Buyer & Cellar (Menier Chocolate Factory)

I must admit that, prior to this evening, the extent of my Barbra Streisand knowledge extended little beyond the fact she played Dustin Hoffman’s wife in the Fockers trilogy – I know, shameful, but I'm young(ish) so please forgive me – however, after watching Jonathan Tolins' one-man play, which has transferred from New York to the Menier Chocolate Factory, I feel like I know her inside out, such is the brilliance of Michael Urie‘s masterful storytelling.

The basis of Buyer and Cellar is that Streisand has a shopping mall in the basement of her Malibu mansion with her collections of antiques, clothes and toys presented in various boutiques (true fact). After reading about this, playwright Tolins got to thinking – what it would be like to be the sole employee in Streisand's private lonely Lakeside?

Enter Alex Moore (Urie), an actor recently unemployed after telling a kid at Disneyland to shove a Churro up his ass, ("There's a reason it's known as Mousechwitz"). Moore is hired to work in the mall and describes his journey from mock merchant to Gypsy acting coach – via a "religious ecstasy" in front of the "People dress" – through short, sharp and wonderfully witty vignettes.

There's plenty of laugh out loud moments for Barbra aficionados and newbies alike, but it's also a very touching exploration of friendship, ambition and fame. Urie's charming performance is delicate and refined, portraying Streisand truthfully without ever attempting an impression. The relationship he creates between the two lead characters is so warm that I found myself emphatically willing a happy ending for them both.

Although it's hard to suggest anything that could be cut, it nevertheless feels slightly too long (100 minutes straight through); in-jokes about Streisand, Yiddish and American culture sometimes fall flat, but effective video design by Alex Koch mean's there's always something to look at on the otherwise simple set.

It's two years since director Stephen Brackett and Urie began work on this project and it's plain to see that over 500 performances have allowed them to hone the telling of this tale to a T.

Buyer and Cellar runs at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 2 May 2015.