Drumming for Broadway shows demands both musical intuition and physical stamina. As the drummer for traveling Broadway hits such as Flashdance, Back to the Future: The Musical, and Beauty and the Beast, Jaren Angud believes he may well be the hardest-working musician in the pit.

“I definitely burn the most calories per show,” says Angud ’14 MMus A&A, who started on the Back to the Future tour in 2024; until its recent closure, he played over 700 shows in 59 cities across the U.S.

“There’s a lot riding on the drummer’s role in the band,” he says, “so I do my best to be prepared through many hours of practicing on my own with the music, conductor videos, and recordings, and also staying physically fit.”

Angud, who grew up in Mullica Hill, N.J., has been drumming since childhood. He earned bachelor’s degrees in music education and classical and jazz performance from Rowan University before coming to Penn State, where he played in the pit for musical theater productions, tap dance classes, and outreach events that used musical theater students. Through colleagues in the Musical Theatre department, Angud learned about touring production companies such as NETworks and Troika that hire professional musicians for upcoming touring Broadway shows; he submitted audition materials and eventually landed the role of the drummer for the nonunion Broadway tour of Flashdance The Musical, his first touring production after graduation.

“That opened up a whole world and a lot of new doors, which is the way it works in the industry,” he says.

Angud is now drumming for the first national tour of Death Becomes Her. Based in New York, he also conducts educational clinics and teaches master classes at colleges and universities throughout the country while on the road. —David Silverberg