There are very few tinsel-town curiosities as allusive and mysterious as Mz Streisand’s underground mall.
The lore surrounding her private, subterranean shopping district is as pervasive as it is allusive. Bursting from the pages of her 2010 coffee table book, My Passion for Design, the bricked streets are dotted with shop windows crammed with memorabilia. It’s every woman-of-a-certain-age’s wet dream, like a geriatric Richie Rich fantasy. The latest production to land at the UK’s only LGBT+ theatre, Above The Stag, takes us right into the bowels of this reclusive retail district. Having enjoyed smash-hit runs in LA, New York and Australia, Buyer & Cellar is landing in London this March. Taking to the stage as the young out-of-work actor who somehow lands a job working for Streisand herself is soap-alumn Aaron Sidwell. We caught up with him to hear all about the show that has him brushing up on his Barbraisms.
So what drew to this role if you weren’t a Streisand fan?
At the start of the year, I had a discussion about doing a one-man play. It was something that has never run through my mind before because I’ve always enjoyed close conversation. I’m a big Tennessee Williams fan, all of those natural conversations that flow off the tongue. When the idea came up I thought of it as a really big challenge that I’d never seen and done before.
This was the biggest research job I had to do because of how little I knew about Barbra Streisand. It’s somebody’s interpretation of Barbra, and their set of events, as opposed to facts. It leaves you freer for it not to be a dead-on Barbra impression. What drew me in too was that I wasn’t called in just to impersonate her.
Did you come across anything amusing in your research?
Her book, My Passion For Design, is amazing. There’s a great line in the show where she says she’s written it instead of an autobiography because what’s left to say. She’s invited you into her home in a very set-up kind of way. You realise that the place she lives is like a Neverland Ranch, like a Graceland, a Dollywood. It’s just mad. She’s built, designed and hand-picked the estate. She’s worth four-hundred million.
What would you do with that kind of wealth? What’s your underground mall?
It’s so much money, the concept of money stops meaning anything. I think I’d have to have an enormous football pitch in my garden. I love watching a film with my kids and my other half, so I’d have an enormous cinema. I don’t really get attached to material things, things are quite disposable to me. One of the reasons Barbra built this mall is because she wanted to display all the things she loves and has cherished over the years, but doesn’t necessarily want them in her house all the time. She wants to give them a little more respect than shoving them in a basement.
It’s just fancy hoarding, isn’t it?
There’s a line that says “This is Hoarders on a higher plane.” That’s exactly what it is. It’s an inability to let go of things. She has the resources to hold on to things. We would have to debate if our stuff’s even worth going to the loft. On the estate, she has a main house, a barn house that’s the size of the main house, and another house called Grandma’s House. For her, it’s just “Oh, we’ll find space for it in one of the three houses.”
What do you think it is about Streisand that has led to a successful career spanning six decades?
One of the fun facts I picked up about her was that when she was 20 years old, she was asked to make an album, and she refused to do it unless Columbia gave her full control. What makes Barbra a survivor as a woman was that ballsy nature. That element of knowing her worth, and what people stood to gain from her. She made sure that she was set up to gain the most. A lot of the time, when you see someone directing, starring and producing in a movie, there are some poor performers because they have no one to answer to. That in itself is a testament to the talent she has. He thinks she knows best, and she’s right.
She found success early on, as did you. What was it like going through that at eighteen?
I don’t think anything can prepare you for it. Even in financial terms. I was by no means rich, but I was doing a job I would’ve done for free. That I’d done for free up until that point. They were actually giving me good money. There is a lot of danger that comes along with that, and I think I always had a good base of people around me. In my head, I was always an actor who could do anything he could possibly do. I was never going to settle in one place. I always had that whip behind me. It was stressful.
It’s not every soap star that then goes into theatre. How was the initial transition?
For me, the strange thing was always doing the TV. Doing telly was where I was out of my comfort zone. I always wanted to be a theatre actor, I never thought about being on TV. I just get a buzz from being on stage. The live element is really fun and fascinating.
This show’s been wildly referred to as “bitchy”. Does being bitchy come naturally to you?
Not at all. Playing around with these characters and finding these people has been a challenge, but it’s written so well so it’s there for you. There’s a really Jewish element to the way this is written as well, which is again, not me.
What do you hope people take away from this production?
Firstly, I hope they just have a really nice evening at the theatre. I hope they leave knowing that there’s a little bit of Barbra Streisand in all of us. Perfectionism. While we don’t have houses like hers, we’re all just trying to create this little world for ourselves that we deem perfect. But it will never be perfect, you’re always tinkering and that’s fun. That’s what keeps us living.
Aaron Sidwell stars in Buyer And Cellar at Above The Stag Theatre, Vauxhall SE1 7TP from 11th March. www.qxtickets.com.
