Review: LTW's 'Buyer & Cellar' keeps the laughs coming

There’s Oprah. James Brolin. Pierce Brosnan. Arthur Laurents. Barbra Streisand.

And that’s just a sampling of the characters Wick takes on with distinction and aplomb in Live Theatre Workshop’s one-man play, “Buyer & Cellar.”

The play, directed with sass and rhythm by Sabian Trout, is a ridiculous fantasy based on a ridiculous reality.

The ridiculous reality: Barbra Streisand has a basement in the barn of her Malibu dream house that she has converted into a Disneyesque Main Street shopping area to house a few of her favorite things: An antique shop, a doll store, an antique clothing store. You can read all about it in her 2010 book “My Passion for Design.” You can even see pictures of it.

The ridiculous fantasy: that she has hired an out-of-work actor to be the mall’s lone salesman to tend to its sole customer — Streisand.

That’s where Wick comes in. He opens the play as Alex, that out-of-work actor. “Buyer & Cellar” is his story about the surreal time at Babs’ place.

The play begins with an explanation of the truth vs. fantasy — no one wants the extremely litigious diva to come swooping down with lawsuits in her extended claws.

Once that business is out of the way, Alex tells us about life — or how playwright Jonathan Tolins imagines it — in Babs basement. Along the way we meet his boyfriend, Barry, who is witty and mouthy and not at all pleased that Alex gets to work with Barry’s idol. And Sharon, Streisand’s assistant/house manager, who shows the creepy strains of Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper in Hitchcock’s “Rebecca.” And James Brolin, Bab’s husband. And Arthur Laurents, who may or may not like her idea that Streisand play Rose in a remake of “Gypsy.”

Wick whips from one character to the next as he relays Alex’s time with the actress/singer, known for her control freakishness and rather hefty ego. She is the one character she doesn’t try to impersonate. Because, really, we all know her.

The play is designed to make us laugh, and the audience at the Nov. 7 opening did just that. Frequently and loudly.

And while there are not heavy messages, there are a few insightful ones.

Toward the end, when Alex is ready to move on — OK, he was fired — he spends his last moments in the basement mall and opens his arms and turns slowly in a circle.

“A person’s arm span is roughly the same as their height,” he says. “And that circle you make when you spin around is the extent to which you take up space in the universe. It seems to me, the stuff inside that circle is more important than all the stuff you put around it.”

What makes this play vibrate, though, is Wick, who takes on each personality with conviction and who never loses sight of good storytelling. Wick has a wicked sense of comedic timing and a knack for pulling the audience into his world.

“Buyer & Cellar” is an evening full of quick wit and frequent laughter. Wick’s multiple personalities here are something to celebrate. And to see.