Carrie Fisher begins “Wishful Drinking,” her bracingly witty one-woman show, by drifting through the first few rows of the theatre and tossing glitter over the audience while singing “Happy Days Are Here Again.” This daffy scene is a perfect opening because it sums up everything this evening is all about. First, it’s just plain funny. Second, it reflects Fisher’s inclination to find anything and everything humorous about her turbulent life. Third, because she does not throw glitter as aggressively as Rip Taylor threw confetti when he did this routine, it shows that she stays away from talking about the heaviest topics directly. To her, everything is about the jokes.
Fisher’s autobiographical show, which opened at Studio 54 on Oct. 4, uses the same title and material from a book she released last year. The first act covers her childhood as the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds and her fame as Princess Leia from “Star Wars.” The second act concentrates on her romantic relationships and her experiences with addiction and bipolar disorder.
The first act is the stronger by far, for this is where Fisher really showcases her self-deprecating humor and her genuinely clever zingers (At one point, she says celebrity is “obscurity biding its time”). The best sketch (one of many themed segments directed by Tony Taccone) is called “Hollywood Inbreeding 101,” in which she teaches us about the romantic entanglements following her parents’ divorce.
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