Jake talks to many of the women he knows, both in real life and in his imagination, as he works to save his marriage.
Jake's Women opened on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theater on March 24, 1992, and closed on October 25, 1992, after 245 performances and 14 previews.
[1] Directed by Gene Saks, the cast featured Alan Alda (Jake), Helen Shaver (Maggie), Brenda Vaccaro (Karen), Kate Burton (Julie), Joyce Van Patten (Edith), Tracy Pollan (Molly at 21), and Talia Balsam (Sheila).
[4] Jake's Women premiered at the Old Globe Theatre (San Diego, California) in March 1990, running through April, starring Peter Coyote with direction by Jack O'Brien.
According to Simon, after that production closed he re-wrote "70 percent", and the role of Jake was re-cast with Alan Alda with a new director, Gene Saks.
[6] In 2016 Jake's Women was staged at Beit Zvi Theatre in Ramat Gan, Israel.
[7] Act One: Jake, a successful writer living in New York in 1990, gets into an argument over the phone with sister Karen about meeting up for dinner.
Karen aggravates him into admitting he had an affair a year ago before explaining he loves Maggie more than ever and would do anything to keep her.
The real Maggie announces that she canceled the dinner date and wants to work things out with Jake.
In 1996, the play was made into a TV movie starring Alan Alda with direction by Glenn Jordan.
[8][9] Both Alda and Van Patten were brought in from the original cast to reprise respectively the roles of Jake and Edith.