105 - Morgan Parker

Morgan is the drummer on the national tour of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical. Six hundred shows in. Almost quit drumming in high school. Grew up in a small town in Kansas with no real map for any of this. Found her way to NYU, subbed MJ and Yiddish Fiddler simultaneously, and landed a tour that’s run nearly two years.

Her path is not the one anybody draws up. And the way she talks about trust, subbing, ego, and what actually gets you hired — it’s the kind of honesty you don’t hear enough of.

We also get into:

* What she does at the kit during the show that nobody expects — and why it actually works

* How studying West African music under Valerie Naranjo at NYU rewired the way she hears everything

* The blacklist situation she handled with more integrity than most veterans twice her age

* The subbing etiquette mistakes that quietly kill a reputation before it even starts

* What she learned about ego, patience, and being comfortable with uncertainty from the people ahead of her

Episode #105 is out now. The video version drops this Friday on YouTube.

If this is your first time here — Broadway Drumming 101 is the podcast and resource built for drummers and musicians who want to work in musical theater. New episodes drop regularly. Subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.

Subscribe to Broadway Drumming 101 on Substack →

And if the podcast has helped you — even just one episode — leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It takes two minutes and it’s the best way to help other drummers find this. It means more than you know.

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