Who is Rebecca Luker's husband Danny Burstein? A look at her whirlwind romance and stepkids after death at 59
Tony-nominated Broadway star Rebecca Luker breathed her last on Wednesday, December 23, 2020, in Manhattan after a year-long battle with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, as confirmed by her agent Sarah Fargo to The New York Times. She was 59. Rebecca was nominated for the coveted Tony Award for a total three times in her much-celebrated life — first for ‘The Show Boat’ in 1995 followed by her performance in ‘The Music Man’ in 2000 and then as Winifred Banks in Disney’s Mary Poppins in the year 2006. She is survived by her husband Danny Burstein and two stepkids.
Luker had tweeted about her illness in February 2020, as reported by Deadline. She got an overwhelming response from her colleagues and fans after she had posted, “Hello friends. I have some tough news. Late last year I was diagnosed with ALS. I have the best medical care in the world and the greatest support. My dear husband Danny has been an angel. I will get well. In the meantime, we fight and go forward. Keep us in your thoughts.” Apart from Broadway, Luker also displayed her exceptional acting skills on stage with musicals and plays such as ‘The Boys From Syracuse’, ‘The Vagina Monologues’, ‘Roundabout’s Death Takes a Holiday’ and ‘Where’s Charley?’
Hello friends. I have some tough news. Late last year I was diagnosed with ALS. I have the best medical care in the world and the greatest support. My dear husband Danny has been an angel. I will get well. In the meantime, we fight and go forward. Keep us in your thoughts.
— Rebecca Luker (@RebeccaJLuker) February 9, 2020
Who is Danny Burstein?
The late Broadway star was married to Danny Burstein. The 56-year-old actor and singer is a well-known name in the world of Broadway. He is a seven-time Tony Award nominee where some of his prominent works include ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ in 2006, ‘South Pacific’ in 2008, ‘Follies’ in 2012 and ‘Golden Boy’ in 2013, among others. Danny has also won two Drama Desk Awards, four Outer Critics Circle Awards, and received three Grammy Award nominations. The renowned stage actor has also contributed to TV shows where he appeared in a feature-length episode of the BBC sitcom ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ in 2002 and was also seen in the first season of ‘Louie’ in 2010.
Rebecca Luker and Danny Burstein’s love story
Luker and Burstein got married in the year 2000. They first met while working together for a show in San Diego. Speaking on the same, Danny spoke to the website Pix11 in 2016 where he spilled the beans, "We were cast opposite each other in a workshop in a new musical and I was like how are you doing, (Years later) my (then) relationship just broke up, and, I'm separated, but we were old pals so it was lovely the way it all worked out.”
Speaking about the same in an interview with Playbill, Danny revealed, "We were doing a show called Time and Again out at the Old Globe that Jack O'Brien was directing. There were about five of us: Howard McGillin, Jessica Molaskey, George Dvorsky and Rebecca and I who all became fast friends. We're [all] still great friends.”
When asked how they transitioned from being friends to lovers, Danny asserted, "We actually didn't see each other for a year-and-a-half or so after the show closed. Rebecca was going through a relationship transition when we were doing Time and Again, and I was married with two kids. My youngest son had just been born when we met each other, and that year-and-a-half later my ex-wife and I separated. It was a sad, sad, terrible time in my life. (Rebecca and I) were cast opposite each other in a workshop of a musical that Barry Manilow wrote, called Harmony, and that's when we started spilling our guts out to each other."
He added, "Rebecca had actually been through a divorce before, so she knew exactly where I was and what I was going through. We just started hanging out, and one thing led to another. It was easy because we were friends first, and we didn't have to go through that awkward dating thing wondering whether or not we liked each other. We did like each other. We were friends."
Rebecca Luker’s stepkids
As mentioned earlier, apart from her husband Burstein, she is survived by her two stepsons Alexander and Zachary. The children are from a previous marriage of Danny and they live in Morningside Heights, Manhattan. Rebbeca’s stepsons usually stay away from the limelight and have rarely been spotted with their parents. She seemed to be a proud stepmom as even her Twitter bio says, “Wife, stepmom, activist, actress.”