October 5, 2009

Carrie Fisher's 'Wishful Drinking' draws mixed reviews

Carrie Fisher’s one-woman comedic confessional “Wishful Drinking” opened on Broadway on Sunday, eliciting everything from Princess-Leia-groupie-like raves to a dripping contempt for her long-winded narcissistic stories.

Fisher’s personal disaster map covers the usual territory with the likes of dad dumping mom for another woman, but because this is a Hollywood story, it’s amped up with the celebrity glare worthy of Eddie Fisher leaving Debbie Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor. Later, her husband dumps her for a man, she wakes up in bed with a dead man, and yet another ex-boyfriend writes pop songs about her. (That would be Paul Simon.) Also: obligatory booze, pills and the “Star Wars” sex doll.

“Wishful Drinking” plays through Jan. 3 at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54, at 254 W 54th St., map. Regular tickets are priced from $36.50 to $116.50.

The reviews of “Wishful Drinking” on Broadway:

New York Times - “After the show, you’ll probably start to think that Ms. Fisher didn’t really tell you everything. But as long as you’re watching her, you experience the illusion of extremely funny, subliminally sad full-frontal confession.”

Post - “After more than two hours of raspy-voiced zingers and Hollywood gossip — it’s actually faster to read the book this touring show inspired — you feel as if you’ve been stuck in a simultaneously garish and cheap boudoir with a garrulous drag queen who just. Won’t. Shut. Up.”

Associated Press - “Fisher is a raconteur in the best sense of the word. She knows how to tell a story. And ‘Wishful Drinking,’ her hilariously perceptive journey through a world of celebrity and self-destruction, is chock-full of funny, fascinating tales.”

Newsday - “She makes an expert witness to fame in all its ridiculousness and peril, who knows that celebrity is ‘obscurity biding its time.’ She’s a loose cannon with satirist’s discipline, a still-crazy-after-all-these-years survivor who knows how it feels to have been a Princess Leia Pez dispenser and an entry in the abnormal psychology textbook.”

Variety - “But it’s as if Fisher got all the dark, destructive stuff out of her system in her semiautobiographical novel (and screenplay) ‘Postcards From the Edge,’ leaving this older, wiser first-person account feeling like the diet version. As far as low-calorie foods go, however, this is pretty delicious.”

Daily News - “Briskly directed by Tony Taccone, “Wishful” whips through incidents previewed by dishy headlines flashed on a screen in Alexander V. Nichols’ funky living room set, tricked out with comfy couches, a garden gnome and gigantic red apple.”

Steve on Broadway - “In many ways, you feel guilty for laughing because your fascination easily veers across the borderline of what you experience when you pass a devastating car crash. It’s impossible to look away.”

Bloomberg - “Fisher may be the Amundsen of bipolar exploration and a native analyst of substance abuse, but isn’t there something a bit self-serving about making hay to such extent of one’s foibles or, not to mince words, defects? “

USA Today - “But Fisher solicits attention with such brazen vitality and earthy, self-deprecating humor that she never loses us completely.”

Update: See more reviews at Critic-O-Meter.

Image source: Roundabout Theatre Company

October 5, 2009 11:01 AM in Broadway, Midtown

®Copyright 2004 - 2009, All Rights Reserved