Susan Draus - Nov 2015
AFM International Musician November 2015
Cover Story by: Cherie Yurko
Cover Photo by: Jay Mallin
Growing up in Calumet City, Illinois, where students began learning their instruments in kindergarten, Draus thought she would one day be a conductor. The clarinetist seemed well on her path when she attended Interlochen on a full scholarship in 1971. However, she abruptly dropped the instrument that same year. Carole King’s album Tapestry so inspired the young musician, that Draus decided she’d rather become a songwriter. After high school, she launched her own band, Wildwood, before moving to Los Angeles to study music. “I started working in Disneyland with the all-girl band and had my own little band, Outskirts. I wasn’t going down the musical [theater] path at all,” she explains. Instead, her path slowly merged into musical theater almost by accident. “A friend asked if I would music direct this little show at the Melrose Theater called Ten Percent Revue. It was a tiny little stage and a five-person cast, plus me,” she says of the show in which she also played, sang, and danced. To their surprise, Ten Percent Revue won several Drama-Logue awards, including Best Music Director and Best Ensemble.
After completing keyboard and film scoring programs at the Dick Grove School of Music, Draus moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1991 to become Artist in Residence at Smoky Hill High School. While the teaching was great, Denver didn’t offer many choices as far as bands to play in, so she sought projects at local theaters. Eventually, she became music director for the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities where her passion for musical theater grew. “Arvada was definitely my training ground for musical theater,” she says. “We did classics like Gypsy, Singing in the Rain, and West Side Story, but we also did Violet and Blood Brothers. It was great for me to learn how to conduct and play at the same time. I loved it.” “My first big national tour was Mamma Mia,” says Draus. “I started out on keyboard 4 and worked my way up to music director/keyboard 1.” Following Mamma Mia, Draus did Good Vibrations on Broadway, but decided she liked touring better. She’s traveled with Billy Elliot, Sister Act, and Book of Mormon. But Beautiful is special. “It really has come full circle for me, every single aspect,” says Draus.
Draus never dreamed she would one day combine her admiration for the songs of Carole King with her passion for musical theater. Draus’s favorite Carole King song, and the one that made her want to be a songwriter, is “It’s Too Late.” However, her favorite song to perform in the show is “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” because of “how it’s placed in the show, and the emotion around it.” Beautiful travels with three musicians, aside from Draus, who is also conductor/keyboardist. It picks up eight local musicians at each stop. And though she would prefer to travel with as many permanent musicians as possible, she says Beautiful lends itself well to this arrangement. “This show is laid out so it kind of plays off itself. Not every show is this straight ahead with its songs,” she explains. Among the perks of the job of a touring music director is the travel itself and the nationwide venues she gets to play at. “I’ve gotten to see this country and cities I would never have gone to before this. I love that,” says Draus. “Right now, for crying out loud, I’m conducting in the Kennedy Center. We are going to play the Pantages Theatre in L.A. That’s pretty cool!”
Among the challenges of the job is working eight shows a week, plus rehearsals. “Our thing is, every time you step up there you are trying for a perfect show,” she says. “I don’t think people realize how many rehearsals there are, especially for the keyboardist.” Aside from the doubles on Saturday and Sunday, there is a rehearsal and sound check on Tuesday, plus rehearsals Wednesday through Friday. And, on Tuesdays in a new city, Draus starts at square one with a fresh group of local musicians. “After a while, I am tired of my own voice and saying the same things,” she says. “How many ways can you say crescendo?” But, there’s also an upside to moving to a new city. “No matter who you are—on stage or down in the pit—if you are doing eight shows a week it gets to be this routine, and you can check out pretty easily. What keeps it fresh is that—bam!—we are in a new environment. It sounds different, looks different, new people in the pit. You get this new boost of energy, which is pretty cool. I can’t tell you how many times people come up and tell me, ‘Gosh, the tour sounds so fantastic!’ I think we keep it fresh because every two weeks you are in a new environment.”
Draus says it can be difficult not having other musical diversions on the road. “When you are in New York you can step out and do other gigs. When you are out here, after a while, you start wondering if you could even read a chord chart or play another piece of music.” For this reason, Draus says the traveling musicians seek other projects to work on. Draus also has her own company, Tantrum Productions, which provides arrangements for schools, choirs, and corporate events, and original works across the country. A long-time AFM member, Draus says she always sticks with union gigs. “They are always higher paying and better working conditions.” Through the union, she is also able to network with musicians in the field to find new work and recommend others for jobs. She has advice for other union musicians interested in musical theater work. “Work on sight reading and your ability to play all styles,” Draus says. “Network with musicians. If you want to be a pit musician, go right up to the MD and just say, ‘I’m a student and I’m studying this, and I would really love to do what you do, can I sit in the pit?’ That’s invaluable.”
Even with all the challenges of life on the road, Draus realizes that she is lucky to be performing in a job she loves. “I’ve only had four regular ‘day’ jobs in my life and they probably total a year altogether. I’ve been able to make my living as a musician and that’s pretty cool. I’ve been very lucky. The last 10 years have been really great, going from one show to the next. I’ve met such lovely people—great contractors, general managers, music supervisors, and everybody involved.”
