Linda Lavin, who died Sunday at age 87, was a captivating Broadway star beloved by audiences for her electrifying contradictions.

A celebrated fixture of the New York stage for six decades, the Tony Award-winning actress was just 5-foot-3-inches tall yet towering; maternal and volcanic; glitteringly musical and groundedly real; hilarious and heartbreaking.

Her sardonic punch line could be followed by a shattering gut punch a second later.

Linda Lavin, star of stage and screen, died Sunday at age 87. Getty Images

“She was several women in one fragile body,” playwright Charles Busch, whose Broadway play “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” starred Lavin in 2000, told The Post.

“To be able to conjure forth such sharp wit, comic invention and intense emotion, she had to be a woman of great complexity.”

She was. And one of staggering range.

Dramas, comedies, plays, musicals — Lavin ably did it all with an artistry and assuredness few can match.

Yes, Lavin played many mothers. But from fame-hungry Mama Rose in the 1989 revival of “Gypsy,” in which she replaced Tyne Daly, to the secretive lead of her final Broadway show, 2016’s “Our Mother’s Brief Affair” by Richard Greenberg, the roles couldn’t have been more different.

Lavin (center) starred in many comedies, such as “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” by Charles Busch. Joan Marcus

Lavin won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1987 for playing another mom, Kate Jerome, in “Broadway Bound,” the final chapter of Neil Simon’s Eugene trilogy.

Kate’s life is a hard one. Her sons, portrayed by Jonathan Silverman and Jason Alexander, are about to leave her, her husband is cheating and her father is growing old.

Kate’s speech to her wandering spouse overflows with pain.

“I am so angry,” she tells him. “I am so hurt by your selfishness.”

However, Lavin never settled for just one adjective. In critic Clive Barnes’ review in The Post, he called her “a delight.”

And the Times’ Frank Rich well understood the Olympic balancing act the star had triumphantly mastered — and would for her entire career.

“One only wishes that Ms. Lavin, whose touching performance is of the same high integrity as the writing, could stay in the role forever,” he wrote. “It’s all too easy to imagine the coarse interpretations that could follow this actress’s meticulously, deeply etched portrait of a woman.”

Jonathan Silverman said he “had the privilege of dancing and acting alongside the brilliant and beautiful Linda Lavin eight times a week for a year.” The LIFE Images Collection/Getty

Silverman, who played Eugene, told The Post he was “so lucky” to have been Lavin’s fictional son.

“I had the privilege of dancing and acting alongside the brilliant and beautiful Linda Lavin eight times a week for a year in Neil Simon’s ‘Broadway Bound,’” the actor said.

“At the time, I was barely 20 years old. I had maybe two or three credits to my name. She took me under her wing and we soared,” Silverman continued. “I had a front-row seat to witness her stunning Tony Award-winning performance night after night. It was heartbreaking and stunning. Every time. Every show.”

On social media, Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame wrote, “The talent was immense. The heart even bigger.” 

Lavin originated roles in plays by the greatest comedy minds of the last half-century: Simon, Busch, John Guare and Paul Rudnick, among others. Their words flowed from her like they were her own.

The actress’ final Broadway show was “Our Mother’s Brief Affair.” Joan Marcus

Rudnick, whose “The New Century” starred Lavin in 2008, said she was “a writer’s dream.”

“She was brilliantly funny and deeply emotional,” the playwright told The Post. “Watching her build a performance was a master class, and audiences adored her. She was a wonderfully approachable legend.”

Speaking of adoration, the actress’ friends and colleagues mentioned over and over again the outpouring of affection from theatergoers that she regularly inspired. The name Linda Lavin held extreme weight for discerning Broadway ticket-buyers.

“Sitting in the back of the house once the show opened, I marveled at how audiences adored her and she them,” said Manhattan Theatre Club artistic director Lynne Meadow, who directed her in “Allergist’s Wife,” “Brief Affair” and “Collected Stories.”

“Linda was both a comedic and dramatic genius,” she added. “Smart, intuitive, with boundless energy. I called her ‘the energizer bunny.’”

Lavin’s other passion was music, and she performed cabaret shows for decades. Getty Images

Although her later career was defined by straight plays, “Gypsy” was not Lavin’s only foray into song.

An early breakout role was as Sydney in the 1966 musical “It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman” at the Alvin Theatre (later, the Neil Simon).

And, after she starred in Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” on Broadway in 1969, the actress had trouble finding work. So, she headed west to Los Angeles and performed in cabarets.

“Nobody knew who I was,” Lavin told The Post in 2011. “The club put up a sign in the window — ‘Linda Lawn.’ I sang all the sad songs. I sang ‘I’m Still Here’ to people who didn’t know who I was.”

She eventually found Broadway (and TV) success again, but continued to sing onstage, mostly with friend and music director Billy Stritch.

“Linda was an angel in my life and like a sister to me,” he told The Post. 

“Much has and will be said about her exceptional acting talent, but I was the lucky one who knew her the best through her music,” Stritch continued. “Linda and I spent almost 20 years performing together on cabaret and concert stages around the world and every moment was pure joy. We laughed constantly and she was always full of musical ideas and great concepts and no one had a better ear for harmony and improvisation.”

Lavin married Steve Bakunas in 2005. Scott Kirkland/Shutterstock

Offstage, Lavin, who married three times, finally found love with husband Steve Bakunas in 2005.

“I saw those gorgeous blue eyes, and I thought, ‘Wow! I’m glad I had my hair done,’” she told The Post in 2011.

The couple’s close friend, Broadway producer Robyn Goodman, said Lavin and Bakunas also took up a hobby that one of the actress’ urbanite characters might enjoy: house flipping.

“She loved to buy and sell real estate with her husband Steve, who was brilliant at rebuilding and making things beautiful with her,” said Goodman, who first met Lavin on a plane in the 1970s. During the flight, “we laughed as we trashed our husbands the whole way.”

Decades later, the pair spent the weekend upstate with Goodman and her wife, designer Anna Louizos.

“She came to visit us in the country once,” Goodman said. “She left on a Sunday and bought a new house nearby on Tuesday!”