CARRIE FISHER: SHAKEN, STIRRED, AND STRAIGHT UP
For those of us of a certain age, Princess Leia and her “cinnabun” hair was an indelible part of the ‘70s, a cultural reference point on a par with the invention of Pac Man and the advent of disco. As Leia, Carrie Fischer was the relatable adventuress, the tough-but-vulnerable, accessible brunette to Farrah Fawcett’s impossibly perfect beach-y blondness. Who knew that under that tough, gorgeous exterior there lurked such demons? And such a killer sense of humor? And most of all, such razor-sharp writing skills? With Wishful Drinking, the newly svelte Fisher (having lost over 50 pounds since signing on as a spokesperson for a – thankfully – unnamed weight loss company) takes the audience into her confidence and spills the details of a life that ran off the rails early on. If it wasn’t funny, Fisher deadpans, it would just be true.
Directed by Tony Taccone and written by Fisher, the truth behind the Star Wars hair is at once sobering and intoxicating. And, thanks to Fisher’s own finely honed sense of the absurd and some killer writing skills, hilarious.
On David Korins’ set – which, at first glance, calls to mind a cozy living room, but then becomes weirder and weirder the closer one looks at the décor – Fisher begins by explaining her whacked-out family tree: “My parents were Amish,” she says of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, “Simple people. People of the land.” Those of, shall we say, more mature years should know that Eddie left Debbie for Elizabeth Taylor, a notorious scandal at the time. For the youngsters, however, Fisher breaks it down, comparing the trio to Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Using a massive blackboard to outline her father and mother’s subsequent marriages, the harrowing hilarity of “Hollyweird” takes on the format of a lesson in Hollywood Dynasties, where the clans are comprised of exceptionally gorgeous men and impossibly buxom women. That Fisher can spin a blackboard chart into comic gold is a testimony to her comedic prowess. But Fisher’s material goes far beyond stories from her celebrity childhood – those early years when Fisher grew up in that starry, addled galaxy with immense privilege and the sort of warped sense of reality that comes from having backlots and movie sets as your primary playground.
She opens up about her addictions, the shock treatments for manic-depression, and her multiple marriages. Her most famous union was with her soul mate Paul Simon, whose Graceland album contains more than a few references to Fisher. She was also married to producer Bryan Lourd, who left her for a man, prompting her mother to muse, “You know dear, we’ve had every sort of man in our family – we’ve had horse thieves and alcoholics and one-man bands—but this is our first homosexual!”
Some of Fisher’s best material comes from her 19-year-old turn as a certain princess in that little independent sci-fi flick George Lucas released in 1977. Arguably the only thing stranger than spending your formative years in a fishbowl is being marketed as everything from a sex doll to a Pez dispenser before one is of legal drinking age. For Star Wars geeks, Fisher’s wry take on Becoming Princess Leia – and the aftermath – is must-see theater. But even if you think Jabba the Hutt is a new Starbucks micro-brew, it’s impossible not the see the hard-earned humor that comes with being a bona fide icon.
Better still, Fisher responds to the sort of web trolls who post rhetorical questions along the lines of “Whatever happened to Carrie Fisher? She used to be so hot.” She shuts down that imbecility with a zinger for the ages – a brief, show-stopping bit of brilliance that will be appreciated by anyone, as we all age (it’s a line that has to do with her 
Slave Girl outfit, and the fact that she no longer has the 20-year-old body that made the metal bikini such an indelible showstopper). Indeed, Fisher threads the tragicomic burden of iconography with some of the most empowering words we’ve ever heard on a stage.
photos by Cylla von Tiedemann
Wishful Drinking
for more information, visit http://carriefisher.com
NOW TOURING THROUGH MAY 20, 2012
