Theater Review: Princess Leia gets intimate

Barbara Greiling/For the News & Messenger
Published: September 18, 2008

Who knew death, divorce and drug addiction could be so funny? Writer and actress Carrie Fisher spins comic gold from these dark topics and a wealth of other material drawn from her life as a Hollywood insider in "Wishful Drinking."

Fisher's witty and thoroughly entertaining one-woman show kicks off Arena Stage's stay at its temporary home, Lincoln Theatre in Northwest D.C. The theater may be large, but intimacy is theme for the evening.

Fisher enters, tossing confetti at audience members in the first few rows while singing "Happy Days Are Here Again." Her lovely voice is a surprise; Princess Leia never sang. But then, you remember her background—the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and musical comedy star Debbie Reynolds—and it all makes sense.

With impeccable timing and a conversational tone, Fisher launches into a story about a good friend dying in her bed. "He not only died in his sleep, he died in my sleep," she says. She invites the audience to ask questions about the incident and answers them with candor and humor, striking up an instant rapport.

As Fisher settles in on the homey looking set, furnished with an easy chair and a sofa piled with pillows, headlines from her parents' very public divorce and other events from her life float across the window behind her.

In the early '50s, Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds were known as "America's Sweethearts," she reminds us. Then along came Elizabeth Taylor. To help out younger audience members, Fisher urges them to think of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston—and Angelina Jolie. With the help of a large chart and some audience participation, she relates her parents' break-up, their subsequent remarriages and marriages of their various former spouses.

After sharing stories of growing up in a house with three swimming pools and eight pink refrigera-tors, she moves on to her early career—in the chorus of one of her mother's shows, as a theater student in London and, of course, as Princess Leia. Clips from "Star Wars" play behind her as Fisher offers up insider tidbits, such as the reasoning behind George Lu-cas' pronouncement that "there is no underwear in space."

The role brought her fame, fan mail and a few stalkers, she says. It also spawned a plethora of "Leia" items bearing her image, and those provide some of the play's funniest moments.

Later, Fisher uses wry wit to discuss her marriage to Paul Simon, their divorce, reconciliation and subsequent breakup, as well as her relationship with her daughter's father who left her for another man.

This isn't Fisher's first foray into memoir as comedy. Her novels "Surrender the Pink" and "Postcards from the Edge" had their roots in her own life. She adapted the latter into the screenplay for a movie starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

"If my life weren't funny," she says, it would just be true—and that's unacceptable." And lest, anyone thinks her stories are a bit over the top, she urges them to "imagine what I left out."

Things turn slightly more serious—but no less entertaining—as she recounts her struggles with addiction and mental illness. With self-deprecating humor, she discusses what she's learned about her bipolar disorder and herself. Though survivor is a term she dislikes, it's hard not to admire her clear-eyed view that no matter how far she's come, the journey isn't over.

Fisher describes herself as a good hostess, and with "Wishful Drinking," she provides her guests with an evening that they will recall fondly for days to come.

WANT TO GO?

What's up: Actress Carrie Fisher performs in "Wishful Drinking"

When: Through Sept. 28

Where: Arena Stage at Lincoln Theatre, 1215 U St. N.W., Washington, D.C.

Tickets: $55 to $74

Call: 202-488-3300

Visit: Arenastage.org