I’ve been involved in five musicals over the past 20 years as the drum position’s chair holder—three Broadway and two off-broadway shows. I started to figure out the producer’s role when I was at my second, Altar Boyz. When I booked my third musical and first Broadway show, Memphis The Musical, back in 2009, I started to understand what a Broadway producer actually does.

The lead producing team on Memphis was Randy Adams, Kenny Alhadeff, Marlene Alhadeff, and Sue Frost. They were FANTASTIC! I can’t say enough good things about all of them.

Not only were they great people, but they treated all of us in the show so nicely. The sense of family was there from the beginning. I remember it began to form when we were in Seattle for our out-of-town tryout. Their generosity and overall good vibes translated into an incredibly successful run and four Tony awards in 2010. The producing team was so damn cool; they decided to host a ten-year reunion at The Cutting Room before the pandemic hit. They didn’t have to do any of that, but they DID.

The good vibes didn’t stop with Memphis. Junkyard Dog Productions went on to produce other shows. Currently, they are the team at Come From Away.

I say all of this because I find it difficult to proclaim Junkyard Dog as the best producing team I’ve worked for. The team at Ain’t Too Proud is equally as good. Ira Pittleman and Tom Hulce are top-notch!

I feel the same way about my Ain’t Too Proud family as I did with Memphis. Ira and Tom have put their blood, sweat, and tears into this show to promote this musical. They have been accessible at all meetings, watched many rehearsals when we were in Berkeley in 2017, and gave us pep talks when our path to an open theater on Broadway was in limbo. Ira and Tom hosted some amazing parties over the years and have been great communicating with us since March.

If you’ve noticed, you’ve seen the cast of Ain’t Too Proud presenting videos online, performing as a part of the 2020 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, bringing Christmas cheer at the Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting special. You’ll see the cast this Thursday evening in Broadway special with Tina Fey and other Broadway musicals. They are doing what it takes to keep the show in the spotlight.

The lead producers of Ain’t Too Proud have also helped out the musicians maintain our health coverage until August. That is huge!

Today, I get this gift basket in the mail.

Little things like this matter.

It’s a reminder that people want us to get back to work and make people happy with the piece of art we present eight times a week.

Thanks, Ira, for this Zabar’s gift basket!

I’m looking forward to getting back into my drum cube and playing drums again.

Clayton Craddock is an independent thinker, father of two beautiful children in New York City. He is the drummer of the hit broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Howard University’s School of Business and is a 28 year veteran of the fast-paced New York City music scene. He has played drums in several hit broadway and off-broadway musicals, including “Tick, tick…BOOM!, Altar Boyz, Memphis The Musical, and Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar and Grill. Also, Clayton has worked on: Footloose, Motown, The Color Purple, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors, Spongebob Squarepants, The Musical, Evita, Cats, and Avenue Q.

You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to my newsletter Think Things Through. This publication is a way to continue my thought-provoking process I started almost a decade ago on other platforms. Hopefully, I’ll make my readers a little more knowledgeable and intellectually curious.