“More” than Meets the Eye.
Article by Kristen Schweizer
The Old Globe’s one-man, hilarious, adorable Buyer & Cellar is more than just funny and charming; it is more than “absurdist whimsy” (The New York Times).
An exceptional David Turner invites the audience to look deeper in to the world of dreamers. Turner simply becomes Alex More, a down-on-his-luck gay actor who has landed the gig of a lifetime. Alex’s job is to keep the basement shops within Barbra Streisand’s private, Malibu estate. He serves the mall’s single patron, making small talk with the stage and screen icon as she peruses the hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of goods; goods she already owns. Turner’s subtly and sincerity does not insist that you see past the magnetic jokes or charming impersonations, however the invitation is there.
I did not know anything about Barbra Streisand when I walked in to the show. I did not laugh as hard as everyone else at certain jokes, but I laughed the entire time. I stopped laughing too, often struck with how profound this light play was. I will use the words of actor Jim Carrey, “I hope everyone could get rich and famous and will have everything they ever dreamed of, so they will know that it’s not the answer.”
The immediate reaction to such a statement is to scoff. To laugh and insist, if we were given the chance to try it we would be perfectly happy; content in tailored clothes, and getting Disneyland closed just for us and our friends, and having every meal prepared by the staff of Tender Greens.
Streisand has been famous for six decades. She has two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, five Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award and 11 Golden Globes. She is one of the best-selling female music artists of all times, and holds the record for the top ten albums of any recording artist – a total of 33 since 1963. She is considered the icon for unconventional beauty, and she did it all on her own. Imagine for a moment what life you would have if you had the money, fame and respect of Barbra Streisand. Close your eyes and actually imagine…
The entire show, wryly introduced by David Turner, was the brainchild of Jonathan Tolins after he saw Streisand’s book My Passion for Design. The book has incredible photographs of her estate, which included a photograph of the basement shopping mall Barbra had installed to hold all of her things. (Yes, Barbra Streisand has a shopping mall style display her stuff. But wouldn’t you though? I mean, if you could? Wouldn’t you? I mean, I would. Ok, fine…just me and Barbra then, fine.) Playwright Jonathan Tolins became obsessed with the idea of Barbra hiring an actor to play the shopkeepers, and Buyer & Cellar was born.
While the wholly pleasing, delightful and witty one-act show deserves its praise for humor. I found myself laughing along with the audience. The show was well-chosen to be placed in-the-round, the angles provided gorgeous tableaus for a nearly two-hour, one-man show. Turner is an excellent storyteller. If you’re looking for laughs and adorable-ness, go see Buyer & Cellar.
How-eh-ver, the audience has an option. You may walk out just laughing, stuck in the ridiculousness of an eccentric, albeit talented, millionaire building her own mall and bullying staff to play along. After all, it is funny.
What I found more striking was the idea of More.
The name Alex More, I checked the spelling of the character name in the program and press release to ensure it was not a typo, was intentional. They mention his full name several times and I heard it before I read it: not Moore. “More.”
In a world gagging for more, Barbra is choking on it. She is as big as it gets. She has more than more, she has it all. Talent, respect, family, money. She is above George Clooney. She makes Beyoncé look like a new girl on the block. She’s Barbra.
Yet in every line, in every unsaid line, Barbra needs more. She needs More as a friend – a new experience in a world she has already tasted the very best of, and she needs more of life. She’s just not done with life yet.
Barbra is obsessed with MORE. She is looking for the next detail, the next perfect object that would “finish” a room’s décor, a desperate way to re-live her childhood, the next project to be the pinnacle of her career. She is an eternal dreamer trapped in the body of an aging woman. Does being pitch-perfect in one passion make the rest of the world seem gray? Will she ever find lasting happiness in a world just below her expectations?
While Barbra is stuck in a problem most of us will never have to worry about, it made me pause, wondering…if a world-famous, mold-breaking, multi-talented woman like Barbra Streisand cannot find lasting, unconditional happiness in her millions, mansions and men…perhaps…I should not expect it that if I get those things, I will find happiness either.
She’s surrounded by items and awards. She finds joy in the collecting, but little in their ownership. It is inspiring and frightening at the same time.
On one hand we are pleased that there is no complacency in the woman who has reached the top. On the other, there is a fear. The innate fever and clamor and talent that raises such people so far past the threshold of success, keeps them from enjoying, from resting, from lowering their head from its permanent position: craned back, looking upward, toward more.
Contentment is a rarely preached on its own. We have rewritten the ending of Hebrews 13:5, “Be content with such things that you have…while working and striving to be more, have more, experience more.” We ask each other and ourselves to be content, but never satisfied. It is an impossible request, and Barbra is the result.
So what shall we do with this information? Well, that’s up to you.
And that information and option, is the beauty of theatre.
Click HERE more information and to purchase tickets
Saturday, April 4 – Sunday, May 10
Sheryl & Harvey White Theatre
Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
