Broadway remembers Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher

Bright lights dim for fallen stars.

by Anne-Katrin Titze

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher remembered on Broadway
Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher remembered on Broadway Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Last night, Broadway theatre lights were darkened for one minute at 7:45pm in remembrance of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. At Simon McBurney's Complicite production of The Encounter, the house manager of the Golden Theatre told me that Simon left New York due to the death of a dear friend who turned out to be John Berger (January 2, 2017).

Simon McBurney's Complicite production of The Encounter at the Golden Theatre
Simon McBurney's Complicite production of The Encounter at the Golden Theatre Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Fisher Stevens and Alexis Bloom's documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher And Debbie Reynolds was screened at the 54th New York Film Festival and Carrie Fisher attended without her mother.

Debbie Reynolds died on December 28, 2016, one day after the death of her daughter. They were first on Broadway together in the 1973 revival production of Irene, initially directed by John Gielgud, who was replaced by Gower Champion before the play opened in New York. In 1983, Debbie Reynolds replaced Raquel Welch who took over for Tony winner Lauren Bacall during the Broadway run of Woman of the Year, the musical directed by Roger Moore at the Palace Theatre. The musical is based on the Ring Lardner Jr. and Michael Kanin screenplay for the 1942 film Woman Of The Year, directed by George Stevens, which first teamed up Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.

Lights go out on Broadway in honor of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher on January 6, 2017
Lights go out on Broadway in honor of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher on January 6, 2017 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Carrie Fisher starred as Sister Agnes, following Amanda Plummer and Mia Dillon in the 1982 production of John Pielmeier's Agnes Of God, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg at the Music Box Theatre. Plummer won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Debbie Reynolds' 1976 Broadway revue, Debbie, played at the Minskoff Theatre. Carrie Fisher's one-woman play Wishful Drinking based on her book (Simon & Schuster 2008) opened on Broadway at Studio 54 in 2009.

Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher And Debbie Reynolds premieres tonight on HBO.

The Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits Of John Berger, produced by The Derek Jarman Lab as a quartet of individual film essays, directed by Tilda Swinton, Christopher Roth, Bartek Dziadosz and Colin MacCabe will be screened at the Glasgow Film Festival on February 24.

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