Sometimes the soul cries out for an evening of art that isn't Socially Significant. Laughter promotes endorphin release, like another activity we won't go into here, and it's good for your immune system. One walks out of "Buyer & Seller" at the Rep Studio considerably healthier than one walked in. The only bad news is that tickets aren't covered by your health insurance.
About the sole requirement for enjoyment is that the viewer know who Barbra Streisand is. The play is a fantasy, someone's daydream of what working for her would be like, the whole thing spurred by Streisand's book about her home. Jeremy Webb plays Alex More, an unemployed actor who gets a job at an estate in Malibu working in the cellar of the barn. Not just any barn, of course, and not just any cellar – this cellar has been turned into an arcade of shops to hold Streisand's multitudinous purchases, so she can stroll through, chose what she likes and use it or return it the next day presumably after fondling it a while. The popcorn machine and frozen yogurt machines are also down there, for good measure. We know our hero will meet The Lady Of The House, as she's referred to in his interview, sooner or later.
Our hero announces straightaway he's not going to impersonate Streisand. But of course he does, as well as inhabiting four other characters, morphing back and forth at warp speed but leaving room for the cracking wise we'd expect from these Hollywood types. He's having fun with this – or at least seems to be – while working like mad. Director Wendy Dann has paced things well and Jonathan Tolins' script only sags when Alex' boredom is called forth, just as it should.
A short, brisk piece of work with no intermission, it's as bracing as a double espresso and as relaxing as having it with a pal. They've already extended the run by two weeks, so I'm not the only one who thinks so.
Buyer & Cellar
through March 29
Studio Theatre
Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
314-968-4925