Danny Burstein

Danny Burstein (born June 16, 1964) is an American actor of stage and screen, who made his Broadway debut in 1992. He is a six-time Tony Award nominee; for The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), South Pacific (2008), Follies (2012), Golden Boy (2013), Cabaret (2014), and Fiddler on the Roof (2016). He has also won two Drama Desk Awards, three Outer Critics Circle Awards, and received two Grammy Award nominations. His other Broadway credits include The Seagull (1992), Saint Joan (1993), and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010).

Burstein’s television work includes a feature-length episode of the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (2002); a Staten Island father in the first season of Louie (2010); he appeared as different characters in six episodes of the original NBC drama series Law & Order (1995–2015), and played the recurring part of Lolly Steinman on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–11). His film appearances include Transamerica (2005), Deception (2008), The Family Fang (2015), and Indignation (2016).

Life

Burstein was born in Mt. Kisco, New York, and was raised in New York City.[1] Danny’s biological parents separated when he was two months old. He was raised by his mother, Virginia (Vega), a painter, and his stepfather, Harvey Burstein, a professor of Greek philosophy.[2][3] His mother, who is from Costa Rica, is Catholic and of Spanish descent, and his stepfather is Jewish.[4][5][6] Burstein attended the High School of the Performing Arts and Queens College in New York City. He received an MFA in Acting from the University of California, San Diego in 1990. Burstein’s first acting job was in the chorus of The Music Man at The Muny in St. Louis during college.[7] Burstein is married to actress Rebecca Luker[34] and has two sons, Alexander and Zachary.[35][36]

Career

On Broadway, Burstein’s eighteen appearances, which have garnered him six Tony Award nominations, have included A Little Hotel on the Side (1992), Yakov in The Seagull (1992–93), in Saint Joan and Three Men on a Horse (both in 1993), Paul in Company (1995), 1st Officer William Murdoch in Titanic (1997–99), Aldolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone (2006–07),[8] Luther Billis in South Pacific (2008–10),[9] Taxi Driver in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (2010–11), Tokio in Golden Boy (2012–2013),[10] Max in the Sharr White play The Snow Geese (2013),[11] Herr Schultz in the 2014 revival of Cabaret (2014–15) and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (2015–2016).
Burstein’s Off-Broadway credits include Rajiv Joseph’s Describe the Night at the Atlantic Theater Company; Talley’s Folly opposite Sarah Paulson at The Roundabout Theater Company for which he was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award and a Drama League Award; the world premieres of A. R. Gurney’s Mrs. Farnsworth (2004), opposite Sigourney Weaver and John Lithgow, at The Flea Theater[12] and Psych (2001) at Playwrights Horizons.[13] He also starred in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (1996 and 2002) at the Westside Theatre;[14] as Ru/Floor Monitor/Pianist in Merrily We Roll Along (1994) at the York Theatre at St. Peter’s Church;[15] All in the Timing at the Houseman; as Daniel in Alan Menken and David Spencer’s Weird Romance at the WPA; as Solomon in The Rothschilds and Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, both at Circle in the Square; The United Way at Ensemble Studio Theater; and A Class Act at Manhattan Theatre Club. He appeared in four concerts at Carnegie Hall including: the Ira Gershwin centennial, as Steward in Sail Away (1999) and in Candide (operetta) (2018).[16][17] He appeared in the Encores! (New York City Center) staged concert productions of DuBarry Was a Lady (1996), as Romeo Skragg in Li’l Abner (1998), as Tailor-Merchant in The Boys from Syracuse (1997) and as Mister Mister in The Cradle Will Rock (2013).[17][18][19]
He played the role of Buddy Plummer in the Kennedy Center production of Follies, which ran from May 7, 2011 through June 19, 2011 at the Eisenhower Theater, co-starring with Bernadette Peters, Ron Raines, and Jan Maxwell.[20] He reprised that role in the Broadway engagement of Follies at the Marquis Theatre from August 7, 2011 (in previews) through January 22, 2012, and continued with the production in its engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, California from May 3, 2012 through June 9, 2012.[21] He won the Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical[22] and was nominated for the Tony Award, Best Actor in a Musical.[23]
Burstein can be heard on the cast recording of many of these musicals. Among his many recordings is the musical Sweet Little Devil in which he introduced three George Gershwin, Buddy DeSylva songs. The score originally went unrecorded in 1924 and was finally recorded by PS Classics, with Burstein playing the role of Sam in 2012.[24]
Burstein’s film roles include Duane Incarnate (2004),[25] Transamerica (2005),[26] Deception (2008), Nor’easter (2013), Trust, Greed, Bullets and Bourbon (2013), American Milkshake (2013), Autumn Whispers (2013), Affluenza (2014), Blackhat (2015), directed by Michael Mann, The Family Fang (2015), opposite Nicole Kidman and directed by Jason Bateman, Construction (2015), Indignation (2016), written and directed by James Schamus, and The Sounding, written & directed by Catherine Eaton. His many television credits include guest starring on Tales of the City (2019), Fosse/Verdon (2019), The Blacklist (2019), Madam Secretary (2018), NCIS: New Orleans (2018), Instinct (2018), Elementary (2017), all the Law & Order series, the BBC’s Absolutely Fabulous (2002), the FX series Louie (2010), and The Good Wife (2015). He was cast in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire after director Martin Scorsese saw him in South Pacific, and after auditioning for three different characters, he landed the part of Lolly Steinman.[27]
Burstein has lent his voice in a number of video games, including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Manhunt 2, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Neverwinter Nights 2.
He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Frosch in Die Fledermaus (2013–14 season).
Burstein serves on the Artists Committee of the Kennedy Center Honors and has been a guest lecturer teaching at many universities such as Yale, NYU, Juilliard, UCSD and Queens College.
Burstein played the role of Tevye in the 2015 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, at the Broadway Theatre, directed by Bartlett Sher. The revival began in previews on November 20, 2015 and officially opened on December 20, 2015 and closed on December 31st, 2016.[28][29][30]
In the summer of 2017, he played the role of Nick Bottom in the New York Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
He appeared as Alfred P. Doolittle in the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center Theater from January 8, 2019.[31] He is currently appearing on Broadway in Moulin Rouge! as Harold Zidler. Moulin Rouge! played its pre-Broadway performances at the Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston from July 10, 2018 to August 19, 2018.[32][33]

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat	Benjamin	St. Louis Municipal Opera
1992	A Little Hotel on the Side	Porter, Constable	Broadway
1992–93	The Seagull	Yakov	Broadway
1993	Saint Joan	Page to Dunois	Broadway
1993	Three Men on a Horse	Delivery Boy	Broadway
1994	The Flowering Peach	Japheth (Standby)	Broadway
1995	Company	Paul	Broadway
1996	DuBarry Was a Lady	Ensemble	Encores!/New York City Center
1997	The Boys from Syracuse	Tailor-Merchant	Encores!/New York City Center
1997–99	Titanic	William Murdoch/Passenger	Broadway
1998	Li’l Abner	Romeo Skragg	Encores!/New York City Center
2001	A Class Act	Ed, Lehman (Standby)	Broadway
2006–07	The Drowsy Chaperone	Aldolpho	Broadway
2008–10	South Pacific	Luther Billis	Broadway
2010–11	Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown	Taxi Driver	Broadway
2011	Follies	Buddy Plummer	Washington, D.C./Pre-Broadway
2011–12			Broadway
2012			Los Angeles/Regional
2012–13	Golden Boy	Tokio	Broadway
2013	The Cradle Will Rock	Mister Mister	Encores!/New York City Center
2013	Snow Geese	Max Hohmann	Broadway
2014–15	Cabaret	Herr Schultz	Broadway
2015–16	Fiddler on the Roof	Tevye	Broadway
2017	A Midsummer Night’s Dream	Nick Bottom	Shakespeare in the Park
2018	Moulin Rouge!	Harold Zidler	Boston/Pre-Broadway
2019	My Fair Lady	Alfred P. Doolittle	Broadway
2019	Moulin Rouge!	Harold Zidler	Broadway

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Giant Robo: The Animation	Professor Franken Von Vogler (voice)	English version Direct-to-video
1997	Jungle Emperor Leo	Minus (voice)	English version
2003	SW 2.5 (The Pitch Wars)	George Lucas / Rob Reiner / Kevin Smith	Short film
2004	Duane Incarnate	George
2005	Transamerica	Dr. Spikowsky
2006	Spectropia	Ball Guest
2008	Deception	Clute Controller
2012	Nor’easter	Paul Moore
2013	American Milkshake	Coach
2013	Autumn Whispers	Gordon Murkle	Short film
2013	Trust, Greed, Bullets & Bourbon	Hector
2014	Russian Broadway Shut Down	Luther Billis	Short film
2014	Affluenza	Ira Miller
2015	Blackhat	Associate Warden Jeffries
2015	The Family Fang	Eric Wilcox
2015	Construction	Jay
2015	Bad Dads	Unknown role	Short film
2016	Indignation	Max Messner
2017	The Sounding	Anderson
2018	Lucy in the Sky	Dan	Short film

Awards and Nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2006	Tony Award	Best Featured Actor in a Musical	The Drowsy Chaperone	Nominated
2008	Tony Award	Best Featured Actor in a Musical	South Pacific	Nominated
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical		Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Won
2012	Tony Award	Best Actor in a Musical	Follies	Nominated
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Won
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Won
	Astaire Award	Outstanding Male Dancer in a Broadway Show		Nominated
2013	Tony Award	Best Featured Actor in a Play	Golden Boy	Nominated
2014	Tony Award	Best Featured Actor in a Musical	Cabaret	Nominated
2014	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical	Cabaret	Nominated
2016	Tony Award	Best Actor in a Musical	Fiddler on the Roof	Nominated
	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Won
	Drama League Award	Distinguished Performance		Nominated
	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Actor in a Musical		Won
2017	Grammy Award	Best Musical Theater Album		Nominated
2019	IRNE Awards	Best Supporting Actor in a Musical	Moulin Rouge!	Won