Michael Urie Takes On Barbra Streisand in 'Buyer & Cellar': INTERVIEW

BY NAVEEN KUMAR

Michael Urie is playing Barbra Streisand Off Broadway, and every other character in Buyer & Cellar, playwright Jonathan Tolins new one-man play which opened on Wednesday at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. An exceptionally gifted comedian and stage performer, Urie does the diva justice—and she’s just one piece of the story.

You may or may not be surprised to know that Barbra has her many earthly possessions organized into something that resembles a posh strip-mall in her basement. That is the factual part of the story. Buyer & Cellar imagines if she hired some poor (lucky?) soul to work down there, manning the shops for just one special customer.

Urie plays just the man for the job—an out of work L.A. actor named Alex, who’s just been fired from playing the Mayor of Toon Town at Disneyland. Alex is the play’s narrator and protagonist, and while he tells us about his experience with one of the world’s most bizarre retail jobs, he also plays himself and every other character involved.

Tolins’ play is well crafted, hilarious, and completely accessible to folks who know nothing about Barbra Streisand. Of course, the show’s success is thanks in no small part to Urie’s charming, whirlwind performance. I spoke to Michael about his work on the play, his choice of gay roles, and his personal feelings on the lady of the house.

Naveen Kumar: How did you approach playing different characters with only yourself to play off of? You recently directed a film about high school forensics (Thank You For Judging), and I know from my own experience, that forensics (or speech and debate) requires some similar skills, like using yourself as a scene partner.

Michael Urie: I’m so glad you mentioned forensics, because it was so helpful to have that vocabulary of popping from character to character. I had experience with forensics in high school, and [have been] reliving it all these years with Thank You For Judging. So, when I read the script I was like, ‘I get it! I get how I could do this.’

I didn’t know how hard it was going to be to actually figure out. Because comedy is all about timing, and usually you time yourself off of others. Whether it’s an audience if you’re doing stand up or if you’re doing a scene, it’s about how you play off of [that other person]. So, I was like, how am I going to play off of myself? Not only that, but continue narrating the story. That was the greatest challenge.

I’ve learned more [performing in front of an audience] than I did through all of rehearsal, because audiences tell you what’s funny.

There was no one way to create the characters, I had to attack them all in very different ways. There’s a lot of trust, obviously, in the playwright. What’s great about [John’s writing] is you could figure out how to play the character of Barbra even if you didn’t know who she was. He’s written that character so beautifully and so three-dimensionally, that I think you could probably interpret that character without any knowledge of Barbra Streisand and get really close.

NK: That was actually my next question. As the story’s narrator, Alex tells the audience from the beginning that he’s not going to “do” Barbra. Was it challenging to steer away from impersonation? How much did you know about her going in?

MU: That [line about not ‘doing’ Barbra] is such a brilliant precursor, and it takes so much of the onus off of me. Because everybody has an idea of what Barbra sounds like, she’s iconic. Even if it’s just 'Like buttah.' People have done impersonations, real impersonations, brilliantly. We didn’t want to try to do that, because it’s also not about her it’s about Alex, she’s just a character in [the play].

I think that’s part of John’s genius, that he has created something that’s meant to be an emulation—accurate storytelling rather than a series of impressions. Thank God! I don’t think I could do a real impression, certainly not without his words, I wouldn’t know what to say.

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"I’ve never been in. I’ve never said I was straight, and I’m not saying I’m gay now. I never lie, and I’ve never shied away from the topic. I’ve certainly chosen through my work to do things that promote the rights of LGBTQ people. I am not a hypocrite—certainly not now."

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Michael Urie Plays Early Gay Activist, Won't Discuss His Own Sexuality

Ugly Betty actor Michael Urie, who is starring in a play right now called The Temperamentals, about the formation of the nation's first pre-Stonewall gay rights organization, The Mattachine Society, refuses to discuss his own sexuality with New York magazine:

In the context of this play, it's almost impossible not to ask you about your own sexuality. You've never really publicly declared it, but on your own website, you identify yourself as "a member of the LGBT community" and say that organizations that help people with HIV/AIDS or people who are LGBT are "A-Number 1 in my book!" So what's the deal?

Well, that's my M.O. I'm interested in keeping — you know, actors have to be able to do lots of different things, and while I'd say there's an ongoing theme [to the parts I play], I'm also not interested in having any real publicity about who I am and what my private life is and things like that. I'm an actor and I don't want to be a [fill-in-the-] blank actor.

Do you really think that saying "I'm gay" would stop you from getting an array of roles?

That's not really the point. By using publicity to say something like that, it could become a person's M.O, and I'm not interested in that. I really think this article should be about The Temperamentals. I understand where you're coming from and why you think this is important and that this is a play about being true to yourself. But artists and activists are not quite the same thing, and I feel like support can come from lots of different ways.

Do you get sick of reporters asking you about this?

They don't ask about it as much as you might think. Actually, it's been a long time since anyone asked it. I don't think it's really newsworthy if the gay guy from Ugly Betty is gay or not.

Except, of course, if he's playing a character "who left before he could be outed to become a fashion designer so influential he made the cover of Time in 1967" in a play about gays who stood up for themselves by coming out.