Danny Burstein
Encyclopedia
Danny Burstein is a versatile American actor who is known for his work in theater, film and television. He won the 2008 Outer Critics Circle Award
for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and was nominated for the 2008 Drama Desk Award
and 2008 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his work in South Pacific
. He was also nominated for a 2006 Ovation Award and a 2006 Tony Award
for his performance in The Drowsy Chaperone
.
in 1990. Burstein is married to actress Rebecca Luker
and has two sons, Alexander and Zachary.
Burstein's first acting job was in the chorus of The Music Man
at the The Muny
in St. Louis during college.
On Broadway
, Burstein's twelve appearances 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), Luther Billis in South Pacific
(2008–10), and Taxi Driver in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
(2010–11).
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 in Washington, DC. His co-stars were Bernadette Peters
, Ron Raines
and Jan Maxwell
. He is reprising that role in the Broadway engagement of "Follies," which started in previews in August 2011 at the Marquis Theatre
.
Burstein's Off-Broadway
credits include the world premieres of A. R. Gurney
's Mrs. Farnsworth, opposite Sigourney Weaver and John Lithgow, at the Flea Theatre (Gordon) and Psych at Playwrights Horizons. He also starred in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
at the Westside; as Ru in Merrily We Roll Along
at the York; 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; A Class Act
at Manhattan Theater Club; the Ira Gershwin
centennial and as Steward in Sail Away, both at Carnegie Hall; DuBarry Was a Lady
, as Romeo Skragg in Li'l Abner and as Tailor-Merchant in The Boys from Syracuse
, all with the Encores!
Series at New York City Center
.
Burstein can be heard on the cast albums of many of these musicals. He has also appeared in the films, "Nor'easter", "Construction", "Duane Incarnate", "Transamerica" and "Deception", and his many television credits include the BBC's "Absolutely Fabulous", the FX series "Louie" and for HBO, he has the recurring role of Lolly Steinman in "Boardwalk Empire". Burstein has lent his voice to a number of video games, including "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
" and "Grand Theft Auto: IV".
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and was nominated for the 2008 Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
and 2008 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his work in South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
. He was also nominated for a 2006 Ovation Award and a 2006 Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for his performance in The Drowsy Chaperone
The Drowsy Chaperone
The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical with book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. It debuted in 1998 at The Rivoli in Toronto and opened on Broadway on 1 May 2006. The show won the Tony Award for Best Book and Best Score. It started as a spoof of old...
.
Biography
Burstein was born in Mt. Kisco, New York. He 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 DiegoUniversity of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
in 1990. Burstein is married to actress Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker is an American musical theatre actress and soprano who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions.-Life and career:...
and has two sons, Alexander and Zachary.
Burstein's first acting job was in the chorus of The Music Man
The Music Man
The Music Man is a musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and leader and sells band instruments and uniforms to naive townsfolk before skipping town with...
at the The Muny
The Muny
The Muny, short for The Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis, is an outdoor musical theatre, located in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri...
in St. Louis during college.
On Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, Burstein's twelve appearances have included A Little Hotel on the Side (1992), Yakov in The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
(1992–93), in Saint Joan
Saint Joan (play)
Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts...
and Three Men on a Horse
Three Men on a Horse
Three Men on a Horse is a play by George Abbott and John Cecil Holm. The comedy focuses on a man who discovers he has a talent for choosing the winning horse in a race as long as he never places a bet himself.-Plot:...
(both in 1993), Paul in Company
Company (musical)
Company is a musical with a book by George Furth and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The original production was nominated for a record-setting fourteen Tony Awards and won six....
(1995), 1st Officer William Murdoch in Titanic
Titanic (musical)
Titanic is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone that opened on Broadway in 1997. It won five Tony Awards including the award for Best Musical...
(1997–99), Aldolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone
The Drowsy Chaperone
The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical with book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. It debuted in 1998 at The Rivoli in Toronto and opened on Broadway on 1 May 2006. The show won the Tony Award for Best Book and Best Score. It started as a spoof of old...
(2006–07), Luther Billis in South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
(2008–10), and Taxi Driver in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (musical)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a musical with a book by Jeffrey Lane and music and lyrics by David Yazbek. The musical tells the tale of a group of women in late 20th-century Madrid whose relationships with men lead to a tumultuous 48 hours of love, confusion and passion...
(2010–11).
He played the role of Buddy Plummer in the Kennedy Center production of Follies
Follies
Follies is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The story concerns a reunion in a crumbling Broadway theatre, scheduled for demolition, of the past performers of the "Weismann's Follies," a musical revue , that played in that theatre between the World Wars...
, which ran from May 7, 2011 through June 19, 2011 at the Eisenhower Theater in Washington, DC. His co-stars were Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters
Bernadette Peters is an American actress, singer and children's book author from Ozone Park, Queens, New York. Over the course of a career that has spanned five decades, she has starred in musical theatre, films and television, as well as performing in solo concerts and recordings...
, Ron Raines
Ron Raines
Ron Raines is an American actor. He is known for the role of Alan Spaulding on the long-running television soap opera Guiding Light. Raines also performs in musical theatre and in concert with symphony orchestras....
and Jan Maxwell
Jan Maxwell
Jan Maxwell is an American stage and television actress. She is a four-time Tony Award nominee.-Biography:She is the daughter of former First District Judge Ralph B. Maxwell and Elizabeth Maxwell, a lawyer for the EPA. She attended West Fargo High School, West Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead...
. He is reprising that role in the Broadway engagement of "Follies," which started in previews in August 2011 at the Marquis Theatre
Marquis Theatre
The Marquis Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 1535 Broadway in midtown-Manhattan.Situated on the third floor of the Marriott Marquis Hotel, the 1611-seat venue was designed by developer/architect John C. Portman, Jr...
.
Burstein's Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
credits include the world premieres of A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney
A. R. Gurney is an American playwright and novelist. He is known for works including Love Letters, The Cocktail Hour, and The Dining Room. Gurney currently lives in both New York and Connecticut....
's Mrs. Farnsworth, opposite Sigourney Weaver and John Lithgow, at the Flea Theatre (Gordon) and Psych at Playwrights Horizons. He also starred in I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change is a musical comedy with book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy Roberts. It is the second-longest running Off Broadway musical...
at the Westside; as Ru in Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along is a play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It concerns a man who has lost the idealistic values of his youth. Its innovative structure presents the story in reverse order, with the character regressing from a mournful adult to a young man whose future is filled with...
at the York; All in the Timing at the Houseman; as Daniel in Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
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; A Class Act
A Class Act
A Class Act is a musical with a book by Linda Kline and Lonny Price and music and lyrics by Edward Kleban. The musical is based on the life of composer-lyricist Ed Kleban, who died at the age of 48 in 1987...
at Manhattan Theater Club; the Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin
Ira Gershwin was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century....
centennial and as Steward in Sail Away, both at Carnegie Hall; DuBarry Was a Lady
DuBarry Was a Lady
DuBarry Was a Lady is a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter, and the book by Herbert Fields and B.G. DeSylva. The musical starred Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman and Betty Grable, and the song "Friendship" was one of the highlights...
, as Romeo Skragg in Li'l Abner and as Tailor-Merchant in The Boys from Syracuse
The Boys from Syracuse
The Boys from Syracuse is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, based on William Shakespeare's play, The Comedy of Errors, as adapted by librettist George Abbott. The score includes swing and other contemporary rhythms of the 1930s. The show was the first musical...
, all with the Encores!
Encores!
Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert is a program that has been presented by New York City Center since 1994. Encores! is dedicated to performing the full score of musicals that rarely are heard in New York City...
Series at New York City Center
New York City Center
New York City Center is a 2,750-seat Moorish Revival theater located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan, New York City. It is one block south of Carnegie Hall...
.
Burstein can be heard on the cast albums of many of these musicals. He has also appeared in the films, "Nor'easter", "Construction", "Duane Incarnate", "Transamerica" and "Deception", and his many television credits include the BBC's "Absolutely Fabulous", the FX series "Louie" and for HBO, he has the recurring role of Lolly Steinman in "Boardwalk Empire". Burstein has lent his voice to a number of video games, including "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
" and "Grand Theft Auto: IV".