Danny Burgos has played Santiago in the touring company of “Moulin Rouge” since September 2023, with a background starring in Broadway productions of “The Band’s Visit” and “On Your Feet.”
I want to start at the beginning of your theater journey. It’s been reported that some of your earliest singing performances were not on the stage, but behind the ice cream counter you worked at. Can you tell me more about that?
When I was 13 years old, I really wanted a cell phone. My mom told me if I wanted a cell phone, I had to pay for it myself. That was her way of getting me to learn responsibility, so at 13 years old, I lied about my age and [my cousin and I] got a job at Cold Stone Creamery. At Cold Stone, I don’t know if they still do this, but anytime you get a tip, you sing like a cute little ice cream-themed song. I got a tip, and I sang an ice cream rendition of “My Girl”, and this guy that tipped me left Cold Stone then came back in with another guy, tipped me again, and said ‘Can you sing the “My Girl” song?’ Apparently, he was the artistic director of the community theater right down the block from Cold Stone. He was like, ‘Have you ever wanted to be in a musical? Do you act?’ So I got cast in the ensemble of “Urinetown,” and that’s where I caught the professional theater bug.
What did you learn from your earliest theater experiences while performing in “Urinetown”?
I did not know that you had to learn the music on your own, especially in community theater when they don’t have money for a music director. We got sent home with a CD, and on that CD were all the vocal parts, and [you had to] teach yourself the tenor vocal parts and then come to rehearsal and hope you learned it. I did learn how to be very self-sufficient. I learned how to show up ready, and that doesn’t go away, no matter if you are doing “Annie” at your middle school or if you are opening a new Broadway show. You have to show up ready to work. You have to show up prepared. You have to show up knowing what you’re doing. I do definitely credit that with my beginnings of learning how to be a professional actor.
While you eventually made your way into Broadway productions, you also went to nursing school. What was that like?
In 2018, I was looking for a job. I had just gotten off the “On Your Feet” national tour. I started working at the Apple Store to make ends meet. I was auditioning, auditioning, auditioning, and then I got cast in the national tour of “The Band’s Visit”, and that went all the way up until March 13, 2020 when Broadway shut down [due to the COVID-19 pandemic]. I was living in New York again, trying to make ends meet with no income and didn’t know how to make it work, so I ended up moving back home to Miami. One day, my mom was like, ‘Danny, why don’t you go back to school and finish those nursing credits that you started?’ And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s not a bad idea.’ I went back to a community college, started taking all the prerequisites that I needed for nursing school. I applied to five nursing programs, and at the top of my list was Columbia Nursing, because I wanted to move back to New York City. I ended up getting in, so I did a 15-month nursing school program through Columbia University. I graduated in October of 2022, and then I got the call from Moulin Rouge in July of 2023.
What inspired you to become a nurse?
My family has a very colorful history of nurses. I have an uncle and an aunt who were nurses for a very long time when they came here from Cuba. My family are all Cuban immigrants. I’m first-generation Cuban, and my family moved here. My aunt met my uncle Felix who was in the Navy, and after his duty he became a private citizen and became a licensed practical nurse. Until his recent tragic passing, he worked as an LPN and provided care for people. I thought that was so honorable of him, and my uncle Felix was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met. He loved the Three Stooges. He loved comedy in general, and I learned a lot of my humor from him. My aunt, as well, is one of the funniest people I know, and she would come home with the gnarliest stories. She was a psych registered nurse, and the things she would say would normally scare someone off, but I thought she had such a passion for storytelling. Between [my aunt and uncle], I now understand why I ended up becoming an actor and a nurse because they had the sensibility to be actors as well. They chose to channel their energy into caring for people. I thankfully have the opportunity to do both. I can care for folks when I’m not on stage, and when I am on stage, I can care for people, but in a completely different way.
Turning now to your portrayal of Santiago in “Moulin Rouge”, how do you get into character when playing such a bold, passionate, vibrant character?
In acting school, I was taught that there are two types of actors. There are inside-out actors, and those are the method actors — the people who really need to feel things. Then there are the outside-in actors, who work from the outside in. In this respect, I’m definitely more of an outside-in, but with the costuming in Moulin Rouge, I look nothing like I would in my day-to-day life when I am Santiago. I’m wearing eyeliner, a shirt cut down to my belly button, leather pants, and a beautiful black jacket that looks [similar to] a Mariachi jacket. I’m wearing this beautiful costume, and it really does inspire me. It makes me feel confident. First and foremost, Catherine Zuber really did an excellent job. She knows how to dress for the time period of 1899, and I just feel really good putting the [costume] on. That is what gets me into character: the fact that when I’m wearing that, I know exactly who I am, I understand the assignment, and I can go execute it.
You mentioned you look totally different from Santiago in your everyday life. Do you feel like you have any similarities with him?
The similarities I do have are ones that kind of get passed over, like I think that I’m hysterical. I laugh at my own jokes. I think I’m very funny. I have that dad humor — It’s very punny, and I try to bring as much of that into Santiago as I possibly can, because it makes it enjoyable for me, and I want the audience to have a good time. If I’m having a good time, the audience is going to have a good time. All the other stuff, like the “lady killer”, and all [that] other stuff is stuff that I put on. I do think that I kind of transform for the evening.
Do you ever break character or make yourself laugh while on stage?
My gut instinct is to say absolutely. It’s never something with the lines — I’m very familiar with our play. I can probably recite our play from top to bottom verbatim. What makes me giggle are the small things that keep us alive every night on stage, like ‘Oh, that person tried something new that worked and it really paid off.’ I’ve been on tour for two and a half years, and it gets a little mechanical. Every now and then, I’ll spice something up. I don’t know how familiar you are with the movie “Bridesmaids”, but whenever the focus is not on me, I’m on the side, ad-libbing with people and keeping the scene alive. The other night … I looked at my partner Nini and said ‘We’ll take six of the Fritz Bernaise, they really are better, thank you,’ which is a line from “Bridesmaids”. She started laughing on stage, and I started laughing on stage. We just try to keep it alive and fun.
You’ve been on tour with “Moulin Rouge” since September 2023. What keeps you excited about coming back and doing this show every night for so long?
It sounds like a cop out answer, but I promise it’s not. I really love my job. I love that I get to throw on makeup, a $15,000 costume and sing Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” in front of 1000 people every night. Nothing brings me more joy than being able to do this. That’s what gets me through on those hard days where I’m like, ‘My body hurts, and I’m sad, and I just can’t do this.’ What gets me through is I think of that 13-year-old Danny singing an ice cream version of “My Girl”. I imagine myself walking up to him and saying, ‘Hey dude, we get to do some pretty cool stuff later on in life. Keep going.’ There are days I show up and I’m angry or in a bad mood or I’m not quite certain how I’m going to get through this. In those moments, I really do need to lean on my cast, my crew, my team that we have out here, because that’s what this is. This is an ecosystem, and we all survive because of each other.
You’ve gotten to work alongside many different actors while on tour. What have you learned from working with so many unique performers?
The lessons are endless, because each person, I firmly believe, teaches you something about yourself. I’ve learned patience, I have learned kindness, and I have learned to just let things roll off my back. I have learned things not to do. On a long-running show like this, it really is a revolving door of people. One of my favorite quotes to tell people is ‘Smart people learn from their own mistakes, but wise people learn from others’ mistakes.’ I think that’s a really interesting way of looking at life. If you learn from your own mistakes, that’s amazing, that’s learning, and we’re all going to fail several times. However, if you’re able to look at someone else’s failure and be like, ‘One, let me support this person who is struggling, and two, let me learn from their mistake,’ that is something you can learn from. I hope to continue learning not only on this show, but on all the shows to come.
You clearly know the show so well. What’s one moment from the show that really resonates with you?
Selfishly, the moment in the show that matters to me the most is the top of “Roxanne”. It was the moment when I saw the show for the first time when I felt compelled to be in it. Up until that moment, I was like, ‘This is a great musical. I really enjoy this. This is a lot of fun.’ Then the top of “Roxanne” happened and it was like “Oh, I see a path for me to be in this show.” But, from the perspective of which part of this show really fills my cup and makes my spirit happy, it’s actually at the very end of the show. Christian delivers a monologue at the end of the show directly to the audience, and I think after the two hours and 15 minutes we just saw, [to address the audience directly] it hits me that the audience is only as invested as we are, and to invite them in, we have to let them know that they are welcome into the show. The top of our show is literally called “Welcome to the Moulin Rouge”, and it is welcoming the audience to our musical. If they really invest, and say ‘For the next two hours, I am in Paris in 1899 at the turn of the century, and here we go,” it fuels us and creates this really cool cycle of energy.
I am so excited to see the show. Is there anything else you think audiences should know ahead of seeing “Moulin Rouge”?
One thing I’d like to tell people is that if you’re having a family member that’s struggling to want to go see Moulin Rouge, I get it. Sitting in a dark room for two and a half hours is not everyone’s idea of a great time, but what I like to tell people is that if you’ve never seen a musical before, and you’re just trying to figure out why [Moulin Rouge], I can guarantee you that you will recognize at least one song. There are 72 songs in there, and there are quite a few of them that were not in the movie. If you think ‘There’s no way in hell there’s going to be a classic rock song in there,’ — boom, you’re wrong. We have “Sympathy for the Devil” in there. If you think ‘There’s no way they’re going to have something by The Beatles in there, you’re wrong. There are songs by Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Sia — everybody is in there. If you’re just looking for something to hook you, we have a song for you, and you’ll be like ‘Aw man, they got me.’
“Moulin Rouge” will play at The Morrison Center from Jan. 27 to Feb. 1, 2026.
