Many of us have had friends or relatives who, despite anything we could say or do, drank themselves to death. Neil Simon's 1970 play deals, up to a point, with this painful subject: self-destructive alcoholism. But Simon—due probably as much to temperamental as to commercial imperatives—does not write tragedies. The Simon of this period (late early, or early middle) who might be nicknamed "Eugene O'Neill" Simon, did, however, begin to introduce some quasi-tragic elements into his excellently constructed comedies—much as certain fizzy soft drinks daringly claim contents of "10 percent fruit juice."
Thus in The Gingerbread Lady, when, to the horror of her friends and daughter, recovering alcoholic Evy Meara relapses into furtive tippling and thence into a blatant bender, there are clear echoes of Mary Tyrone's descent into her laudanum haze in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Simon's quintessential quips never stop coming, even at the climax of Evy's manic drunken episode; but part of that scene's terrible pathos is that by then she is the only character cracking them.
Director George Flint sensitively modulates the tempos and dynamics of his production. Sandra Ellis-Troy plays Evy's forced gaiety, moving from strident to shrill, with good feeling for the desperation that drives this ageing chanteuse to drink. Evy's proclaimed sexual readiness, however, as with many of the quirks of Simon's characters, lends her the air of a one-note Comedy of Humours type—call her Lady Lickerish—with something akin to neurotic Dickensian eccentricity thrown in; Evy even compares herself to the disappointed Miss Havisham of "Great Expectations." The other characters similarly conform to their typologies. Jill Drexler is perfectly cast in the role of Toby Landau, a 45-year-old beauty whose self-absorption with her own cosmetic artifices Drexler plays with disarming candor and fragility. Jim Strait as Jimmy Perry, a middle-aged gay actor with a career in terminal decline, projects equivalent vulnerability as he rails at indignities with droll despair. These staunch friends of Evy seem to illustrate, in contrast to her bibulous collapse, the possibility of soldiering on despite crumbling illusions. That possibility might seem less pat, though, were it not for the playwright's apparent need, in the interests of an upbeat ending, to swerve his story in a right angle turn toward sentiment, as characters fall into one another's arms, weeping and pledging reform, and still wisecracking.
Amanda Sitton very sweetly plays Evy's teenage daughter Polly—a model of the innocent, devoted, and truthful daughter of a wayward parent. Landon Vaughn plays Lou Tanner, Evy's abusive and much younger ex-boyfriend. And Jesus Garcia is amusingly stereotypical as a cheeky, flirtatious Latino delivery boy.
"The Gingerbread Lady," presented by Renaissance Theatre Company at Cygnet Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. Thu. 7:30 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 & 7 p.m. March 19-April 25. $22-$26. (619) 337-1525.