Play envisions working in Barbra Streisand’s basement

“What is exciting is not for one person to be stronger than the other… but for two people to have met their match and yet they are equally stubborn, as obstinate, as passionate, as crazy as the other.” –Barbra Streisand

By Eric George Tauber

Eric George Tauber
Eric George Tauber

Buyer_Cellar_art_webSAN DIEGO –For every Hollywood “dream come true” success story there are innumerable dreams dashed and washed ashore.  L.A. is a place “where Queen Bees and wannabes live cheek by jowl.” (Barry Edelstein, program notes) So how does a nobody rub elbows with a living legend like Barbra Streisand?  Work retail in her basement “shop.”

We all tend to collect more “treasures” than we really need.  When you’ve done as much as Barbra Streisand, your house is like a museum.  So in her basement, Streisand designed a cozy little street of “shops” to showcase her memorabilia.  The antique clothing store features her dresses from Funny Girl and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, an antique shop for her trinkets, a doll shop, a sweet shop and a gift-wrapping station where she will not only give away, but gift-wrap her treasures.

She wrote a coffee table book about it called My Passion for Design, featured on Oprah.  This led playwright Jonathan Tolins to ponder what it would be like to be the poor shnook who worked there.

Enter Alex More, another wannabe actor who desperately needs a job.  David Turner played Alex with a sweet, boyish charm.  You could see him folding sweaters in retail and getting fired from Mauschwitz (aka Disneyland).  From the top, he makes it clear that this is a work of fiction. It couldn’t possibly happen with someone as talented … and litigious as Streisand.

For the setting, I would have expected a small proscenium re-creation of Streisand’s shops.  But this was theatre-in-the-round.  So Tollins paints the picture in our minds and lets our own imaginations fill in the details.

His impression of Barbra is dead-on as she haggles and toys with him over her own things.  His voice, facial expressions and flips of the hand really channel her spirit.  Through him, she’s vulnerable, still hurting from the pains of her Brooklyn childhood.  To the “Barbra-like” drag queens out there, a thing or two he could teach.

There were other impressions, James Brolin and an officious House Manager, Sharon.  The only character that wasn’t quite distinct was his boyfriend, Barry.  During their arguments, the similarities between them made them difficult to distinguish.

David Turner is an engaging storyteller with vivid descriptions and hilarious metaphors that come in machine gun rapid-fire.  His face and body are delightfully expressive with a lot of subtle nuance and well-used moments of silence.

If you’ve ever wanted to meet the legendary Barbra Streisand and visit her house, you’ll never come any closer than Buyer and Cellar playing at the Old Globe and extended through May 10th.

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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in the arts. You may send your comment to eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com, or post it on this website provided that the rules below are observed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 thought on “Play envisions working in Barbra Streisand’s basement”

  1. Very interesting, Tauber! I will make an effort to see this show at The Globe. I wasn’t even aware of it before reading your article. ~Walter Ritter, San Diego

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