Emerson Collins delivers the solo performance of the year (opposite none other but Barbra Streisand herself) in Jonathan Tolins’ Buyer & Cellar, the latest winner from The Sixth Act.

To be truthful, there is only one actor on stage at the Whitefire Theatre, but you’ll swear you’ve spent ninety or so minutes with none other than Babs herself by the time Collins takes his bows.

Taking as his inspiration Streisand’s self-penned coffee-table tome My Passion For Design, Tolins has confectioned that rarity, a multi-character play that just happens to brought to life by a single actor, and is (as Alex assures us) “a work of fiction [that] could not possibly have happened with a person as famous, talented, and litigious as Barbra Streisand.”

Notwithstanding, Buyer & Cellar feels absolutely real, and once Alex has met the woman whose basement shopping-mall-for-one he has been hired to man, there’s not an audience member who won’t feel as if he or she has been granted a personal audience with Her Majesty Queen Barbra herself.

L.A. theatergoers will chuckle at the dire professional circumstances that have sent Alex day-job-hunting (all he could book was a 99-seat show at the Zephyr), and though boyfriend Barry is supportive, love cannot pay the bills.

Fortunately, a friendly tip from onetime Disneyland hookup Vincent secures Alex an interview with Streisand house manager Sharon, the result of which is a journey into “another world, like when Dorothy steps from sepia into Technicolor” and a job “doing inventory, working the floor, greeting the customer.” (Note the deliberate use of the singular.)

Confidentiality agreement signed, Alex takes charge of Barbra’s Doll Shop, Antiques Store, Antique Clothes Boutique, and Gift Shoppe until, at last, he finds his patience rewarded by a visit from the lady upstairs, and before you know it, our hero finds himself Bonding with Barbra as only a gay man can.

Still, as anyone who’s ever had a run-in with a diva can tell you, hell hath no fury like one who’s been scorned, and Alex must navigate his surroundings (and a late-night encounter with James Brolin) with utmost care.

Will Alex and Barbra become lifelong besties? Will our hero manage to stay employed? Will he live to tell about the experience?

Clearly the answer to the last question is “Duh,” since otherwise there’d be no Buyer & Cellar and L.A. audiences would not be being treated to the finest and funniest one-actor/multi-character play since Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine.

In a star turn hewn under Larry Raben’s astute direction, Collins makes for the most charming and effervescent and fabulous of Alexes, but that’s not all.

Tolins’ script may have the actor playing Alex claiming that he doesn’t “do Barbra,” but you won’t even have to close your eyes to feel you’re in the “cellar” with the divine Ms. S at her most charming and cold-hearted, and she’s just one of the characters Collins brings to vivid, indelible life. (I have a particular fondness for Barry, who gives Paul Lynde a run for his sassy money.)

Indeed, rarely has a performance been so captivating that you could watch it on mute and still be entranced.

The 6th Act follows Tolins’ instructions to keep the physical production simple, so as not to “detract from the narrative,” and though truth be told I’d have preferred something more elaborate than an armchair, a piano bench, and assorted projections, I can’t fault the producers for sticking to the playwright’s wishes as executed by production designer David Engel.

I’ve now seen five productions in all of Buyer & Cellar, each one of them distinguished by the particular charms of the actor playing Alex, and anyone who knows Emerson Collins knows that performers don’t get any more charming or delightful or downright likable than he. No wonder then that Buyer & Cellar 5.0 had me from hello.

Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks.
www.the6thact.com

–Steven Stanley
October 27, 2024

Tags: Jonathan Tolins, Los Angeles Theater Review, The 6th Act, Whitefire Theatre