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TheaterWorks Probes Celebrity Culture With ‘Buyer & Cellar’

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Tom Lenk was part of a stellar TV ensemble in the 1990s as Andrew Wells on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He was then part of the group that created the headbanging musical “Rock of Ages,” for which he originated the role of Franz. Lenk still regularly works out with comedy improv troupes and ensemble theater projects.

But at TheaterWorks this month, starring in a new production of the hit comedy “Buyer & Cellar,” Lenk is on his own.

The perky, youthful-looking, wiry and energetic actor plays Alex Moore, caretaker of a shopping mall in the basement of superstar Barbra Streisand’s Malibu home. “Barbra’s basement is just like any other mall,” Moore explains at the beginning of the play, “except for the total lack of customers or employees.”

Alex Moore, for the sake of Jonathan Tolins’ comic exploration of wealth, status, aesthetics, artistic influence and other guiding forces of contemporary American life, becomes the mall’s sole employee. In telling his story, the character invokes a number of other people — people who need people: Vincent from the Human Resources Department at Disneyland; Sharon, who manages Streisand’s properties; Alex’s boyfriend, Barry; James Brolin; and Streisand herself.

All are voiced by Lenk. The actor has done “Buyer & Cellar” once already, at the Pittsburgh Public Theater this past summer. When Randy Harrison of “Queer as Folk,” whom TheaterWorks originally enlisted for the show, had to give up the role unexpectedly so he could become the Emcee in the new national tour of “Cabaret,” Lenk was recommended by his Pittsburgh director (and fellow “Rock of Ages” actor) Don Stephenson. TheaterWorks reached out to the actor for a “re-exploration” of the piece. From all accounts, it’s been a great fit.

Lenk describes “Buyer & Cellar” as “sweet and touching. I love that this character has a real journey. But mostly it’s just hilarious.”

He calls this “the most challenging thing I’ve done in my career,” and it’s a challenge he clearly enjoys: “If you’re used to playing sidekick characters, it’s great to be the main guy who has all the problems in the show for a change. It’s so fun to get to do this play again, and have it be so different from the last one.”

It didn’t take him long to relearn the 60 pages of dialogue he had to memorize for the 100-minute performance. Playwright Tolins even visited a run-through and offered what Lenk calls “great, amazing notes. I got to ask him a lot of questions.”

For Lenk, performing the hyperactive, loopy and loquacious one-man show is like “super-realistic, little-kid playacting. I’m playing all these different parts. It’s hard for me to forget that I’m not acting opposite other actors.” The Hartford production, he says, “had a whole different approach, a whole different vision” than the Pittsburgh one. “I really had to unlearn the old blocking,” he says.

For one thing, TheaterWorks is a much smaller venue that the 650-seat Pittsburgh theater. TheaterWorks Producing Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero, who is directing the production, agrees that this is “a much more intimate approach. I wanted it to be like sitting around with close friends, when somebody says, ‘I have an amazing story to tell you.'”

At the same time, this production strives to suggest the vastness, opulence and sheer unbelievability of that bizarre underground mall.

In his TheaterWorks office, Ruggiero shows off his copy of the large, colorful coffee table book, “My Passion for Design,” written by Streisand herself and published in 2010. The dog-eared volume is infested with Post-It notes bookmarking photos of the star’s personal shopping mall. Ruggiero points out the existence of a doll shop, a yogurt shop, an antique shop, a cart festooned with ribbons. “It’s an insight into the solitude of celebrity,” he declares.

Many productions of “Buyer & Cellar” go for a simple, unadorned stage setting. Ruggiero and scenic designer Luke Hegel-Cantarella instead have approximated wall and furniture designs found in the “My Passion for Design” book, with slight alterations such as changing the coloring from beige to baby blue. Rob Denton has added a complex lighting design, plus photo projections to suggest various locations brought up in Alex Moore’s extraordinary story. It’s far from a cluttered set, but it’s a lush one, with an upholstered chaise longue, detailed paneled walls and, oh yes, a chandelier.

“The chandelier represents Barbra,” Ruggiero smiles.

“BUYER & CELLAR,” directed by Rob Ruggiero and starring Tom Lenk, is at TheaterWorks, 233 Pearl St., Hartford, through Feb. 14. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $65 for the center section, $50 for the side sections. Information: 860-527-7838, theaterworkshartford.org