Fact: Under the barn of Barbra Streisand's "Main Street" estate she had a custom-made shopping mall built with "a doll shop, an antiques emporium, a gift shoppe, [and] a vintage clothing boutique."
The mall's storefronts provide little else than a place for Ms. Streisand's vanity and storage; but this oddly real little place is the setting for Jonathan Tolins's one-man play Buyer & Cellar.
Openly gay actor Michael Urie (from Ugly Betty fame) plays Alex More, a struggling gay who, after being fired from Disneyland's Toontown, lands a job as the only vendor in Streisand's otherwise uninhabited mall.
Urie excitedly relates his workplace tales of boredom as his fascination with Babs grows into charmingly excessive proportions. But when she finally comes downstairs to "shop" for things that she already owns, will More buy what she's selling?
The longer her spends under her barn, the more he begins to wonder whether he's her employee or just one of her possessions. And does his love of Barbara make the indignities of solitude worth it?
In the interview below, Here TV's Josh Rosenzweig and Urie keep the play's more revelatory moments under lock and key. But trust, Urie exudes more than enough energy and charm to seal the deal.
