WISHFUL DRINKING

This is Carrie Fisher’s take on own her life to date: highly edited and mined deeply to extort as many laughs as she can from  stories that must have seemed anything but funny when it actually happened.  The daughter of movie star  Debbie Reynolds and hit crooner Eddie Fisher whose traumatic marriage, divorce and re-marriages has had a lasting effect on her as well as provide her with a wealth of such rich material for this one woman show on her life. In her adult years after establishing her own screen presence as Princess Leila in early Star War Movies, Ms. Fisher married Paul Simon, who she pointed out was a short Jewish successful singer i.e. just like her father.

Her 2nd husband and father of her only child left her for another man: slightly ironic when you appreciate that her mother is an enormous gay icon now.

In a avalanche of anecdotes Ms. Fisher touches on her addictions, both drugs and drink, and her brushes with rehab but keeps them at a distance.  With a treasure trove of the most outrageous stories of her parent’s antics, Ms. Fisher makes them an hilarious highlight of the movie when she uses an oversized backboard to show how all their various marriages were vaguely linked by their different offspring. She is unquestionably highly intelligent, articulate, a remarkably talented writer, and a consummate actor who really knows how to milk her lines.   She is also extremely likable and very funny

This stage production was filmed with the deft experienced hands of Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato (‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’, ‘Party Monster’, ‘Becoming Chaz’ ) whose movies always allow the ‘star ‘  to shine through.  And Ms. Fisher does, and as she  sings ‘Happy Days are here again‘ with such a beaming smile on her face you can tell that she really means it.