“Buyer & Cellar” continually reminds us — partly due to the “litigious” nature of the real-life version of one of its main characters, Barbra Streisand — that it is not real. The diva really does have a shopping mall in the basement of her Malibu home, for her personal amusement. Streisand wrote about the mall in her 2010 book “My Passion for Design.”
But the play’s protagonist, Alex More — the out-of-work actor hired as the mall’s sole employee — is a figment of playwright Jonathan Tolins’ imagination.
Just as Tolins’ one-man, multi-character comedy skirts reality, the Westport Country Playhouse production of “Buyer & Cellar” resembles a theatrical tour without really being one. It features the same star (Michael Urie), director (Stephen Brackett), designers and stage manager as the 2013 New York production and 2014 national tour. But at Westport, “Buyer & Cellar” doesn’t feel like it arrived from another world. For one thing, Tolins is a Fairfield resident; Westport audiences in particular can appreciate the playwright’s knowing commentary on the whims of the wealthy.
“Buyer & Cellar” also has the advantage of following a couple of other small-cast theatrical arguments about aesthetics, “Art” and “Red,” onto the Playhouse stage.
Urie (who has curlier hair now than he did during the show’s New York run) is marvelous at bending an audience to his will. In comfortable red pants and gray sweater, he sidles in from the side of the stage and quickly overwhelms it with his excitable tale of More and Streisand haggling over the price of an antique doll, the temptation of a “Gypsy” revival with the septuagenarian Streisand as Mama Rose, and James Brolin indulging his wife with a second helping of ice cream.
Tolins’ play isn’t all about the lifestyles of the rich and famous, however. It succeeds because it is based in relatable human drama — relationships, work problems, strange expectations, unexpected bonds. It also succeeds because it’s laugh-out-loud funny, with the kind of well-honed, well-delivered, character-based one-liners that you can’t buy cheaply at a shopping mall.
Hartford’s TheaterWorks presented “Buyer & Cellar” earlier this year starring Tom Lenk. There are some clear differences in the productions. TheaterWorks had a fancier set and more elaborate projections, while Westport’s is understated all around. Lenk also portrayed Alex’s boyfriend, Barry, as more even-tempered and no-nonsense than Urie does. With rapid delivery and flailing extremities, Urie plays every character in “Buyer & Cellar” as if they might suddenly get hysterical. In the case of More and Streisand, this is more than appropriate, but sounding-board characters like Barry and Streisand’s spouse Brolin could be more straightforward.
That said, any attempt to restrain Michael Urie, Jonathan Tolins, or their muse, Barbra Streisand, would be futile. You buy in, and you get a bargain.
“BUYER & CELLAR” is at the Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport, through July 3. Performances are Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday at 2 and 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $40 to $60. 203-227-4177, westportplayhouse.org.
