The Gingerbread Lady

The Gingerbread Lady
Written by	Neil Simon
Date premiered	1970
Place premiered	Plymouth Theatre
Original language	English
Genre	Drama
Setting	New York City

The Gingerbread Lady is a play by Neil Simon, written specifically for actress Maureen Stapleton, who won both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for her performance.

The Gingerbread Lady opened on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on December 13, 1970 and closed on May 29, 1971, after 193 performances and 12 previews. Directed by Robert Moore the cast featured, in addition to Maureen Stapleton, Betsy von Furstenberg (Toby Landau) Michael Lombard, (Jimmy Perry) and Charles Siebert (Lou Tanner). It proved to be one of Simon's least successful plays on Broadway.

The play was produced by the Equity Library Theater (New York City) in 1987.

A major departure from Simon's previous lighthearted plays, The Gingerbread Lady was a dark drama with comic overtones centering on Evy Meara, a cabaret singer whose career, marriage, and health all have been destroyed by alcohol. Having just completed a ten-week stint in a rehab facility to overcome her addiction, she returns home to the welcome of friends with their own problems - an overly vain woman who fears the loss of her looks and a homosexual actor in danger of losing a part in a play - her devoted but anxious teenaged daughter, and a worthless ex-lover. Evy's efforts at hosting a party crumble when she falls off the wagon and careens toward a tragic end.

In 1981, Simon adapted his play as a film with the title Only When I Laugh, starring his then-wife Marsha Mason in the lead role.

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