Road to ruin paved with gags

By William Glover

NEW YORK (P) The path to alcoholic ruin is paved with gags in Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread Lady" at the Plymouth Theater.

Such a strange combination of subject matter and method creates some dramatic snarls for Simon, but Broadway's most consistent hitmaker quite palpably has another sure pleaser for his

swarm of satisfied customers.

The bibulous-amoral heroine in the person of Maureen Stapleton strides through the tumult of intense though pat anguish and assembly-line laughter with fascinating conviction.

Even when the opening night audience chose momentary fun rather than accepting sadly mercurial shifts of mood, Miss Staple-

ton held tight to the role's abiding hoplessness. It is a marvelous portrayal.

As companions in mirthtrimmed distress in this triangular display of neurotics unmasked, there are Betsy von Furstenberg as an aging belle whose vanity is shattered by sudden divorce, and Michael Lombard, a homosexual loser who comments, "Together we don't add up to one strong person, but together we're better."

If such a set of protagon-

ists

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the only counterforce for possible serenity if not normality is the drunken damsel's daughter pertly played by a newcomer, Ayn Ruymen seem unlikely prospects for an escapist evening out, remember Simon has mastered the craft of sleek jokery in six successive moneymakers.

To insure optimum results with the one-liners, the rowdy twists and the running reprises, the direction has been entrusted to Robert Moore, a formidable recent achiever at such chores.

During the Boston tryout Simon abruptly withdrew "The Gingerbread L a d y” for rewrite because of critical and public uneasiness at the conflict of merriment with basic poignancy. The adjustment to acceptability perhaps is in a rather facile, soap opera conclusion now.

There are several scenes of sharp, revealing, candid comment still within the maringue, but the stress is upon shrewd entertainment rather than memorable dramatic experience.