www.carriefisher.com

www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com

Present

WISHFUL DRINKING

May 15 - 20, 2012

At the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts

 


WISHFUL DRINKING BY CARRIE FISHER is in Houston from May 15 - 20, 2012.

 

Carrie Fisher Interview for WISHFUL DRINKING (New York)

 

WISHFUL DRINKING, Carrie Fisher’s hit stage production of the intoxicating autobiographical tale of her life combines archival footage with her one-woman stage performance

 

An actress, screenwriter and bestselling author (“Postcards from the Edge,” “The Best Awful” and “Wishful Drinking”), Carrie Fisher is the daughter of the late singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, known as “America’s Sweethearts” in the late ‘50s.  She became a cultural icon at age 19 after starring as Princess Leia in the first “Star Wars” trilogy in the 1970s.  Despite growing up with “Hollywood royalty” and experiencing early fame of her own, Fisher’s life had its challenges, as she reveals in this uproarious and sobering account.  Combining wry wit and raw facts, WISHFUL DRINKING reveals her own hilarious slant on the not-so-glittering side of being a celebrity.  It’s a show where she’s circling the drain singing.

 


CARRIE FISHER as Princess Leia in Star Wars

 

From stardom to divorce, re-marriage to the death of a close friend, addiction to mental illness, Fisher recounts her peaks and valleys with unfailing candor and biting humor, referring to celebrity as just “obscurity biding its time.”

 


CARRIE FISHER married PAUL SIMON in 1983

 

CARRIE FISHER at the David Letterman Show November 24, 2009

 

 

In WISHFUL DRINKING, Fisher details her complicated yet eclectic extended family tree in Hollywood Inbreeding 101, employing a blackboard and wooden pointer.  Her father Eddie Fisher’s very public affair with Elizabeth Taylor ended what had been perceived and celebrated as a “storybook marriage” and she and her brother Todd later watched both her mother’s and father’s “once white-hot bright star of celebrity slowly dim, cool and fade.”  In 1973, at her mother’s urging, the 17-year-old Fisher enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London; two years later, her life changed forever when she donned a white dress as Princess Leia in George Lucas’ “Star Wars.”

 


CARRIE FISHER as Princess Leia in Star Wars

 

Besides making her a star, the movie has resulted in Fisher’s image being merchandised as part of the “Star Wars” franchise for the past 30 years.  Among the items she has adorned are dolls, shampoo, soap, Mrs. Potato Head and a PEZ dispenser.  Fisher hilariously notes that among his many possessions, Lucas owns her likeness, “so every time I look in the mirror, I have to send him a couple of bucks.”

 

Aside from the strain from the high visibility of starring in one of the most beloved trilogies of all time, Fisher continued to face more than her share of challenges.  With extraordinary candor, she discusses her subsequent bipolar diagnosis and the life-changing decision to have electric shock therapy (ECT).

 

In addition to the first “Star Wars” trilogy, Carrie Fisher’s numerous films include 1975’s “Shampoo,” her feature film debut, and later movies such as “Hannah and Her Sisters,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Austin Powers:  International Man of Mystery” and “The ‘Burbs.”  Among her TV appearances are “30 Rock,” “Family Guy” and the HBO series “Sex and the City” and “Entourage.”

 

CARRIE FISHER at the Oprah Winfrey Show February 15, 2011

 

 

Fisher is also a screenwriter and bestselling author.  Her novels, “Postcards from the Edge,” “Surrender the Pink,” “Delusions of Grandma” and “The Best Awful,” were all critically acclaimed, with “Postcards from the Edge” being adapted for an Oscar®-nominated film of the same name starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.  Her memoir “Wishful Drinking,” taken from the stage show, was published in 2008 by Simon & Schuster, which will also publish Fisher’s novel “Shockaholic” in 2011.

 


(L-R) Elizabeth Taylor, Carrie Fisher's father Eddie Fisher and mother Debbie Reynolds

 

 


 Elizabeth Taylor (far left) married her third husband, producer Mike Todd, in a civil service performed by the Acapulco Mayor Mario Lopetequi on February 3, 1957. The simple ceremony was attended by (from left) Enrique Parra, Debbie Reynolds, Mike Todd, Jr., Eddie Fisher and Mario 'Cantinflas' Moreno. This was the only one of Taylor's eight marriages to not end in divorce. Todd was killed when his private plane Lucky Liz crashed in New Mexico on March 22, 1958.

 

 

Fisher’s one-woman stage performance “Wishful Drinking” was taped for the HBO special at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in South Orange, NJ.  The play opened in Los Angeles in 2006 and was produced on Broadway in 2009 by Roundabout Theatre Company in association with Jonathan Reinis, Jamie Cesa, Eva Price and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.  “Wishful Drinking” is currently touring Australia and will continue to travel to select cities through the end of 2010 and into 2012.

  

The HBO Documentary Films presentation, WISHFUL DRINKING is written and performed by Carrie Fisher; produced and directed by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey; senior producer, Lisa Heller; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

 


 Finally, after four hit novels, Carrie Fisher comes clean (well, sort of) with the crazy truth that is her life in her first-ever memoir. In Wishful Drinking, adapted from her one-woman stage show, Fisher reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," come of age on the set of a little movie called Star Wars, and become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the age of nineteen. Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?). It's an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty -- Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher -- homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandized on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay, and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed. Wishful Drinking, the show, has been a runaway success, Entertainment Weekly declared it "drolly hysterical" and the Los Angeles Times called it a "Beverly Hills yard sale of juicy anecdotes." This is Carrie Fisher at her best -- revealing her worst. She tells her true and outrageous story of her bizarre reality with her inimitable wit, unabashed self-depreciation, and buoyant, infectious humor.  WISHFUL DRINKING is in Houston May 15 - 20, 2012.  For more information visit  www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com

 


CARRIE FISHER'S mother Debbie Reynolds at the Forever Young Gala April 27, 2007 TUTS' Annual Gala at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Photo by PWL Studio.