BWW Reviews: Hollywood Memories, Drugs and Droids - Carrie Fisher Dishes in WISHFUL DRINKING

She's ruled a rebel alliance long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away and authored several witty novels loosely based on her own life and now Carrie Fisher is hoping theatergoers raise a glass for her one-woman show "Wishful Drinking."

As theater events go, the end results, though funny, never seem to rise above a book reading. Still, Fisher is likeable and engaging as she relates a condensed version of her life thus far. Fans of "Star Wars" or her books shouldn't be disappointed.

It's not like Fisher shouldn't have enough stories to fill two acts. Born into Hollywood royalty, Fisher is the daughter of screen legend Debbie Reynolds and the late crooner Eddie Fisher. As many know, the family endured a huge scandal in the ‘60s when, after the sudden death in a plane crash of best friend Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher left his wife and kids to comfort and eventually marry Todd's widow, Elizabeth Taylor. Fisher succinctly puts things in modern terms when she refers to them as "the Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie" of their day.

Neither her parents nor Elizabeth Taylor were strangers to repeat walks down the aisle. One of the more absurdist moments in the show is when Fisher diagrams on a chalk board the complicated and often interwoven romantic histories in efforts to determine if her own daughter is related in any way to Mike Todd's grandson.

As far as her time spent in the galaxy far, far away is concerned, she isn't about to wax nostalgically on her time making the initial trilogy that made her a household name.

"43 years ago, George Lucas ruined my life," she quips of the director, who still retains ownership of her likeness. "Every time I look at myself in the mirror, I'm supposed to send him a check."

And Lucas has put that image on everything from action figures to life-size ceramic sculptures. "Being a Pez dispenser makes your life," she said.

The show probably should have been condensed into an 90-minut one-act. The two-act format in some ways represents the bipolar disorder she suffers from; the first act is all laughs while the second, while not devoid of laughs, takes a more somber look at her two failed marriages, her slide into alcoholism and prescription drug addiction ("saying I'm and alcoholic and an addict is a bit like saying ‘I'm from Chicago and Illinois,'" she jokes), her "guest stay" at a mental institution and ultimately her resorting to electroshock therapy to tame her mental disorder.

Her public disclosure of mental illness -not her acting nor her writing, she ironicall notes-- is what eventually led her to win awards and have her picture (as Princess Leia) printed in a mental health book.

"Wishful Drinking" runs through Oct. 16 at the Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe. Tickets, $25-$65. Call (800) 775-2000 or www.broadwayinchicago.com.

 

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