Buyer & Cellar

Only at a performance of Buyer & Cellar can Barbra Streisand earn an ovation for her performance on the Yentl movie soundtrack. Aside from its sharp wit and oddball premise, Jonathan Tolins' solo comedy benefits most from its self-selecting audience — the Barbra aficionados responsible for the play's record-breaking off-Broadway run who never fail to hum along to the opening bars of "Memory" and pounce on the heathens who dare defile her first name with an extra "a." This same breed is now enthusiastically filling the seats of New Jersey's George Street Playhouse where Artistic Director David Saint has mounted his own heartfelt rendition of this wry love letter to the living legend of stage and screen.

Barbra's coffee table manifesto My Passion for Design is the inspiration behind Tolins' work of theatrical fan fiction. The book (featuring photography by Streisand herself) explores the makings of her Malibu paradise. One of its most intriguing features is an underground shopping center, built in lieu of a conventional basement. Because why store things when you could display them alongside your very own Sweet Shop? Like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, this subterranean wonderland offers Tolins a world of pure imagination for all his Barbra-phile fancies to run wild.

Enter Alex More (John Tartaglia) — an unemployed actor, fresh from Disneyland, who secures the one and only "customer service" position in Streisand's basement mall. Those familiar with Tartaglia's Broadway career as Avenue Q's Tony-nominated puppeteer or Shrek the Musical's whimsical wooden boy Pinocchio know his ability to fill a room with infectious energy and a host of absorbing characters. In this case, the list includes Barbra's bursitis-ridden assistant, Alex's flamboyant (and increasingly jealous) boyfriend, and Barbra herself (though the play promises in a preliminary disclaimer that no Streisand "impressions" will be produced onstage).

Tolins' fast patter and breathless rants fit Tartaglia's comedic skill set as snugly as they did the play's original Drama Desk Award-winning star Michael Urie. What makes Tartaglia's performance even more refreshing, however, is the rarity of seeing him work a stage with nothing but a bench, a café table, and a blue-and-black-striped hoodie to maneuver for 90 minutes (the all-white and surely-Barbra-approved set design is by Andrew Boyce). Tartaglia slips into some recognizable voices (Alex's boyfriend Barry sounds an awful lot like Avenue Q's Rod) but as our main protagonist, he is handed a blank canvas to show off his unfiltered acting chops, free from typical cartoonish crutches. He even creates some tender moments between Alex and Barbra as she sheds light on her childhood traumas and shares her secret aspirations to play Momma Rose in a film adaptation of Gypsy (a real project that still happens to be in the works).

As book writer Arthur Laurents' literary executor and one of the cogs in the wheel of this rumored project, Saint takes this vignette particularly to heart. Under his direction, he indulges us in the absurdity, while still keeping one foot planted firmly on the ground, giving his leading man well-rounded characters to play rather than a series of foolish caricatures. After all, the woman who may or may not haggle for discounts at her very own doll shop is the same woman who built an indestructible empire on vocal talent and personality alone. In the end, there's no question who gets the last laugh.