Columbia native makes Broadway debut in ‘Cats’

Every day, and sometimes twice a day, Columbia native Daniel Gaymon finds himself under Broadway’s bright lights, with his Broadway debut in “Cats,” a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular musical.

Gaymon plays Macavity, a villainous feline with fiery orange and black stripes, and Plato, a playful ginger cat.

It’s a dream realized for a boy whom dance teachers said could barely do the splits when he first started taking classes at age 9.

Dale Lam, Gaymon’s former teacher at Columbia City Jazz Dance School, flew to New York to see him perform on opening night July 31 at the Neil Simon Theatre.

“I started crying,” she said. “A teacher could not have a better moment.”

Having his “dance mom” in the audience was meaningful, Gamon said. “I was so happy to have her there.”

Gaymon started dancing with Lam in an after-school program at Webber Elementary in Eastover. At first, Gaymon was simply trying to do something after school that was “more interesting than homework,” but he showed such promise that he became a sponsored dancer at Columbia City Jazz.

He graduated in 2011 from Lower Richland High School and spent a year studying dance at the University of South Carolina before leaving to tour with Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance. He also toured with Jaci Royal’s Royal Flux and Travis Wall’s Shaping Sound, which came to Columbia Feb. 3.

After two tours with Shaping Sound, Gaymon auditioned in February for “Cats.” The original production, among Broadway’s longest-running shows, opened in 1982 and ran for 7,485 performances.

“I wasn’t going to go. I was insecure about it [because] I didn’t have any acting or singing chops already in the bag,” Gaymon said. “But I went in there and I sang Frank Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon.’”

He was cast in the musical shortly after.

“It was pretty crazy, but I always feel that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,” he said.

Soon, Gaymon was in rehearsals learning the choreography, which includes tap, jazz, and hip-hop, as well as feline-esque prowling and leaping, all set against a grungy junkyard backdrop.

When Gaymon told his father, Reggie, about landing the role, the senior Gaymon recalled the times his son watched “Cats” on VHS as a boy. This was the same boy who loved dancing to Michael Jackson and would come home from dance practice, headphones in ears, and go through moves over and over, he said.

“I am very thankful that he is living his dream,” Reggie Gaymon said. “Not a lot of people get an opportunity to do that.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2016 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Columbia native makes Broadway debut in ‘Cats’."