BWW Reviews: Coyote StageWorks Debuts in its New Home with the Howlingly Funny BUYER & CELLAR

Coyote StageWorks has had a difficult year. The award-winning non-profit theatre company lost its lease in July. According to founding artistic director Chuck Yates, the resulting scramble to obtain new space - the state of the art Helene Galen Performing Arts Center, at Rancho Mirage High School - prevented Coyote from mounting more than one production this season: its current work, BUYER & CELLAR.

But, oh what a production it is! Howlingly funny, brilliantly acted, and cleverly staged, BUYER & CELLAR represents Coyote's departure from desert exile and entry into the land of milk and honey. Those who love sophisticated comedy should be sure to follow the company to the Galen.

Playwright Jonathan Tolins has an eclectic background, having written for Broadway and off-Broadway, for both the large and small screens, for publications ranging from Opera News to the Huffington Post, and for the Academy and Tony Award broadcasts. He is also a panelist for the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz.

Mr. Tolins reveals the offbeat side of his personality in BUYER & CELLAR. The main character, Alex More (Emerson Collins), an aspiring actor, somehow manages to keep his sanity while everyone else around him (also played by Emerson Collins) acts as if they have just sprung from ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Mr. Tolins unmercifully skewers Barbra Streisand (Emerson Collins again) throughout much of the play, pivots to express sympathy for her loneliness, and then goes back to piercing her with his rapier-sharp wit. I could not discern whether Mr. Tolins despises Streisand or adores her, although I suspect the latter.

Barbra Streisand - the real one - has an imaginative method of displaying the accretion of merchandise that does not fit in her mansion: a basement replica of an old shopping mall, where her possessions serve as the merchandise. BUYER & CELLAR is a fictitious riff on Streisand's cellar display: What if Barbra employed an individual to work full-time, impersonating a uniformed turn of the 19th century sales clerk? Most of the time, the employee would only need to keep the merchandise and displays clean, and the popcorn and frozen yogurt machines whirring. Yet, Barbra needs an actor instead of a maid with a feather duster for the occasions when she pretends she is a customer in one of the boutiques - an exceedingly difficult customer. Will Alex More be able to engage Streisand when she decides to "shop"? How can he break through the celebrity persona to reach her very human core?

Director Larry Raben and actor Emerson Collins succeed in getting the audience to suspend disbelief to the point that I often did not notice that there was only one individual on stage. Mr. Collins has the famed Streisand Brooklyn accent down pat. As Streisand, he fiddles with his Mr. Rogers sweater, pulling it against his chest. Pursing his lips while portraying the fictitious woman who manages the Streisand estate, he is the quintessential sourpuss. He swaggers as Streisand's husband, James Brolin; engages in exaggerated gestures as Alex's boyfriend, Barry; and mostly acts like a normal young man as the main character, Alex, except for bursts of hyperactivity that cause him to turn cartwheels and flop upside down on furniture.

The bon mots, most of them acerbic, fly, and Mr. Collins delivers them perfectly, starting with Alex's disclaimer at the beginning that he has no reason to be a Streisand impersonator, because enough other people portray her - even women. When Alex has a particularly maddening encounter with his employer-customer, he says, "If she were a man, I'd call her a perfectionist." The audience gasped in response at the performance I attended.

Only a versatile actor can successfully negotiate this show's schizophrenic goofiness. Mr. Collins, a boyish-looking 30-year-old veteran of stage, film, and television as both an actor and producer, is certainly versatile, as well as energetic. Mr. Collins becomes several people, male and female, young and old, and rich and middle-class, each of whom has a different personality from the others and a distinctive way of moving and speaking.

Contributing to the atmosphere are David Engel's clever projections that take the place of background scenery - a grand staircase leading to the ersatz stores, a picture of Streisand's actual book cover, in which she describes her pretend mall, and a heaven-like scene, accompanied by celestial music, after Alex first lays eyes on one of Streisand's iconic gowns.

This production is close to perfect, at least for those who are not easily offended. At the performance I attended, a couple walked out when Alex ecstatically reported the sexual prowess of his Jewish boyfriend, and commented that he didn't understand why some people don't like Jews. The references to sex (specifically, same sex sex), and to Jewish sexual talent, and the portrayal of Barry as mincing and gesticulating could easily offend members of various groups. If this show were a movie, it would receive at least a PG-13, if not an R rating.

I noticed two problems, one important and one not: The one-act play, an hour and forty minutes long, slows down when Alex and Streisand develop a friendly relationship. At that point, the script appears to be moving towards its climax, but instead veers off in another direction. Tightening the script to allow it to fit as one act of a two-play production would eliminate what my writing teacher calls "the muddle in the middle."

The minor problem is technical: On at least two occasions during the performance I attended, the computer that controlled the projections failed to switch to the next background. Instead, the Windows desktop appeared on the back wall, causing unintended laughs. Still, this occurrence was so trivial that it did not detract from the brilliant production, which I urge everyone to see.

The rest of the crew consists of Chuck Yates (producer, artistic director, and props), Phil Murphy (lighting design), Moira Wilkie (assistant stage manager), Josh Clabaugh (scenic design), and Jim Lapidus (costumes).

BUYER & CELLAR will play at the Helene Galen Performing Arts Center, at Rancho Mirage High School, 31001 Rattler Road (off Ramon Road, between Davall and Bob Hope), Rancho Mirage, CA 92270, from Thursday, April 2nd through Saturday, April 4th, at 7:30 p.m., and on Saturday, April 4th, and Sunday, April 5th, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $50 and $60 for evening performances and $45 and $55 for matinees. Tickets are available at the box office and on the Web site, http://www.coyotestageworks.org/ .

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