BY KAREN BOSSICK
Jonathan Tolins can’t go anywhere without someone asking him, “Have you heard from Barbra?”
You might expect that after Tolins’ “Buyer & Cellar,” which is based on one of Barbra Streisand’s bizarre quirks, won the 2013 Drama Desk Award.
Jon Kane’s Sawtooth Productions will present the comedy for 10 nights at Whiskey Jacques May 10-20. The play starts at 7:30 with doors opening at 6 p.m. for those who would like to purchase food and drinks beforehand.
Opening night on Thursday, May 10, will feature $1 well drinks.
Of course, the prime question people want to know is how much of the play is biographical or autobiographical.
The answer: It’s fiction rooted in bizarre fact.
The seed for “Buyer & Cellar” began when Tolins’ husband brought home a 2010 coffee table book, “My Passion for Design” that Streisand wrote and photographed about her Malibu dream house, which includes a Connecticut-style mill house and water wheel among other things.
Streisand spent many years designing and building the house and she recounts every detail in the book right down to the bars between panes of glass.
While details of those bars, known as muntins, might present rich fodder for bedtime snoozing, Tolins was fascinated by Streisand’s description of a mall she had built in her basement.
The mall was inspired by Winterthur, the American decorative arts museum in Delaware. Housed in the basement of a barn on the estate, it’s comprised of a street of shops built to display her collections, ranging from Bee’s Doll Shop to an antique clothes boutique.
“I’ve always been fascinated by elaborate pretend environments like Disneyland or the Forum at Caesar’s Palace, and she has a whole chapter about this street of shops,” said Tolins. “And my first reaction was, ‘How’d you like to be the guy who has to work down there?’ ”
As Tolins thought more about it, he began concocting scenarios in his mind. He entertained the notion of a struggling actor who had recently been fired from his position as mayor of Disneyland’s Toontown getting hired to man the cash register in Streisand’s mall and greet the lady of the house as she came down to shop.
He turned his musings into an essay, then a one-man play highlighting everything that had caught his interest, including Streisand’s French doll, which blows bubbles.
Then he tried to imagine how the underemployed actor would spend his days in the basement, whether he would fall under Streisand’s spell and how the two might change one another.
Of course, Streisand has never actually hired an employee to work down there in real life.
The play is an irresistible look at celebrity false bonding, the solitude of uber fame and the seductive allure of expensive chintz, according to theater critic David Rooney. Though satire, it stops short of outright mockery, he added. And that’s what makes it enjoyable.
This is the seventh production of “Buyer & Cellar” that New York actor Nick Cearley has been in.
“I’ve gotten to do hundreds of performances of it and it is a play I really connect with. I feel it has so humanity and heart and I’m excited to bring the story to Sun Valley,” said Cearley, who also performs in a hit cabaret act in New York and a musical comedy act known as The Skivvies who are performing nationwide in their underwear.
“Barbra does in fact have a shopping mall in her basement. It literally has a doll shop, a gift shop, an antiques store, clothing boutiques, a dessert shop—the only difference between Barbara’s basement and mall and a real mall is the total lack of customers or employees,” he added.
That, of course, is where Cearley comes in.
"When directing a face-paced show where a man is playing so many roles, it's vital to ensure there is ease for the actor. None of the staging or directorial decision should ever create frantic energy," said Director Colton Pometta. "The show is wildly hilarious and also has a whole lot of heart, as it's all about human connection."
Tickets are $30, available at the door or by calling 208-726-9124. The play runs 80 minutes without an intermission. There will be no late admittance.