Briarcliff Broadway Star Returns to His Roots

David Nathan Perlow fell into theater as a student when he followed his crush to Pleasantville's  (LVP) in February of 2001.

"I knew she was auditioning and I had no plans to, but once I got there, I figured, 'Why not?'" he recalled. "As a post script, the girl I liked didn't end up doing the show at all."

But Perlow did.

He was cast as Pirelli in Sweeney Todd, "not knowing it would lead to the most formative theatrical and social experience of my young life," he said in an email.

After graduating from BHS and LVP in 2003, Perlow went on to study drama at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has been a professional actor ever since. In 2010, he was cast in his first Broadway production—La Cage Aux Folles.

"The first time I walked out onto the stage as Jean Michel and played a scene with Kelsey Grammar and Douglas Hodge as my dads...That's an experience I will never forget," he shared. "I was 24, and could not believe I had achieved that moment, I feel deeply fortunate and many times I thought that, again, without LVP I might not be there at all."

Despite being on Broadway and having his "dream come true," Perlow's humble beginnings with LVP are not something he plans on leaving behind anytime soon.

"I go back to do LVP alumni shows whenever I am in town," he shared.

This Sunday, he returns to the stage in the —following an 18-month traveling stint with Broadway's Wicked—under the direction of fellow LVP graduate Maile Hamilton, Class of 2010.

Hamilton, of Briarcliff Manor, also stumbled across LVP through a friend who was performing in the group's production of Sunday in the Park with George.

"They didn't look like kids. They looked like professionals," she recalled.

Hamilton is now a Bard College student who, like Perlow, continues to stay connected with LVP.

"What I love about LVP is that, no matter how long I've been away, I can always come back and expect that it will feel like home," she said.

And for Sunday's revue, she has prepared a show that is focused on fun.

"I really just wanted an excuse to get everyone in the same room to catch up and goof off and create something together again," she said. "Audience members should expect to be very entertained. Everyone performing is so talented and the music everyone has picked is really great. It will also be nice to see a bunch of old folks like us on that stage again."

Both Hamilton and Perlow say they have a special bond with LVP that has stayed with them through their teenage years into adulthood.

"Even though I'm not pursuing theatre in my future, LVP has taught me so much that I will continue to carry with me. So much of who I am comes from the people I spent all of those years with in LVP's productions," said Hamilton. "They taught me to do what I love, to dream, to play, and, most of all, that I am enough. I have always been enough, and I will always be enough, and I am forever grateful for that."

Perlow continues to credit LVP for inspiring his career choice—"I think if not for Adam and LVP I would not have been as sure about my desire to pursue theater in the first place. It was not only the material he chose for us that expanded our abilities and perspectives, but the sense of community and family that he cultivated there...That's what I think I fell in love with in the theater."

He continued, "The work is sometimes inspired and fulfilling and creative, and sometimes not, but, I thought, as long as I have this theater community to be a part of, what could be so bad. I learned that at LVP and still hold all of those friendships very close to my heart to this day."

The features performances by 11 alumni and will be held at the North Castle Public Library (19 Whippoorwill Rd. East, Armonk) on Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are 7 p.m. at the door.

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