BUYER & CELLAR at the Mark Taper Forum

Photo by Joan MarcuLes Spindle – Edge on the Net

Les Spindle – Edge on the Net

Michael Urie proves to be a virtuoso clown, a consummate actor, and a force of nature, all rolled into one, in his tour de force solo turn in Jonathan Tolins ‘ irresistible showbiz comedy, “Buyer & Cellar.”Under the crackling direction of Stephen Brackett, Tolins’ sassy and inventive concoction provides a career breakthrough vehicle for the perpetually charming Urie, who is most widely known for his sublime supporting role in the sitcom “Ugly Betty.” Read more…

Pauline Adamek  – Stage Raw

Sweet and snarky, with a few cheap shots and a lot of belly laughs, Buyer & Cellar is a hilarious one-person show about a struggling actor’s brief period of working for a major celebrity. Like a boyish and playful pixie, Michael Urie bounds onto the sparsely furnished all-white stage and regales us with an episode that he coyly hastens to assure us “is a work of fiction.” He claims he’s going to play a guy named Alex More in a made-up play written by Jonathan Tolins. “The premise is a little preposterous,” Urie insists, with all the enthusiasm of a person striving to dodge a nasty lawsuit. Of course, we’re all conspiratorially brought into his little joke. Read more…

Myron Meisel – The Hollywood Reporter

Fresh off an acclaimed New York run where it won multiple awards for best solo show and performance, Jonathan Tolins’ snarky yet sneakily sentimental Buyer & Cellar, starring Emmy nominee Michael Urie (Marc St. James in the long-running series Ugly Betty), represents some kind of ne plus ultra of a mainstream gay one-hander. Unabashed, confident in its broadness of brush (not least because of the pointillist precision of its observation), and with an unerring command of its comic and pathetic effects, Buyer & Cellar is the sort of heartwarmingly savage show the whole family can enjoy. Read more…
Now running through August 17.