Theatre review: Buyer & Cellar

PREVIEW DISCLAIMER: The Menier isn't inviting the critics in until Thursday; Stephen Brackett's production has previously played in the US.

In a rather awkward little prologue, Jonathan Tolins' Buyer & Cellar assures us that, should any notoriously litigious superstars be listening, the story is a complete fabrication. But it's inspired by a bizarre truth found in a coffee-table book Barbra Streisand published in 2010, effectively an ode to her own good taste in home furnishings. Among the many photos and informative paragraphs, is the fact that she's bought so much stuff over the years that she built a fake mall in her basement to store it. Tolins imagines it might be a lonely place to wander through on her own, and so comes up with Alex (Michael Urie.) Having been fired from Disneyland for threatening a child with a churro, the out-of-work actor is in need of a new job, and his experience of working in a demented kingdom of make-believe makes him ideal for what Streisand's housekeeper has in mind.