This week there’s big fun, good fun and not enough fun on area stages:
Buyer & Cellar, Ensemble Theatre
Audiences are going to make Ensemble’s Buyer & Cellar the buzzy, must-see show of the month. Nick Cearley is our delightful guide through this high-concept, “What If?,” one-man comedy inspired by page 180 of Barbra Streisand’s 2010 book My Passion for Design. That’s the page where Babs mentions the faux mall in the basement of her barn in Malibu, a little shopping street filled with tiny boutiques inventoried with her years of stuff (excuse me, collections): Bee’s Doll Shop, a “gift shoppe,” (that’s pronounced shop-PE in the show) an antique clothing boutique…
Playwright Jonathan Tolins wondered, “Is there a shopkeeper?” – and Buyer & Cellar is the fond and funny imagining of a gay out-of-work actor hired to dust and assist the customer. It gets pretty nutsy pretty fast, and it’s peppered with showbiz dish and Streisand hits.
We don’t go to the mall – the action is set in a suggestion of a Barbra-worthy sitting room. Cearley plays several characters including Babs. (No attempt is made to impersonate her).
Cearley is engaging as can be as he recounts the tale, which includes lessons in life and love. The Fairfield native has already done the show in California and next stop is Key West, where it could run forever, they’re gonna love him. You’re gonna love him.
Expect to laugh for 90 minutes – reason alone to call the box office.
P.S.! NYC is coming to ETC for three nights. Cearley is one-half of the “undies” rock duo The Skivvies with Broadway’s Lauren Molina and there will be three late-night shows at ETC Oct. 22-24. The Skivvies are NYC faves, appearing at events like Broadway Bares (Equity Fights AIDS). The music is stripped down —cello, ukulele, glockenspiel, melodica – and so are The Skivvies, who perform in their undies. Needless to say, there’s a content advisory. Tickets $30. (Check them out here.)
Buyer and Cellar, Oct. 13-Nov. 1. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, 1028 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $28-$44 adults, $25 students. 513-421-3555 and www.ensemblecincinnati.org.
Pippin, Broadway in Cincinnati
They’ve got magic to do, just for you. And it’s only playing through Oct. 18! This dazzler of a revival of tuneful Seventies Broadway hit Pippin is set under a circus tent and populated by fabulous acrobatic acts. Every time I’ve seen a Cirque show over the last 20 years or so, I’ve always wondered – why not set it to a plot? I’ve always thought a Shakespeare fantasy would be a great fit, but so is Pippin.
Pippin is the son of Charlemagne (you know, the first Holy Roman Emperor!) in search of meaning and himself in the Middle Ages, although its issues are plenty contemporary. The war that was raging was Vietnam, but it’s not as if we’re not still at it. Our hero is disillusioned; these days we seem numb. Pippin’s journey includes war, of course, and also much kinky fun is implied when he hits a detour in his search for purpose and peace of mind.
Also lots of intrigue and murder.
The show is gorgeous. Along with the superb acrobatic acts, there is well-performed illusion and there’s John Rubinstein as Charlemagne. He’s terrific, just like he was in the title role in the original Broadway production and so many other Broadway hits a generation back.
And, in a cameo as Pippin’s life-loving granny, another Seventies Broadway star Priscilla Lopez (she sang “What I Did for Love” in the original A Chorus Line, ask your parents or grandparents).
“No Time at All” is always an honest-to-goodness show-stopper (sing along!), but this time it’s less from the audience’s heart than from admiration for Lopez, who performs on a trapeze as she sings and looks damn good doing it.
If there’s a problem with this touring Pippin, it’s that Brian Flores in the title role, despite strong vocals and good looks, fades into the background every time a stronger performer or jaw-dropping circus act shares the stage with him. And that the show is so busy dazzling us it’s hard to see its heart.
Pippin, Oct. 13-18. Broadway in Cincinnati, Aronoff Center, 650 walnut St., Downtown Cincinnati. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $29-$99 plus fees. 513-621-2787.
The Hunchback of Seville, Know Theatre
You know when someone, let’s say a political someone like Michelle Bachmann, thinks they’re smarter than everybody, but you think ‘whoa’?
That’s The Hunchback of Seville at Know, a messy, absurdist, political allegory by Charise Castro Smith. It’s a co-production by host theatre Know and CCM Drama and shows off some strengths of both.
Despite being a good-looking production and solid acting exercise for several CCM Drama students, particularly Emily Walton, Hunchback is nevertheless nowhere near smart or funny enough. It entertains in spurts during its 90 minutes, broken by long sections of tedium.
Hunchback follows the travails of hunchbacked Maxima (Colleen Ladrick), adopted sister of gradually dying Queen Isabella of Spain (Rachel Baumgarten). Maxima appears to be the only sane person in residence. She has maps of the known world (hey, it was 1492 when Columbus was sailing the ocean blue) and has a secret desire to end the Spanish Inquisition, which was in its early days, long before a couple hundred more years of genocide.
Walton shines as Isabella’s nutcase daughter Juana who likes to speak baby-talk and also likes to eat peasant. (No, not pheasant.) Andrew Iannacci has a big (brief) comic turn as Columbus and Baumgarten knows how to send up a queen.
One bit that is fabulously current: nobody wants to be in charge of dangerously unstable Juana. Who could have guessed it looks a lot like a mirror of what’s going on in the House of Representatives, where all the potential guardians are running for the exits?
P.S. Don’t scold me for picking on Bachmann, director Brant Russell did it first, by using one of her quotes as his director’s note.
The Hunchback of Seville, through Oct. 24. Know Theatre, 1140 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets $20. 513-300-5669 and here.
Written by Jackie Demaline, RCN Arts
