Directed by Robert Moore the cast featured, in addition to Maureen Stapleton, Betsy von Furstenberg (Toby Landau), Michael Lombard (Jimmy Perry), Ayn Ruymen (Polly Meare) and Charles Siebert (Lou Tanner).
[6] In the UK, the play premiered at the Theatre Royal Windsor on June 25, 1974 with Elaine Stritch in the lead, and Vivien Merchant, Kevin Lindsay, Stephen Greif and Jenny Quayle in support.
[7] The production belatedly transferred to the Phoenix Theatre in London's West End on October 23, with Merchant and Greif replaced by Sarah Marshall and Blain Fairman.
[9] 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.
These include Toby, an overly vain woman who fears the loss of her looks and Jimmy, a gay actor in danger of losing a part in a play, her devoted but anxious teenaged daughter, and a worthless ex-lover.
[11] According to Thomas S. Hischak, "critics were mixed in their reaction, one stating that Simon's 'characteristic wit and humor are at their brilliant best, and his serious story of lost misfits can often be genuinely and deeply touching' but another noting that 'what is written is not serious but earnest.'"