Another season, another obscure Neil Simon piece. This time, it's the 1970 comedy/drama The Gingerbread Lady Is What It Is Theatre has brought back from the land of the forgotten. Says Simon of the piece, "The Gingerbread Lady is a faulty play, but one of my favorites. Lillian Hellman bitterly learned...the pitfalls of trying to mix comedy with tragedy...With all its faults, I think The Gingerbread Lady is a better play than critics would have us believe." I learned a long time ago never to trust a playwright to tell you his better works. This critic sort of agrees with Simon, though. While faulty, it is a better play than I expected. Ironically, it is not when it is trying to be funny that it works, an unusual thing for Simon. The one-liners are generally hackneyed and interchangeable with any other of his plays; however, the drama of the piece is more successful, and so it is with this production directed by Michael Peck.

Evy Meara, a recovering alcoholic, is welcomed home from rehab by her loyal friends and teenage daughter. A 43 year old singer/actress in the style of an Elaine Stritch or a Maureen Stapleton (both of whom have played the role), Evy's rehab was precipitated by a disastrous relationship with a guitar player ten years her junior. Evy's closest male friend is Jimmy Perry, an extravagant forty-year-old actor who is still waiting for his big break. Her best girlfriend is Toby, an aging glamour queen who is having problems with her husband. Evy's ex-boyfriend is a self-centered freeloader who tries to weasel his way back into her affections when he is dumped by his latest 18 year-old conquest. Ironically, the only relatively well-adjusted person in this play is Evy's sweet and loving daughter, Polly, who comes to live with her mother to help her survive the time after rehab.

In this production, Peck has been smart with his pacing and casting, but has allowed the dated piece to retain its 30 year-old jokes with little attempt to update them, despite setting it in the present and tossing in a couple of replacements like CDs and David Letterman. Few non-Northeasterners will be aware that Schrafts and Eastern Airlines no longer exist, or that hoity-toity ice cream shop Rumplemeyers, also long gone, is not pronounced Rumple-mayors. However, jokes including Ed Sullivan, Richard Nixon, and the draft stick out like beacons to those listening closely enough, and make the show seem sloppily considered. In working with his actors, though, Peck has made some smart choices, keeping this show from toppling with inconsistencies.

Janine Smith is the recovering Evy, and she is generally solid. She sometimes tosses away laugh lines, and occasionally steps on others, but she scores big points for her drinking scene, which she neither over nor underplays. A stronger performance, probably the strongest of the cast, comes from Emily Marver as Polly, who has the gift of good comic timing and an easy rapport with those around her. While sometimes irritating, Bisk Consoli gives an over-the-top performance as the flamboyant Jimmy. One thing to be said about his presentation, though, is that I have met a few actors who are the spitting image of his offering, annoying as it sometimes becomes. April Shepherd plays up her characters vanity, but it's when she's falling apart that she becomes interesting. Billy Bolander's portrayal of the weasel Lou is very well done, while some genuine comedy comes from Kane Black in his small role as a Puerto Rican grocery delivery boy.

The first act of this play is indistinguishable from any other Simon effort: filled with endless exposition and utilitarian one-liners. When we begin caring about the characters in the second act, the play finally achieves something notable.

Production Details:
The Gingerbread Lady by Neil Simon
Is What It Is Theatre
Studio One Performing Arts Center, Phoenix (For a map to location, click this link)
(480) 994-9495
November 30th - December 15th, 2001

You are visitor number to this site since 4/14/99.