According to Danny Burstein, his next Broadway play is about 鈥渉ow we make the donuts,鈥� his sweeter variation on 鈥渉ow the sausage is made.鈥� Is your mouth watering yet?
Burstein is starring as real-life photographer Larry Sultan in Sharr White new play Pictures From Home, beginning performances January 13 at Broadway鈥檚 Studio 54. The work鈥檚 source material is pretty unusual: A 1992 art photo album by Larry Sultan that attempts to capture his enigmatic parents.
Sultan, who died in 2009, spent eight years making trips to California鈥檚 San Fernando Valley to photograph and interview his parents, who are played on Broadway by Nathan Lane and Zo毛 Wanamaker. The result of Sultan鈥檚 efforts was a stunning collection of photographs accompanied by Sultan鈥檚 journal-like, almost stream-of-consciousness writing. Raw and unflinchingly authentic, the book puts readers in Sultan鈥檚 mind鈥攁nd camera lens鈥攁s he attempts to create something without even knowing what that something is, a process aptly similar to creating theatre.
And that brings us back to those donuts鈥攐r, rather, the making of them. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just a piece of art,鈥� Burstein says of the play, which he鈥檚 been developing since its first readings in 2021. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going backstage and seeing what the process of making art is like. It is the play version, in a way, of Sunday in the Park With George.鈥�
Even though he hasn鈥檛 (yet) starred in that particular Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical, Burstein has been making theatre for more than three decades; he won a Tony (after six earlier nominations) in 2020 for his performance as Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
And appropriately given this newest Broadway venture, much of Burstein鈥檚 own understanding of art and its creation came from his parents, two lifelong teachers. Their love of art meant Burstein spent his youth growing up in the Bronx surrounded by it: 鈥淢y mom is a painter, so we had so many books of the great artists around the house鈥攁nd her own paintings, which were remarkable. And thank God they had musical theatre albums that I loved.鈥�
Burstein remembers telling his father that he wanted to go to the High School of Performing Arts and become an actor. He was expecting the trope of the parent worried their artist child will never be able to make a living, but instead he got, 鈥淲ell, great!鈥� In fact, Burstein鈥檚 father has no one but himself to blame for his son鈥檚 love of the theatre.
鈥淎s a kid, I was a terrible reader. My dad would give me books and I鈥檇 give up 60 pages in, which is not a great thing for the son of two teachers,鈥� Burstein admits. His father, a writer who studied with Philip Roth at the University of Iowa鈥檚 Writers鈥� Workshop, was concerned, to say the least. 鈥淗e knew that [reading] would be important to me in the long run鈥攁nd it was.鈥�
Everything changed at 10 years old when Burstein鈥檚 father thought to let him have a go at reading a play script: Ibsen鈥檚 Peer Gynt. The dialogue form made everything suddenly click. 鈥淚 understood that,鈥� Burstein recalls. 鈥淚 understood people working out ideas, arguing or falling in love. I could relate to it automatically. I just started reading play after play after play.鈥�
As it turns out, Burstein鈥檚 method for creating his art links him back to both his parents and Sultan. Perhaps taking a cue from his parents鈥� life in academia, he describes himself as a 鈥渞elentless鈥� researcher. No detail is too minuscule鈥擝urstein has gotten information from Sultan鈥檚 widow, Kelly, about the photographer鈥檚 exact setup: the clothes, the cameras, the tripod. To Burstein, that level of detail鈥攁nd connecting the dots behind them鈥攊s part of an endless pursuit of truth that ultimately connects him to Sultan and his photography.
鈥淗is photographs aren鈥檛 meant to be taken just at face value,鈥� says Burstein 鈥淗e believed photographs were not just photographs, that they reveal something about the photographer, who he was as an artist, as a person. It鈥檚 many layers of truths, finding the deep truths within the image. That鈥檚 what Larry鈥檚 life work was.鈥�
Meet the cast of Pictures From Home below.
