Buyer and Cellar

Play (2013)
by Jonathan Tolins
Directed by Daniel Bourque
Hub Theatre Company
Club Cafe
209 Columbus Avenue, Boston
July 18 – August 1, 2026

With Victor Shopov (Alex More, et al)

Barbra Streisand actually wrote a book about her love of design (My Passion for Design [2010]) and includes in it an account of how she designed her mansion’s basement to simulate an upper-class mall with all kinds of different shops to store and to display Streisand’s collections. In this fictional dramatic parody, Alex (Victor Shopov) is hired to work there, to tend the shops and to provide intermittent interactive support for the great pop diva.

In the course of hearing Alex’s account of this endeavor, there is energetic running commentary about his relationship with his lover Barry, and with Alex’s interactions with Sharon, Streisand’s assistant, who has hired Alex for this odd job, and eventually with Barbra herself. Alex has, in fact, an evolving series of interactions with Barbra, with a apparent development of a working relationship and almost a friendship, but it is obviously a unique and peculiar one. Meanwhile, the strict and omnipresent guidance by Sharon offers a continuing reminder of how strange this arrangement is, and the confusions and the stresses on the relationship between Alex and Barry keep pace.

This goofy and wonderful one-man show is introduced with a hilarious, song-name-dropping intro by Hub Theatre Artistic Director Lauren Elias who does not stop finding ways to invoke the titles of People, The Way We Were, Don’t Rain on My Parade, and any other number of memorable pop anthems for which Streisand is famous. It’s a great intro and leads right into the dramatic one-man madness, with the carefully noted caution that, though Barbra Streisand does, in fact, have such a mall in her basement as documented in her lavish book on design, the whole story about Alex is fabricated, with any related lawsuits about the fiction carefully avoided.

This is a very funny, and, strangely, poignant show. Victor Shopov gives it his all in portraying not only Alex, but Barry, Barbra and the mischievously oppressive Sharon, and, as well, briefly, James Brolin, Barbra’s husband. Shopov does a very good job of embodying all of them, with particular histrionics applied to Sharon, who comes across as an intense gnome reminiscent of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

As well, the show in very nicely produced, especially for the small theatrical space at Club Cafe, with videos projected on the side walls, a suggestive set behind and a small set off to the side where Alex enacts his interactions with Barry, all adeptly designed by Justin Lahue.

Though the play is mostly spoofy, the parts that have to do with Alex’s and Barry’s relationship, and with Alex’s and Barbra’s relationship, are the parts which add poignancy. When Barbra begins to talk about a longstanding desire to be pretty, it calls out both sympathy for her character, and, as well, a wry sarcasm that is called forth by Alex’s suspicious commentary about the diva’s distinctive, but highly celebrated, looks. There is certainly an element of acknowledging Streisand as a poor little rich girl in Alex’s response, but also the wry observation that whatever are the relevant psychology and emotions are suspiciously lofted in some showbiz ionosphere. The curious interplay of the remoteness and the accessibility of the Barbra character as seen through Alex’s eyes make that depiction interesting.

The denouement results in some disappointment, but with Alex benefiting curiously from the experience overall with a renewed sense, from Streisand’s example, of what it means to put one’s own needs and desires on the table and to learn to speak up for oneself. It’s not entirely clear what the psychodynamics are, but watching Barbra do her thing and making her world her own gives Alex a little push to be able to do that for himself.

Shopov’s portrayal of Alex has a curious stridency, not always convincing as a gay man, but certainly energetic and interesting. Shopov adeptly gives all of the characters distinctiveness, though from time to time, particularly in conversations between Alex and either Barry or Barbra, it is a bit difficult to figure out who is talking; but that intermittent confusion does not draw down from the consistent appeal of the portrayals. Overall, Shopov is very good in carrying this off and giving a vivid sense of what this imaginative hallucination about life in a showbiz basement might offer.

I saw this play at the Lyric Stage eleven years ago, also in a very good rendition, but it is nice to get another good production and very capable solo performance.

Overall: a very good offering with a great solo performance by Victor Shopov and a fun intro by Hub artistic director Lauren Elias.

– BADMan (aka Charles Munitz)