It was pretty clear that Perry Sherman would grow up to be an actor. As a kid, he constantly found ways to get in front of an audience. Now the young performer gets to do that every single day, playing one of the leads in the hit Toronto production of Les Misérables.  

“When I was a kid, it was magic,” he tells The CJN. “I’d show up to family parties with a suitcase full of tricks. I loved entertaining people. Then as I got a little older, I started acting and later singing.”

Sherman grew up in the epicentre of theatre: New York City. Believe it or not, he didn’t catch many Broadway shows during his childhood. “I lived in Long Island and it was difficult to get us all into the city. It was reserved for special occasions,” he says, “so it’s retained a sense of wonder for me.”

In fact, the New Yorker can thank his sister for introducing him to the musical he would later be cast in. “I do remember my mom and sister seeing Les Miserables when it was on Broadway,” he says. “They came back so excited and my sis tried explaining the story to me… I was eight, but her excitement got me excited and that’s how I first got a hold of the soundtrack.”

By high school, Sherman knew he wanted to pursue theatre. He was accepted into the acting conservatory at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, where he met a voice teacher he clicked with and everything just fell into place. In his first year there, Sherman made his way to an open call audition (American Idol-style) for a Boston production of Spring Awakening.

“The show was a dream for any young person involved with music theatre,” he says. “When I found out I had got the job, I was back at school and I flipped out in the cafeteria. It was great. My year of doing that show was life-changing and I made some amazing friends.”

More recently, Sherman landed the main role in a New York production of the Tony Award-winning Avenue Q. That in itself was memorable enough, but the show was also special for another reason. 

“The incredible Rick Lyon, who designed the puppets and starred in the original Broadway production of Avenue Q, decided to direct it,” Sherman says. “He had auditions in New York City and I got cast as the lead. He reworked some of the set designs and most of us who had no puppet training got to work with him for over a month. The puppets were amazing; it’s such a great show.”

Although the play was an incredible experience, Sherman adds it was quite a challenge. “The show was a lot of work though, I had to train my arm to hold up a puppet for two hours.”

Earlier last year, Sherman found himself out of work and decided to be proactive. The performer and a handful of friends made a funny video called Shit Jewish Bitches Say (a response to a trend going on at the time). However, he didn’t expect the self-described “ridiculous” and “silly” video, which pays a cheeky homage to Jewish girls, to go viral the way it did. We’re talking almost 55,000 views.

“That’s what’s great in this day and age, is that something so silly can get recognition. We didn’t expect it to get a lot of attention, but here I am discussing it in an interview,” he says, adding that “it was really a lot of fun to make.”

Last spring, the young actor got cast in a regional mounting of Les Misérables in Utah. He played Marius, the same character he portrays on a much bigger scale in the Mirvish production of the show.

“I knew that [the Toronto] project was coming up when I started it and it was really just an amazing coincidence that this happened,” he says. “It was a gift! I knew the material before starting the rehearsal process here and did some exploration and decision-making.”

Sherman adds: “The director then comes in and tells you it’s all wrong, but at least you’ve made a choice and you’re not indifferent. The longer you play a character the more you discover, to a certain extent. Also, the opportunity to work with a different director on the same project is something you rarely get.”

The actor says booking the Toronto production was anything but a simple task. Being an American meant he had to prove himself. “They really wanted to advertise the show as something Canadian made,” he says. “I had to go in numerous times for the producers and director. Then I had a little work session with my love interest, Sam Hill, who had already been cast. They put me through the ringer, but it was amazing. I fought for the part and it was really satisfying when they offered it to me.”

This isn’t Sherman’s first time in Toronto; he performed Next To Normal at the Four Seasons Centre a few years ago and brought Spring Awakening to the Ed Mirvish Theatre back in 2008. “I love this city,” he admits. “It’s weird to call it home and feel comfortable somewhere other then New York, but it has made an impression on me.”

His advice for aspiring actors is simple: “Don’t wait for opportunity, make your own. Create, sing, act wherever you can and find people who have a similar idea of what art is and start making it with them.”