NY1 Theater Review: "Wishful Drinking"
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"Star Wars" icon Carrie Fisher returns to Broadway in her new one woman show "Wishful Drinking." NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review."Wishful Drinking" is a lot of fun -- a dry martini with extra olives that offers a potent escape. But the high is short-lived. And anyone looking for a more meaningful experience may be disappointed.
Carrie Fisher is a product of Hollywood who's learned how to turn adversity into punch lines and she's a master at it. Just don't mistake candor for soul-baring.
It's got just about the best opening sequence in a solo show that I've ever seen. Deadpanning through "Happy Days Are Here Again" she half heartedly tosses confetti in the air while projected behind her are headlines trumpeting the many lowlights in her life -- the bitter split between her parents, Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher; the scandal that rocked Hollywood when her dad left her mom for the newly widowed Elizabeth Taylor, Carrie's drug addiction, her own divorces, manic depression and on and on.
It's astonishing that she's willing to air her dirty laundry so openly. And just to be sure that we're all on the same page, she sardonically offers a little lesson in what she calls "Hollywood Inbreeding 101." With pointer in hand and visual aids, she explains how her father and mother were the Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston of their day and Elizabeth Taylor was Angelina Jolie.
We also hear about her experience making "Star Wars" at the age of 19, the genesis of that strange hairdo and the oddball reasoning behind her braless costume.
The delivery is confident and self-deprecating in a way that enables Fisher to become one with her audience. And the more we hear about her million dysfunctions, the more you marvel at her ability to be able to laugh it off. Then again as she says "If my life wasn't funny it would just be true and that would be unacceptable."
"Wishful Drinking" will likely bring to mind Elaine Stritch's solo Broadway turn, "At Liberty." And while both women can dish with the best of them in highly entertaining fashion, Ms. Stritch gave us a complete meal. Ms. Fisher, by comparison, is a cocktail.