Watch Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking For Free

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The show plods along with a few interesting and witty bits, but mostly is very negative, unfunny and nasty. I've seen Debbie's show, and though self deprecating and sometimes "bad taste" Debbie is also VERY FUNNY! I compare the two because Carrie because she has a similar humor, but much more bitter and hits "punch lines" over the head like a sledge hammer and actually waits for the audience to laugh, and when they don't, she insults them! Mostly the show was just uninteresting, a thing I wouldn't have thought possible considering her life story.In the interview with her mom, Debbie said Carrie didn't ask her for advice or notes, and only asked Debbie's opinion AFTER the show had closed. There's no telling how much better it might have been had Carrie groveled to ask for her mother's advice...

Carrie Fisher's one woman show "Wishful Drinking" is one of the most devastatingly frank pieces of theater in recent memory. At heart, this monologue was a sort of catharsis for a woman that has lived most of her life in show business. Coming from that rarefied environment, Ms. Fisher does not mince words in telling her audiences aspects of a life she has lived, most of it in the public eye. She bares her soul in an account that is hilarious, as well as sad. One can feel her pain as she goes on to tell the story of her life.Ms. Fisher, an intelligent woman, has put together a fun show in which she interacts with her audiences in ways that endears her to the people that come to see her. She recalls her golden childhood lived in that make believe world where her famous parents, Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds created, only to see it come to a complete stop when her father left home to pursue a glamorous star that happened to be a close friend. Her illustration of the people in her life on a big board, and how everyone is related, is one of the best segments in the show.Her own experience with the man she loved, Paul Simon, is also examined for the pain it caused her. Her claim to fame, as Princess Leia is another hysterical chapter of her life. The relationship with George Lucas is examined by bringing aspects one never knew. We get to know funny details about that chapter of her life with her disarming delivery of the way it really was.The show was directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato as Ms. Fisher performed in front of a live audience in South Orange, New Jersey.

And that's all Carrie Fisher does: bitch! Bitch about her father leaving her mother. Bitch about her mother's ex-husbands. Bitch about her father's ex-wives. Bitch about her own ex-husband. Bitch about being a cog in the most lucrative franchise in movie history. Bitch about the father of her daughter leaving her for a man. After 90 minutes of listening to this self-absorbed child of Hollywood royalty bitch, who could blame him?I do not understand what Fisher has to bitch about. She has a charmed life, and millions in the bank. So her father left her mother. Earth to Carrie: men walk out on their families all the time -- what makes you so damn special?! It is only too-obvious that her "problems" have been of her own making.Her pathetic bid for approval (which she got from the, no doubt, bought-off audience of sycophants) may make for an interesting doctoral thesis on celebrity narcissism, but it makes for lousy television.

I wanted to say something positive about this special one woman show after the scathing review I just read.Most of the stuff she talked about it common knowledge, at least to me, except I didn't know that Eddie Fisher didn't marry Connie Stevens until after they had a couple of kids.Anyway, Fisher does not hold back about anything--she talks about her entire life & the lives of her famous parents. However, nothing she says really seems malicious. Both Debbie Reynolds & Eddie Fisher were still around when she first started this show--she even mentioned that her father saw it. She never talks about anything that isn't well known, if you know anything about her at all. She seems cordial with her ex-husbands and loves her kid. She's not bitter; in fact, I found the show quite upbeat considering the mess her life had been.She's frank, but if you're a fan you'll enjoy this little peek into her life.