Carrie Fisher Brings WISHFUL DRINKING Back To Berkeley Rep's Roda Theater 7/9-23

Carrie Fisher set box-office records at Berkeley Repertory Theatre with her hilarious solo show, Wishful Drinking. Then it became a New York Times bestseller and played to sold-out crowds on a six-city national tour. Now Fisher returns to Berkeley Rep's Roda Theatre, her last stop before the show bursts onto Broadway! This limited run - 15 performances only - begins July 9 and ends July 23. Staged by Artistic Director Tony Taccone, Wishful Drinking is produced by Berkeley Rep in association with Jonathan Reinis, Jamie Cesa, and Eva Price. Tickets go on sale this Sunday, May 24.

"I had such a great time in Berkeley that, not only am I coming back, I've moved my father there," Fisher remarks.

In Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher recounts a true and intoxicating story with the same strong, wry wit that she poured into bestsellers like Postcards from The Edge. Born to celebrity parents, she lands among the stars when picked to play a princess in a little movie called Star Wars. But it isn't all sweetness and lightsabers. Aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mom, our heroine spends her free time battling addiction, weathering the wild ride of manic depression, and lounging around mental institutions. It's an incredible tale - from having ElizaBeth Taylor as a stepmother to wedding (and shedding) Paul Simon, from having the father of her baby leave for a man to waking up one morning and finding a friend dead in her bed.

After staging two completely different solo shows - the world premiere of Danny Hoch's Taking Over and Sarah Jones' Tony Award-winning Bridge & Tunnel - Taccone takes audiences on another wild ride with Wishful Drinking. The show has played in Berkeley, Boston, Hartford, Los Angeles, San Jose, Santa Fe, Seattle, and Washington, DC... This is the last chance to get Carried away before it moves to Broadway this fall! Starting in September, Roundabout Theatre Company and the current producers present Wishful Drinking at Studio 54 in Manhattan.

Four shows have moved from Berkeley Rep to Broadway in the last four years - including Bridge & Tunnel, Passing Strange, and In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) - and this is the 12th show in 12 years that the Theatre has helped develop and send to New York. That list of hits also includes Danny Hoch's Taking Over; Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice; Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak's Brundibar; Naomi Iizuka's 36 Views; Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses; Hoch's Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop; Anne Galjour's Alligator Tales; and Philip Kan Gotanda's Ballad of Yachiyo. In fact, Berkeley Rep's devotion to creating new work has delivered 18 shows to Manhattan in the last 22 years, and the Theatre has upped the ante by promising to commission dozens of new plays by 2013.

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