Picture: Genevieve Girling
Buyer & Cellar continues at the King’s Head Theatre, London until 19 October 2024.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Alex More (Rob Madge) is a young, gay American actor, desperate for work. He is hired to work in Barbra Streisand’s spacious basement which is set up like a shopping mall – as described in her real-life book My Passion for Design (2010).
Taking that absurd, eccentric self indulgence as his starting point, playwright Jonathan Tolins imagines conversations and situations between Alex and his employer.
It’s an interesting, but esoteric, idea for a play. If you’re not a Barbra Streisand aficionado, then many of the jokes will pass you by.
Rob Madge is a supremely talented actor, well directed here by Kirk Jameson, although 100 minutes is a very long time to sustain a one-man play.
They hop effortlessly and convincingly in and out of roles – conversations with the boyfriend at home, Streisand’s majordomo, her guests and, of course, the star herself.
Madge’s comic timing is at masterclass level. They can get gales of laughter from simply making a remark and then fixing the audience with a look. They also nail a comfortable LA accent for More.
Because this is a play about a famous singer, Madge does occasionally sing a few bars and from time to time there’s a snatch of Streisand music on the soundtrack but it’s really more of a play.
And it works well enough in a simple playing space with raked seating on three sides, a single chair and evocative lighting, designed by Jack Weir.
The real issue with all this is the length. The concept would work much better, in the UK at least, as a snappy 60-minute one-act play.
It played on Broadway ten years ago and then toured with a lot of acclaim. I’m assuming first, that American audiences feel shortchanged if they don’t get at least an hour and a half, and second, that more of them are steeped in Streisand culture.
And of course they don’t have to sit for nearly two hours (it started ten minutes late on press night) on the execrably uncomfortable chairs provided at the King’s Head Theatre.
Susan Elkin
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