‘Buyer & Cellar’ star Christopher J. Hanke gives tips on playing Streisand

TORONTO – For Christopher J. Hanke, the key to playing Barbra Streisand every night in the one-man stage comedy “Buyer & Cellar” is in the mouth, hair and nails.

“For me, my Barbra came from food,” he said in an interview at the offices of Mirvish Productions, which is mounting the play at the Panasonic Theatre through Nov. 30.

“She loves to eat, and so you can start with maybe putting a Hershey’s Kiss in the middle of your tongue, like you have to balance it there. That will open up this part of your mouth,” he continued, pointing to his cheeks and affecting her Brooklyn accent.

“Then there’s also a lot of ‘Hmm? Yeah? Mmm,’ a lot of forward sounds, as many as you can make.”

The Los Angeles-based actor also emphasizes her “epic” hair and posture. He images her coif would be heavy and that she would have “the weight of the world on her shoulders” with many bills to pay, so he tilts his head and body to the side.

“Then the last thing: nails. The longest nails you’ve evah seen,” he said, slipping into her persona again and holding his fingers out in front of him. “And they’re French-tip or they’re gloss, like a nude, maybe it’s like a linen colour … glossy, long, long, long.

“So: nails, Hershey’s Kiss, hair, bills — that’s your Barbra Streisand.”

Hanke doesn’t actually dress as Babs in the show, and he stresses he doesn’t do an impersonation of her. Rather, he hilariously affects her mannerisms — as well as those of several other characters, including her husband James Brolin — while dressed in a plaid shirt and khaki pants as the main character, Alex More.

Jonathan Tolins wrote the off-the-wall story, in which Alex is struggling to get an acting gig in Los Angeles and ends up taking a job working in the basement of a Malibu home. Turns out it’s not just any old basement — it’s a mini shopping mall built underneath an estate. And it’s not just any old home — it’s that of Streisand.

As Alex assumes his bizarre new retail role, he eventually gets to know Streisand as she visits her mini mall’s doll store and frozen yogurt shop.

Stephen Brackett directs the show, which has won a Drama Desk Award.

Hanke said about 15 per cent of the story is true, including Streisand’s basement mini mall, which really does have a doll store and frozen yogurt shop. The play also makes frequent references to her book “My Passion for Design,” which details the underground shopping centre.

In the play, Streisand likes to eat Kit Kat candy bars and offers a piece to Alex. Hanke said the singer is known for enjoying Kit Kat bars and once offered a piece of the chocolate wafer to Tolins at a play.

The show runs 100 minutes with no intermission. Hanke — who is onstage by himself with a bare-bones set for the entire show — had to memorize two pages a day in order to get the whole thing down in just two months of rehearsal.

But he relished the opportunity to showcase a huge acting range in so many different characters in a solo show.

“This is a role of a lifetime,” said Hanke. “I will latch on to this play and do it as long as possible, because something like this I don’t think will ever come around again.”

Hanke said Streisand’s lawyer and manager saw the show and “loved it,” but she has never attended.

So, what would he do if she did come see it?

“Down a bottle of Jack Daniel’s instantly because I would be so nervous,” he said with a laugh. “I would say it’s been an honour getting to know her career and that I’m a huge fan of hers.”

“If she was in the audience, though, I’d probably (soil) my pants, if I saw her,”he added, using an unprintable expletive. “When I’m onstage I can connect to the audience and I’m always like, ‘Is she here, is she here?’

“I’m looking actually for nails, because I know I’ll see the nails catch the light somewhere.”