Barbra Streisand fans could be forgiven for not rushing to a solo Barbra Streisand show that doesn't have Barbra Streisand in it. But such is the buzz surrounding Jonathan Tolins's award-winning New York hit, they might be seriously missing out.
As you might guess from the punning title, Buyer & Cellar, starring Michael Urie of Ugly Betty fame, doesn't so much get under Streisand's skin as under her real-life house in Malibu. Built by Streisand, it is a fantasy farmstead with a water wheel and a central hall where, if the building were the real thing, bails of hay would have once been stacked. Instead, it is plastered with "turn-of-the-century" art and lit by a huge chandelier. There is also a lily pond with colour-coordinated fish, and an astonishing view of the Pacific.
Yet it is the basement of this creation where Tolins has set his play. This is where Streisand built her underground shopping mall. Here the ground is cobbled and there are shops specialising in antique dolls, vintage clothes and artefacts many of which are keepsakes from Streisand's past. They include the dress in which she sang People in Funny Girl, and many other objets d'art collected by the star over the years.
If you want to see the collection, there is a video (also on YouTube) that comes with the deluxe version of Streisand's book about the property. Called My Passion for Design, it is the mother of lavishly illustrated coffee table books. In fact, you could probably use it as a coffee table. The mini biopic that comes with it is narrated by Streisand herself and features a perfectly manicured hand - which may or not be Streisand's - sweeping back curtains and opening doors to the various wings of what that distinctive Brooklyn voice modestly describes as her "barn".
"Like a lot of people, I was struck by the underground mall," says Tolins. "And I made a joke about what it would be like to be the guy who works down there." Actually, there probably isn't anyone who works down there in the way depicted in Tolins's play. But it requires only a short leap of the imagination to see that someone very easily could.
"There are no cash registers and I don't think she has an actual shop keeper like Alex [the main role played by Urie]," says Tolins. "But I used to live in Los Angeles and I know a lot of friends who had odd jobs working for celebrities. So, once I started working on the play, I was able to believe that someone could have this crazy job."
Streisand is apparently unaware, unembarrassed or both about the pastiche kitsch of the whole thing. And it would be all too easy to ridicule the star for what, in anyone's book appears to be a slightly mad obsession. But being a fan - "I'm gay, Jewish, born in Brooklyn" - helped Tolins avoid that trap, even if he is not one of the die-hard breed of Streisand disciples.
"I'm a fan but not a huge fan," says the 48-year-old playwright. "I love the early stuff and as someone who works in showbusiness I knew a lot of fun stories about her. And in Michael Urie's case he knew that if ever the play started to feel mean the audience would turn on him as the actor on stage. But I think we struck the right balance."
Any home says a lot about the person who lives there. But what does a shopping mall in a basement say?
"There's a sense of someone who wants to control the world around her," he says. "There's a perfectionism that means you're never satisfied with what you have. This is what leads to great work but it can also lead to a lot of pain. I also think it can lead to a kind of solitude. There something lonely about having a mall with all your things."
Streisand has never seen the show and, for that, Tolins is glad.
"I've never wanted her to see it. I think it would just be too weird for her. While the show is a pretty loving portrait, there are things along the way that we kind of have fun with that she might find rough going. There's a long sequence about Barbara negotiating the price for a doll she sees in the doll shop, which is something she already owns."
To apply a bit of cod psychology to the place, it might be said that the house that Babs built is a way of distancing herself from her childhood and the cramped Brooklyn apartment she shared with her family.
"She shared a bed with her mother for part of the time," says Tolins, "And she presents that personal history as the wound she has been trying to fill her whole life. She also lost her father at a very young age which is terrible and a source of great pain."
But then, as a character says in the play, isn't it time she got over all of that?
"That's right," chuckles Tolins, "Because she has had a few breaks since then."
Tolins did meet her once. She was interested in the film rights of a play of his called Twilight of the Golds which, when it was performed in London, coincidentally starred Streisand's son Jason Gould (son of Elliott).
"She came to see the play and she offered me a piece of her Kit Kat bar. She's come to feel almost like a relative to me.
"There's also that feeling that my career is inextricably linked with her because now people think of me as the guy who wrote that Streisand play."
Did he keep the Kit Kat or eat it? "In the play the same thing happened to Alex. And to this day he regrets not taking it."
Shame. If Tolins ever felt the need to build an underground museum of his life, it would have made the perfect exhibit.
