WISHES DO COME TRUE

Anything we see at Roundabout’s 54th Street theater brings backs lots of memories…not of great shows we’ve seen there but of great times clubbing and dancing at Studio 54. And come to think of it….there were a lot of drugs bouncing around in those old days so it’s actually a very appropriate setting for Carrie Fisher’s auto-biographical one woman show - WISHFUL DRINKING.

Carrie grabs you and drags you into her life immediately. She’s endearing and charming even if you were not a Star Wars groupie. Her sense of humor is delicious and her use of a visual aid (large, drop-down blackboard) to explain all the marriages of her parents was really perfect. Even for those of us who don’t live in the rarified world of Hollywood…we understand love, marriage, divorce, dating, remarriage…heartache and the range of emotions Carrie describes. She tries very hard to convince us that she’s the craziest woman on the planet. We think she succeeded in convincing us that we are all a little bit crazy. And that’s what makes everyone so interesting!

She’s clearly come out on the right side of therapy, rehab and the various mental institutions she’s visited. Carrie is confident and self effacing which is totally endearing. It’s also obvious she’s no longer a 105 pound ingénue and one of our most favorite lines was “I haven’t been naked in 15 years or sleeveless in 20”. So she’s not 100 pounds and guess what? She looks great because she looks happy. That being said...we still don;t understand why someone couldn’t help her find two comfortable, figure-forgiving outfits for this show? Black silk pajamas would be OK…how about getting the top in her size? And we "get" the whole concept of “cover-up” but surely there have to be 2 long swirly schmatas somewhere in all of New York that actually complement black silk! If we both weren’t so busy ourselves, we would make the time to find them for her.

But you should find time to go see WISHFUL DRINKING. It’s not ordinary theater…and maybe it really belongs in more of a club or cabaret. But it’s intelligent. It’s real. And it did what we think really good theater is supposed to do…it made us think and it made us laugh.

Stay tuned...Saturday night we see Lynn Redgrave in NIGHTINGALE!