Buyer & Cellar, Written by Jonathan Tolins. Directed by Daniel Bourque. Presented by Hub Theatre Company of Boston at Club Café, 209 Columbus Ave. in Boston through August 1. All tickets are Pay-What-You-Can.
By Mike Hoban
At the outset of Hub Theatre’s excellent one-man play, Buyer & Cellar, actor Alex More (Victor Shopov) cautions the audience, “First, this is a work of fiction…What I’m going to tell you could not possibly have happened with a person as famous, talented, and litigious as Barbra Streisand.” With the legal disclaimer out of the way, More is free to spin one of the most intriguing ─ and often hilarious ─ tales you’re likely to hear this side of an All-Star edition of The Moth or a Provincetown AA meeting.
When the story begins, More is an out-of-work actor, having lost his job as the Mayor of Toon Town in Disneyland for telling a young patron who insulted him that he would stick his churro up his derriere. Like most LA actors starting out, he hustles for work, but gigs are sparse. After completing a run of a disastrous coming-out play called “Accepting Stephen”, he receives a call about a mysterious acting job in Malibu. Met at the gate of a gorgeous estate by Sharon, the house manager with the disposition of a fairytale bridge troll, Alex learns his bizarre assignment ─ serving as the manager of a mall in the basement of Streisand’s palatial home.
While much of the play is fiction (wink, wink), the mall is not. Inspired by the Winterthur decorative arts museum in Delaware, Streisand published a coffee-table book, “My Passion for Design,” in which she displays photos of her tastefully appointed Malibu mansion and compound, including the basement mall. The mall features a doll shop, a dress boutique, a frozen yogurt machine, a gift “shoppe” (“where they sell extra letter p’s and e’s, apparently,” Alex jokes) and other fake emporia, complete with a cobblestone street for strolling.
After signing an NDA, Alex begins his job, and his initial fascination soon turns to boredom as isolation and tedium take their toll. All of that changes when “Sadie” (as Streisand calls herself when they first meet) finally makes an appearance. It’s also when the play transforms from merely interesting to wildly compelling. The two role-play as customer and store clerk, haggling over the price of an antique doll, and he passes the smell test for his haughty client. The relationship evolves over the coming months, and we get a (fictionalized?) glimpse into the inner life of one of the entertainment world’s biggest stars.
Playwright Jonathan Tolins is a terrific and very funny storyteller. Buyer & Cellar is a play that demands your attention, for fear of missing the witty asides and commentary peppered throughout the narrative. When describing the basement mall, Alex tells us, “All of it displayed with totalitarian precision. It’s as if your grandma designed the Apple Store.” But it’s not all clever observations and one-liners. Tolins tempers the rapid-fire dialogue with some thoughtful exchanges between Alex and ‘Barbra’, and the conversations with his boyfriend Barry ─ who begins to feel as if he’s taking a back seat in the relationship to the celebrity ─ are legitimately touching.
But it’s Shopov who makes these characters fully three-dimensional rather than caricatures. There’s no attempt at a note-for-note impression of Streisand, and as he says at the beginning of the play, “I don’t do impressions in general. And anyway, enough people do her — even some women — so you don’t need me to.” Instead, he adopts a subtle Brooklyn accent and simply captures her essence. And his portrayals of the other characters in the play ─ Sharon, boyfriend Barry, and even the super hunky Mr. Streisand, Steve Brolin ─ are played with a fine comic flair.
Long known as one of Boston’s most intense actors in his roles in Zeitgeist Stage’s Bent and Punk Rock, and Bad Habit Production’s Translations (where he stepped in for an injured actor on short notice), the multiple IRNE and Eliot Norton Award winner proves he can do comic roles with the same panache as his dramatic efforts. He’s a joy to watch and looks like he’s having a ball to boot.
Although it helps to be either a Streisand fan or an older gay man (which sounds a bit redundant), it’s not a requisite. Lovers of great storytelling, comedy, and superb acting will be just as entertained. If you miss a reference, don’t worry, there’s another great line coming at you seconds later. It also helps to be in the cozy confines of the Club Café, an ideal setting for this play if there ever was one.
For more information and tickets, go to: http://www.hubtheatreboston.org/
