Treating Dysfunction with Humor
By Lauren Yarger
Her parents were movie stars and she followed in their footsteps to become a Hollywood icon herself, but sometimes stars don’t shine as brightly as we’d like and the only way to find your way through the dark galaxy is to rely on the force—the force of humor, that is.
And that is just what Carrie Fisher, a.k.a. Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” saga, has done to cope as she relates her story, with a lot of laughs included in Wishful Drinking, her delightful one-woman show playing on Broadway at Studio 54.
Her parents’ marriage broke up when her father, crooner Eddie Fisher, left mom Debbie Reynolds of “Singin’ in the Rain” fame for Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor in what she calls the “Angelina and Brad” scandal of its time. Both parents married and remarried numerous times after that.
“Things were getting worse faster than we could lower our standards,” she quipped.
In a humorous segment called “Hollywood Inbreeding 101,” she uses video projections and photographs of all the players posted on a blackboard and linked by drawn lines (set, lighting and projection design by Alexander V. Nichols) to try to explain the family tree. It’s no easy task. The goal is to figure out whether her daughter and Taylor’s grandson, who have been dating, are in fact related.
Dressed in black silk pajamas and flowing decorative robe, Fisher, directed by Tony Taccone, interacts with audience members and is funny, yet vulnerable as she relates family stories, including some about her two failed marriages, one to musician Paul Simon. She also makes fun of her intermittent accent and side-winding braided hairdo in her performances as Leia.
She pokes fun at some of the folks in her life, but this isn’t a “bash the people who have hurt me” opportunity that some other one-person shows seem to be. Instead, Fisher shows obvious affection for her mother, who lives next door to her, and respect for a father from whom she has grown distant. She has admiration for her brother, Todd, a born again Christian, whom she offered as evidence that the circumstances you face don’t determine how you’ll turn out, but rather how you handle the circumstances does (her brother apparently has not been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or turned to drug addiction, as Fisher has).
She’s funny and wise, and you come away feeling like you’d like to hang out with this woman who has been able to come through so much while still being so pleasant. At times, she seems to be searching spiritually, too. Sometimes "we only find heaven," she tells us, "by backing away from hell."
Fisher entertains at Studio 54 through Jan. 3. For tickets call (212) 719-1300 or visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/. For discounted group tickets, and to support Masterwork Productions, click here.
Christians might also like to know:
• Language
• Sexual Dialogue
By Lauren Yarger
Her parents were movie stars and she followed in their footsteps to become a Hollywood icon herself, but sometimes stars don’t shine as brightly as we’d like and the only way to find your way through the dark galaxy is to rely on the force—the force of humor, that is.
And that is just what Carrie Fisher, a.k.a. Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” saga, has done to cope as she relates her story, with a lot of laughs included in Wishful Drinking, her delightful one-woman show playing on Broadway at Studio 54.
Her parents’ marriage broke up when her father, crooner Eddie Fisher, left mom Debbie Reynolds of “Singin’ in the Rain” fame for Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor in what she calls the “Angelina and Brad” scandal of its time. Both parents married and remarried numerous times after that.
“Things were getting worse faster than we could lower our standards,” she quipped.
In a humorous segment called “Hollywood Inbreeding 101,” she uses video projections and photographs of all the players posted on a blackboard and linked by drawn lines (set, lighting and projection design by Alexander V. Nichols) to try to explain the family tree. It’s no easy task. The goal is to figure out whether her daughter and Taylor’s grandson, who have been dating, are in fact related.
Dressed in black silk pajamas and flowing decorative robe, Fisher, directed by Tony Taccone, interacts with audience members and is funny, yet vulnerable as she relates family stories, including some about her two failed marriages, one to musician Paul Simon. She also makes fun of her intermittent accent and side-winding braided hairdo in her performances as Leia.
She pokes fun at some of the folks in her life, but this isn’t a “bash the people who have hurt me” opportunity that some other one-person shows seem to be. Instead, Fisher shows obvious affection for her mother, who lives next door to her, and respect for a father from whom she has grown distant. She has admiration for her brother, Todd, a born again Christian, whom she offered as evidence that the circumstances you face don’t determine how you’ll turn out, but rather how you handle the circumstances does (her brother apparently has not been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or turned to drug addiction, as Fisher has).
She’s funny and wise, and you come away feeling like you’d like to hang out with this woman who has been able to come through so much while still being so pleasant. At times, she seems to be searching spiritually, too. Sometimes "we only find heaven," she tells us, "by backing away from hell."
Fisher entertains at Studio 54 through Jan. 3. For tickets call (212) 719-1300 or visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/. For discounted group tickets, and to support Masterwork Productions, click here.
Christians might also like to know:
• Language
• Sexual Dialogue
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