Carrie Fisher mixes humor, honesty in 'Wishful Drinking'

Carrie Fisher might shower you with more attention than you bargained for if you sit in the first few rows of “Wishful Drinking,” her hilarious 2009 one-woman Broadway show she wrote and stars in now at Chicago's Bank of America Theatre.

In the minds of sci-fi fanboys everywhere, Fisher is and forever will be the intergalactic Princess Leia from the “Star Wars” film franchise. So don't be surprised when she finds a literal way to bestow a touch of her own starry celebrity on the stage-adjacent audience by sprinkling glittery confetti on the tops of people's heads.

Fisher shines even more onstage thanks to a slathering of body glitter that makes her cheekbones and chest sparkle nearly as much as her rhinestone-accented shoes (which often get casually removed in favor of her own bare feet as she gets comfy on the celestial living-room stage set of David Korins, complete with perfectly timed film clips, computer animation and other laugh-inducing visuals by projection designer Jake Pinholster).

Fisher is not only a princess as dreamed up by director George Lucas; she grew up as Hollywood royalty. Her parents were the late pop crooner Eddie Fisher and screen star Debbie Reynolds, whom Fisher jokingly refers to as “simple folk.”

Now as anyone who follows Hollywood tabloid culture knows, things didn't end “happily ever after” for Fisher's parents. (Her history-repeating-itself comparison of her father leaving her mother for Elizabeth Taylor to the current-day drama involving Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is uncanny and priceless.)

Fisher's own life hasn't always been a fairy tale, either. She touches upon her well-publicized stints in rehab, stays in mental hospitals, two marriages that ended in divorce and an unsettling brush with death involving her late gay Republican lobbyist friend, R. Gregory Stevens (he died in her bed in 2005).

But Fisher is a survivor (or “sur-thriver” as she jokingly calls herself) in this uproarious stage adaptation of her novel of the same name. The fact that she is able to find a treasure trove of humor in the many trials of her life is testament to her amazing ability to wring out the irony and absurdity of her uncommon Hollywood existence.

The persona Fisher creates onstage may seem like she's just sharing some chitchat, but it soon becomes clear that her comic writing and precision timing is akin to the best standup comedians working today. But then the personal material that Fisher works with cries out for comedy.

“Star Wars,” of course, is a rich vein for Fisher. From her overly merchandised likeness appearing on a variety of embarrassing “Star Wars” products to her London Central School of Speech and Drama training that ultimately aided in the ability to deliver sci-fi gobbledygook dialogue, Fisher delivers the goods to any fanboy attending just for her “Star Wars” connections.

But Fisher does turn things around seriously when she talks about her manic depression late in the show, pointing out that her ability to joke about mental illness is a way of having some sort of control over it. Instead of being ashamed, she makes strides to point out how common mental illness is (though her hilarious suggestion of a Manic-Depressive Pride Parade is one awareness tactic that might not get off the ground).

In “Wishful Drinking,” Fisher unloads and airs quite a bit of dirty laundry. But instead of letting it distress and debilitate her, Fisher neatly folds it all into a wry and funny pile of comic gold that encourages people to find strength from laughter and irony.

“Wishful Drinking”

★ ★ ★ ½

<b>Location: </b>Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St., Chicago, (800) 775-2000 or <a href="http://www.broadwayinchicago.com" target="_blank">broadwayinchicago.com</a>

<b>Showtimes: </b>7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 16

<b>Running time: </b>About 2 hours, 30 minutes, with intermission

<b>Tickets: </b>$25 to $65

<b>Parking: </b>Paid lots nearby

<b>Rating: </b>For adults, contains profanity, drug references, sexuality and mature subject matter