Drugs, booze, divorces and affairs might sound like a run of the mill Jerry Springer episode, but even the rich and famous succumb to such pitfalls in Tinseltown, and when you’re the child of a movie star mother and famed crooner father, every vice runs the risk of making headlines. How does a famous person cope with a litany of personal disasters and addictions? They do what every other actor seems busy with these days – put on a one-person show and welcome the world into your sordid past with open arms.
Hollywood celebrities beware, Carrie Fisher is on the loose and taking no prisoners in her one-woman tour de force, ‘Wishful Drinking,’ now playing on Broadway at Roundabout Theatre’s Studio 54.
Fisher, most recognizable from her turn as the bun-haired princess in Star Wars, has taken to the stage to tell a tale, or three, of her ups and mostly downs over the last 50 years, and shines brighter than any star in George Lucas‘ faraway galaxy. Not one to hold punches or even soften the blow, Fisher titillates with gossip from her past befit for the juiciest of tabloids.
“A lot of this stuff is over the top, but you can’t imagine what I’m leaving out,” says Fisher before jumping back into stories of celebrity inbreeding and father-daughter drug binges. Having spent most of her life in the public eye, Fisher has hit rock bottom and lived to tell about it, but don’t call her a survivor, as she is quick to point out it’s a trivial word always used in rehab.
And she is certainly no stranger to rehab, or mental hospitals for that matter, which she explicitly makes clear in her opening line, “I’m Carrie Fisher, and I’m an alcoholic, and this is a true story.”
Kicking off this riotous evening, Fisher serenades with a quaint tune, “Happy Days Are Here Again,” after emerging from a star lit backdrop with a recognizable sci-fi theme.
