MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Brandon Leffler recalls falling in love with the arts at a young age, thanks to one musical.
"I came home from school one day and my dad was like, 'Hey, there is this show on TV and I recorded it for you," Leffler remembered. "'It's called "Cats." You should watch it.'
"I wore that VHS out. I watched it so many times, and then, my first Broadway tour was the national tour of 'Cats.'"
Leffler went on to take dance classes in Willoughby at Spotlight Dance Center, which is now in Mentor. He also tried show choir at Mayfield High School, and realized he'd found his passion in dance.
Those experiences propelled his career, taking him on and off Broadway with many dance companies and even as a dancing extra on Saturday "Night Live." He appears on the Andy Samberg digital short "People Getting Punched Right Before Eating" as a dancing zombie.
His most recent Broadway show was "My Fair Lady." The tour was even supposed to stop in Cleveland, until the curtain suddenly fell on Leffler's career when COVID-19 hit.
"Representatives from 'My Fair Lady' kept reaching out and saying, 'Okay, we're going to resume next month,' then the next two months, then in the fall," Leffler recalled. "Then at some point, it just became a little hopeless, because we didn't know if we'd ever have a job."
He had all but moved on to television full-time when Broadway decided the show must go on. Leffler found himself filling in as a chorus member for "My Fair Lady."
"I got there and [the director] handed me the tracking sheet, which is [a] written notation of what the track does," Leffler said. "He sent me a link to the video of the show and was like, 'Okay, can you be on tonight? Can you go on tonight?' And I was like, 'Sure!'"
Nowadays, Leffler is back to his dancing roots, serving as assistant choreographer for the new "Jackass Forever" movie and as an instructor for the dance company "LA Dance Magic." Though his career has taken him in many directions, there's only one way he'd tell aspiring performers to go.
"If it is what makes you feel alive, do it," he advised. "You have to do it. You'll find a way."