MINNEAPOLIS – Hennepin Theatre Trust presents BUYER & CELLAR, the outrageous comedy about the price of fame, the cost of things and the oddest of odd jobs at the New Century Theatre (615 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis) March 31-April 24, 2016. The New York Post praised the show as “fantastically funny” when it premiered off-Broadway in April 2013. The Minneapolis production stars local actor Sasha Andreev as “Alex Moore” and is directed by critically acclaimed Wendy Knox.

Tickets are on sale now at the New Century Theatre Box Office, charge-by-phone at (612) 455-9501 and online at HennepinTheatreTrust.org.

Wednesday

7:30 p.m.

New Century Theatre

$34.50

Thursday

7:30 p.m.

New Century Theatre

$34.50

Friday

7:30 p.m.

New Century Theatre

$39.50

Saturday

2 and 8 p.m.

New Century Theatre

$39.50

Sunday

2 p.m.

New Century Theatre

$34.50

There will be “pay what you can” performance on Monday, April 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Desperate for work, struggling Los Angeles actor Alex More takes on a most unlikely and unenviable gig–running the basement mall in legendary star Barbra Streisand’s Malibu home. In BUYER & CELLAR, hilarity ensues with this comedic tale of the implausible friendship between Alex and Hollywood’s legendary “Funny Girl.” Playwright Jonathan Tolins playfully scrutinizes the zany implications of Streisand’s basement shopping mall in an uproarious and unprecedented one-man show.

Taking inspiration from Streisand’s coffee table book “My Passion for Design,” BUYER & CELLAR is half fact, half fiction. The fact is Streisand does indeed have a shopping mall in the basement of her Malibu home, complete with an immaculate curation of shops including an antique clothing store, a doll storeroom and a sweets shop. The fiction comes from when Buyer & Cellar balances absurdist whimsy and stark realizations as it details Alex’s work and the toll it takes on his patience, love life and his view of people.

Tolins wrote BUYER & CELLAR which was named Best Unique Theatrical Experience by the Off-Broadway Alliance when it premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in 2013. Other plays by Tolins include The Twilight of the Golds, If Memory Serves, The Last Sunday in June and Secrets of the Trade. Tolins’ film work includes The Twilight of the Golds and Martian Child. For television, he has written for Queer as Folk, The Academy Awards, The Tony Awards and Partners.

SASHA ADREEV (Alex Moore)

Local actor Sasha Andreev has been cast as Alex More in this one man show. Originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, Andreev has been performing in the Twin Cities since 2004. His stage credits include Guthrie Theater, Park Square Theatre, Jungle Theater, Theater Latté Da, Mixed Blood Theater, Yellow Tree Theatre, The Playwrights’ Center, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Paul Bunyan Playhouse, Thirst and Actors Theatre of Louisville where he was part of the 2003-2004 Acting Apprentice Company. His film credits include Best Man Down (with Justin Long), Ghost From the Machine, and How You Look to Me (with Frank Langella). Sasha has been seen as host of the HGTV series Curb Appeal, as a regular guest on Evine Live (formerly ShopNBC) and Twin Cities Live, as well as in numerous TV commercials. Adreev is a graduate of Vassar College, and the National Theatre Institute at the O’Neill Theater Center. Following Buyer and Cellar, Andreev will star in Park Square Theatre’s production of Sons of the Prophet.

WENDY KNOX (Director)

Knox is the Artistic Director of Frank Theatre in Minneapolis. Her credits include the critically acclaimed productions of George Brant’s Grounded, Brecht-Weill’s The Threepenny Opera and Enda Walsh’s Misterman. Knox also works as a freelance director and a teaching artist in the Twin Cities. She has directed Lysistrata for the Guthrie Theater, The Sound Of Music for the Ordway, and a long-running production of The Santaland Diaries for Portland Center stage and Syracuse Stage. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Finland where she worked at Helsinki City Theatre, The Theatre Academy and Savonlinna Opera Festival, and she holds an M.F.A. from the University of Washington (Seattle).

Wendy Knox is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.

Hennepin Theatre Trust, owner of the historic Orpheum, State, Pantages and New Century Theatres, is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to arts-inspired community cultural development. The Trust is located in the WeDo™ MPLS Cultural District. Learn more at HennepinTheatreTrust.org and wedompls.org.

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