Lakewood Man is Part of Group that Catches Cleveland Clinic Off-Guard With Flash Mob Performance

Lakewood resident Jared Leal has found the perfect way to combine his passions for both nursing and performing.

He did so last week in the lobby (that’s right, in the lobby) of the Cleveland Clinic where he works. That’s where Leal gave quite a surprise to doctors, patients and visitors, when he and a team of actors from the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music shared a flash mob performance with those who happened to be near.

The hospital was fairly normal up to then.

Complete with piano, singing and choreography, Leal and company caught the hospital off-guard with the performance of "Seasons of Love" from Rent and "Musetta's Song" from La Boheme.

Leal, a registered nurse at the hospital, left his shift for about 15 minutes to participate in the flash mob. The performance coincided with the hospital's focus on Heart Month.

“For so long, I had kept (nursing and performing) separate — focusing on one or the other,” he said. “My whole goal was to be able to do both. I never thought I would be singing in the lobby. I walk by there every day, I see the piano and listen to the acoustics of the space.”

The performance was sanctioned by the hospital's administration.

An Amherst native and a 1997 graduate of the Conservatory of Music at Baldwin-Wallace College, Leal plays the role of Marcello in Baldwin-Wallace's current production of La Boheme, presented in repertoire with Rent.

Leal had a successful career in musical theatre in Chicago before returning to the Cleveland area to pursue a career change in nursing. The 2010 graduate of Cuyahoga Community College's nursing program had also spent time working at a Lakewood bank.

“I love nursing,” he said. “I go home exhausted at the end of the day, but I know that I’ve helped people feel better. It’s a rewarding schedule. One of the things I love about the Cleveland Clinic is I am able to set my own schedule. It’s allowed me to pick up my love of performing and music and pick up where I’ve left off.”

“I am living the best of both worlds right now.”