Quinton ‘Q’ Robinson marries his love for theater and drumming by performing with ‘Hamilton’ tour

Drummer Quinton “Q” Robinson likes to say that music chose him, but he chose musical theater.

Starting with the former, Robinson has been drumming since he was just 3 years old, tapping out rhythms with drumsticks his grandfather gave him. As he got older, he started drumming in church and in band class at school.

While in school, Robinson became interested in performing on stage too, not just in the pit, and began the work of balancing both arts. When his teachers told him he should choose one over the other, he decided to focus on drums.

He didn’t leave musical theater far behind though, going so far as to attend a performing arts high school as a music theater major. After graduating from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, Robinson again focused on percussion and toured with musicians like Bobby Brown and Peabo Bryson.

After a while on the road, Robinson started getting the itch to return to his other first love of musical theater. He began flying to New York City any chance he could get and pounding the pavement, as it were, meeting with as many drummers and Broadway musicians as he could.

He eventually made his Broadway debut in “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations,” an audition of sorts to see if he would be a good fit for the “Ain’t Too Proud” tour. Robinson made his Broadway debut in February 2020, just before COVID-19 shut everything down.

One bout of COVID, which left Robinson truly fighting for his life, and a couple years later, the performing world slowly started returning to normal, and he joined the “Ain’t Too Proud” tour. While on the road, he auditioned for and received the percussion position in “Hamilton,” where he’s been since November 2022.

“To be able to partner the two things that I love, pair those things together, and be able to be a part of this, I can’t wait to play tonight,” he said during a recent tour of the “Hamilton” pit.

“Hamilton” continues at the First Interstate Center for the Arts through Sunday. The musical features a book, music and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda based the musical on the book “Alexander Hamilton” by Ron Chernow.

In the pit, Robinson is joined by conductor/keyboard 1 James Davis Jr., associate music director/keyboard 2 Peter Van Reesema, percussionist Katie Steinhauer, concertmaster/violin 1 Hayden Oliver, bassist Chuck Webb, guitarist David Matos, violin 2 Dave Belden, violinist/violist Leslie Deshazor and cellist Rachel Lulsegad.

Randy Deadman is the show’s music associate, Scott Wasserman is the Ableton programmer, and Randy Cohen is the synthesizer and drum programmer.

Robinson said standout musicians can sometimes feel devalued by outsiders because they make it look so easy that people don’t realize how difficult the music is and think any musician could simply step in for another.

While the cast travels with members of the ensemble and standbys who can step in at a moment’s notice, the orchestra doesn’t have the same freedom to take a day off.

Robinson recalls playing a show in Atlanta with a temperature of 103 degrees. The fever made him sensitive to light so he had to play the show from memory rather than referring to the sheet music on his iPad.

At another point in the tour, Matos fell ill to the point where the show had to go on without a guitarist until they were able to fly a replacement musician in from New York.

And while cast members who are new to the show have a stand-in rehearsal with the full cast before their debut performance, musicians sometimes don’t have that luxury.

Robinson, who was touring with “Ain’t Too Proud” when he booked “Hamilton,” learned the show himself while on the road. He then had one extended soundcheck during which he and the orchestra played the “tops and tails” of each song before performing “Hamilton” for the first time.

“Sometimes it can feel devaluing simply because, ‘Oh, that guy came in at the last minute to learn it. We can get anybody to do that.’ And it’s not true,” he said. “It’s not true because it’s one thing to play it right. It’s another thing for it to feel right and the interpretation to be correct in the guise of what’s necessary for the show.

“You can play all of the right notes and still be wrong, especially from a drummer perspective, just because the black and white page, the sheet music, doesn’t necessarily tell you how to play. It just tells you what to play, but you still have to interpret it correctly.”

It helped that Robinson was already comfortable with the genres – R&B, hip-hop, gospel, jazz – which set “Hamilton” apart from other musicals, and the percussion instruments used in the show. He did have to get used to the choreography the show requires from him, for example, setting up a percussion pad for the song “Helpless,” the tenth song he plays, near the top of the show because he doesn’t have time to get it ready closer to the song.

Keeping an even head, and a steady hand, to interpret the sheet music correctly comes partly with experience but also partly with being a naturally gifted drummer.

Robinson sees the sheet music as a GPS that tells him what to play but not how to play it. He recalled times during college in which his playing would start to feel sterile and robotic the moment someone put a piece of music in front of him because he thought that was how the music was telling him to play.

“It was just giving me the direction, where to stop, what left turns to take, what right turns to take, when to slow down, when to speed up,” he said. “But how I play is still coming from the inside, so it’s the balance of it all. It’s understanding what they mean versus what’s there.”

More than 1,000 shows in, Robinson is more than comfortable with the music of “Hamilton,” but the show still keeps him on his toes, as with live performance comes the potential for mistakes or technical difficulties that need to be quickly, but covertly, dealt with.

At this point in the tour, the cast and crew could also handle the not-as-exciting task of loading in and out of each venue with their eyes closed. On Sunday, the show, its sets, tech equipment, costumes, wigs and instruments, will be loaded into 14 trucks.

The “Hamilton” tour uses two sets which essentially leapfrog because it takes about a week to put each set together. The set used in Spokane, for example, will be the set used two tour stops from now in San Diego.

The costumes, wigs and instruments are usually the first items packed up and sent on the road, so they’re at the next venue before or shortly after the cast and crew arrive.

Once the band and instruments arrive at the next venue, they must reconfigure the orchestra to fit. Sometimes the pit doesn’t have the space and/or clearance for Robinson’s “Boom Boom Room,” so he is set apart from the rest of the musicians, watching Davis, who also handles lighting cues while conducting, via a monitor. Robinson has a camera in his room so Davis can see him as well.

Robinson sometimes gets the sense that some audience members see the touring production of a show as being lesser than the Broadway production, but he said it’s perhaps even more daunting to be a touring musician.

They’re away from family and friends for months at a time, plus they’re changing climates with each new city, which can affect the instruments and the musicians themselves.

“You still have to be able to put on an incredible performance,” he said. “Then, because this show has such a cult following, it has to sound like the Disney+ version.”

If at any point the road starts wearing Robinson down, it doesn’t take long for him to perk back up. Seeing audience members in costumes or waiting in the rain to get into the venue, knowing many saved up for months to buy tickets, makes him realize the impact the show has on people’s lives.

“How dare I be like ‘Ugh, I’ve got to go and play this show again,’ ” he said. “Forget the money. I’m at the point in my life, in my career, where it has to mean something. I don’t want to be a part of incidental music. What we do matters, especially if it’s a three-hour distraction from what’s going on in their life. If we can do that, mission accomplished.”