Interview: Danny Kornfeld Makes the Big Move to Broadway in HARMONY

Danny Kornfeld is currently making his Broadway debut as Young Rabbi in the Broadway premiere of Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman's Harmony. Kornfeld played the role of Young Rabbi in the Off-Broadway production of Harmony. 

Kornfeld's stage credits include: Aunt Caroline in Renascence (Transport Group), Sondheim On Sondheim (Kansas City Lyric Opera), Wringer (City Center), Mark Cohen in RENT (20th Anniversary Tour), Fiddler On The Roof (Barrington Stage Company), Our Town (Theatre Aspen), and more. His TV and film credits include: Season 11 of American Horror Story (FX), Tripped Up (Universal Pictures, Decal), estimated release winter 2023. 

BroadwayWorld spoke with Kornfeld about working with the company, his memories of opening night, and much more. 

Read the full interview and check out photography by BroadwayWorld's own Jennifer Broski below!

How does it feel to have made the journey with this show from Off-Broadway to Broadway?

The thing that I keep saying to myself is, ‘I can’t believe that it’s happening.’ We kept on saying throughout the rehearsal process, “When we move uptown…” and in my mind, I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it,” and the fact that it actually happened... It continues to blow my mind, the way that stars truly need to align to make any show happen, and make any show come to Broadway, but the fact that I get to make my Broadway debut with this incredibly special, artful, poignant, timely piece, it continues to blow my mind.

What stands out to you most from opening night?

I think the true celebration as a company, marking that achievement together, and getting to have my dream come true along with Bruce and Barry’s dream coming true. I think there were 16 Broadway debuts that night. To have us all be experiencing that together I think is one of the most remarkable feelings from it. And getting to arrive on the red carpet in 1920 cars was really cool too [laughs]. I think we should resort back to that time, let’s add a few seatbelts and actual windows in the cars, but other than that, yeah I think we should do it.

How has it been throughout this process working with Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman, and the rest of the company?

Every actor’s dream is to be creating new work, I think, at least that’s what I want out of my hopefully long and fulfilling career. And with this show in particular, because it is a history piece, we have that respect that needs to be upheld for these people that actually existed, while the merging our own spirits as artists and actors with that. And what I’ve so loved about my time with Bruce, Barry, and Warren [Carlyle, director and choreographer], is the celebration of who I am as an artist, and as a person, and how I view the world. Them wanting me to bring as much of myself to Young Rabbi has been such an incredible gift as a performer. And Warren especially, he draws out of you more than you ever could potentially see for yourself. I never thought I would be dancing on a Broadway stage, but I’m doing a lot of dancing in the show and I think I do it pretty well! But he has this way of making you want to push yourself to what you never thought possible for yourself. And that I will always be grateful to him for.

And when it comes to Barry and Bruce, these men have been working on this show for 30 years now, and their ear is just so incredible. Especially Barry, he is a master musician, but that even transfers into scene work as well. He knows how jokes are supposed to land, he knows how the feeling of a scene, what it’s supposed to evoke. I’m continually amazed by the three of them on a daily basis, just the way that their individual artistries have so perfectly come together as a trio to make this show happen now. There is a reason that this show is finally happening on Broadway with the three of their minds combined together along with the six of us men. I really think it’s bashert in some ways, fate.

What has been your favorite part about the character you play, and how has it been creating a bond with the other Harmonists?

Young Rabbi has this inherent sense of optimism to him that I think has really rubbed off on me in a lovely way. I think I’m inherently an optimistic person, but I think I’m a pragmatic person. And his general appetite and hunger for life is something that continues to inspire me on the daily. The way that he has an appetite for life in the show is through his relationships with his friends, and with the love of his life, Mary, played by Sierra Boggess, and that’s really what I strive for in my life in New York City. My chosen family is what makes my life so full. I also love that Rabbi has a true appetite for snacks and food, so I get to eat salami sandwiches during the show, which is an added bonus [laughs].

But back to what you said about what it’s like forming this relationship with five other guys, what’s so cool is that five of the six of us have all made our Broadway debuts together. And so, to kind of be getting to experience this meta version of what the Comedian Harmonists actually experienced together, their rise onto the scene of the public eye, to get to be doing that with five other guys who are kind of experiencing that same thing together, I think we’ll continue to look back through our careers and be so grateful to have one another, to be the keeper of the memories of this time.

How does it feel to bring a piece of history to the stage every night?

8 shows a week can be tiring, and when I have those moments I think on these men, and I think of their story, and I think of how important it is for the world to know who they are, and for our audiences to bear witness to their story, to make sure that something like the way their story ends never happens again. People at the stage door ask, “How do you do this every night?” And it’s really for them. We have a duty, and a privilege to continue to tell their story time and time again.

Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share?

I just think that for the world right now, Harmony is such a unique piece of theatre because it is such an entertaining show, it’s funny, it will make you laugh, and it will make you cry, and it will make you think. And I think audiences right now, their tendency more often than not, is to pick a show to see that feels familiar to them. They want to see the movie that they’ve seen before, they want to see the book that they know. And I’m so grateful to be part of a show that I hope will continue to open people’s minds, to teach them something that they might not have known before, and to make them leave the theater seeing the world a little bit differently.