Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher’s new Carrie Fisher seminar at L.A.’s Geffen Theatre (through December 23), is a non-fiction take on the life that inspired her roman à clef Postcards from the Edge. But whereas Fisher’s Postcards' screenplay became a textured Mike Nichols comedy starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine, Wishful is a celebrity ‘Evening With...‘ that belongs in the Guest Lecture series at nearby Royce Hall.
By now stories about Fisher’s star “descendancy” and drug dependency have attained shaggy dog status. It’s doubtful the tabloids will be scanning transcripts of these shows for revelations. Instead, the news out of Westside concerns the Geffen. Regional theaters in contagion range of Hollywood are constantly resisting the temptation to cast actors for box office potential rather than stage worthiness. When they yield, the occasional sell-out to sell out is forgivable. But what to call the theater that hands a celebrity writer an entire production slot to perform what feels like it was put together over a long weekend? After attending Wishful Drinking, we know what the former Princess Leia would call them: "Star Whores."
Which brings up what redeems the evening. If theatergoers can get past the fact that Wishful Drinking is not theater, they should enjoy the turn-the-tables-on-the-tabloids zeal with which Fisher tells her story. As her growing list of novels attests, Fisher is a talented writer without a shred of self-protection. Combine that with her insider perspective on Hollywood, and you have the makings of a very funny evening. When she reads a particularly literate diary entry from her teens, we see that her dedication to writing is what likely has pulled her through. Here, her celebrated predisposition for abusing is trumped by her showbiz gene for amusing. She's the entertaining patient who can bill the shrink for her time.
Those in Fisher’s generation will enjoy the gossipy details about her parents – singer Eddie Fisher and singer-actress Debbie Reynolds – and all their famous friends. This is not a spoiled brat denying her privilege. To this day, she clearly loves these people – especially her still-living folks. But she's happy to poke fun at them. Constantly interacting with the audience, she sprinkles her story with sarcastic zingers as if we’re watching her E! biography in her living room, listening to belittle everybody, especially herself. Fisher’s own story is traced from Beverly Hills childhood to film debut in Shampoo, to rocketing fame in Star Wars, and on through her long courtship and short marriage to Paul Simon. (An opening reference to a friend who died in her home is a teasing bit about her current life, but it remains an unsettling red herring.) The through line for it all is getting high. But like the patient out to charm her therapist, any real insights remain buried beneath the jokes.
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