University of Virginia Library

"The Gingerbread Lady"

Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread
Lady" is an interesting, fast-moving
skeleton of a play. It is about Evy
Meara, an alcoholic ex-singer who
returns to her Manhattan
brownstone after spending some
time in a sanitarium. She has
learned how to live without the
bottle. Or has she?

Of course she hasn't. We know
perfectly well that Evy will go off
the wagon by the second act, Here,
I think, is where Mr. Simon made
his first mistake. The theme has
been terribly overworked in the
past and therefore it is difficult to
get excited about seeing the
adventures of an alcoholic. But if
the author was determined to write
on such a theme, then he should have
at least given us some reason to care
about Evy as a person. What
separates her from the millions of
other alcoholics in the world that
she should warrant our special
sympathy? Absolutely nothing and,
as a result, we simply aren't able to
sympathize with her.

This is not the fault of Maureen
Stapleton, who gives a bravura
performance in the role. Nor is it
the fault of director Robert Moore
or anybody else other than Mr.
Simon himself. It is a
well-structured, often funny play
which never fails to hold your
attention. But its heart is missing.

One final word on the author's
development as a dramatist. Mr.
Simon claims that he wants to write
serious plays and not simply crank
out light comedies as he did
throughout the sixties. But is he
really doing that? His last two
efforts have contained just as many
laugh lines as his earlier works, the
only difference being in his obvious
and not always successful stabs a
profundity. The truth of the matter
is that "The Gingerbread Lady" and
last year's "Last of the Red Hot
Lovers" are both hybrids. He's been
trying to have the best of two
worlds, and it hasn't been working
out all that well. Neil Simon has
reached the point where he must
decide whether he's going to
continue as America's leading
comedy playwright or become a
serious dramatist. He can't have
both.