David Lindsay-Abaire and Marylouise Burke continue a decades-long collaboration in ‘The Balusters’

Actor Burke has appeared in seven of playwright Lindsay-Abaire's shows, including the current Broadway premiere of his HOA-centered comedy, over nearly 30 years.

Summary

• Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and actor Marylouise Burke have collaborated on seven plays
• She currently stars in his world-premiere comedy The Balusters on Broadway as Penny
• The play follows the conflicts among an opinionated homeowners association in an upscale neighborhood

To write The Balusters, an uproarious and up-to-the-minute Broadway comedy exposing the complex conflicts of an upscale neighborhood association, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner David Lindsay-Abaire found inspiration in his Brooklyn backyard, the vertical posts on his porch — that’s what the show’s title means — and Marylouise Burke.

The crowd-pleasing character actress fills the key role of board secretary Penny, one of the "old-timers" in the group, per the script. Thinking of her is a reflex for the author by now. She has been in six of his previous works over nearly three decades: five in New York, one in Los Angeles.

“Marylouise is a muse,” Lindsay-Abaire, whose credits include Rabbit Hole and Shrek The Musical, told New York Theatre Guide over Zoom. “We share a sensibility. I knew I wanted to have an ensemble piece, and there was no way I was going to have 10 characters and one of them not be Marylouise. She just makes my writing better, and she makes the job of it easier.”

Burke, meanwhile, is in her happy place in a Lindsay-Abaire play — and now alongside the likes of Richard Thomas, Anika Noni Rose, Margaret Colin, and more in director Kenny Leon’s production for Manhattan Theatre Club. “I just feel simpatico with what David creates and with the language and the ideas and everything,” Burke said. “It’s not an intellectual thing on my part. It’s kind of like slipping on a terrific garment.”

That wardrobe is anything but a one-size-fits all. Her roles included a woman with aphasia in Fuddy Meers, a rapidly aging teen in Kimberly Akimbo (the original 2001 play, not the 2021 musical), a detective in Wonder of the World, and a senior with a roommate issue in Ripcord in NYC, and a Boston landlady in Good People in L.A. In their first collaboration — A Devil Inside at Soho Rep in 1997 — she played a laundromat owner and had to stand on a 20-feet-tall platform without a railing.

In The Balusters, the role of Penny turns out to be pivotal in ways audiences likely won’t see coming. “She’s serious in a funny way,” said Burke, “and funny in a serious way.”

The same holds for the play overall, where the HOA members grapple with the tricky proposition of adding a new stop sign in the leafy fictional enclave of Vernon Point, where just beyond the historic homes are apartment buildings, housing projects, and discount stores. It’s an ethnically and philosophically diverse association — and everyone has an ardent opinion on seemingly every matter.

Lindsay-Abaire understands that dynamic. He lives in Prospect Park South, Brooklyn, in a house he decorates in over-the-top fashion for Halloween and that has a porch with balusters, not unlike in the play that's been in the works for nine years.

“This play took me a long time,” he said. “I took a very long break. I got a little scared of it, honestly. My wife was on a neighborhood association board, and she would come back with the craziest stories. So, I was taking notes. She’s no longer on that board.”

Burke was in his head throughout the writing process — quite literally, she was a Penny for his thoughts. “I’m not one of those writers that tends to laugh out loud at my own stuff,” he said. “But in writing Penny, I could hear Marylouise so vividly in my head. I could hear her line readings, and that would make me laugh out loud.

“My wife would say, ‘What are you laughing at?’" he added. “And I said, ‘Oh, Marylouise just said something very funny in my head.’ Now I get to hear it out loud every night at the theatre exactly as it was in my head.”

But he always leaves room for something unexpected when Burke is on stage. “What continues to surprise is how much she continues to surprise,” said Lindsay-Abaire. “Often it’s true that I know how she’ll say a line, but just as often, she will twist the line and undercut it and send it zinging in a way that takes my breath away. That’s what's most exciting for me.”

What’s thrilling for Burke is the process of exploration that comes with each Lindsay-Abaire project. “Penny has become so vivid to me now, and rich, and complicated. That was a discovery,” she said. “When I first looked at the play, I just didn't realize how many colors she has, how many possibilities, and wow. It has been an honor to discover that and to bring it to a character of a certain age. It’s really been glorious.”

We can’t wait for collaboration number 8.

Get The Balusters tickets now.

Top image credit: Marylouise Burke and David Lindsay-Abaire. (Photo by Austin Ruffer)
In-article image credit: Marylouise Burke and the cast of The Balusters on Broadway. (Photos by Jeremy Daniel)