Best Plays in Manhattan

These are the plays which, in the light of metropolitan criticism, seem most important.

SERIOUS

PORGY--Exciting, sometimes unlovely inspection of chattering Negro life along the Charleston water front (TIME, Oct. 24).

COQUETTE--Helen Hayes weeps the most truthful tears in town over a rough lover whom her father shot to death (TIME, Nov. 21).

STRANGE INTERLUDE--The Theatre Guild indulges itself with a nine-act introspection into the life of a neurotic woman (TIME, Feb. 13).

Other well regarded serious plays: ESCAPE, CAPONSACCHI, Civic REPERTORY PRODUCTIONS.

MELODRAMA

THE SILENT HOUSE--The horrible history of a big Chinese terror and torture man (TIME, Feb. 20).

THE RACKET--Gunmen, cops, reporters, a cabaret girl, kick and scream as Chicago shoots to kill (TIME, Dec. 12).

THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN--In which a poor woman became a rich woman but not a pure woman and nearly went to the electric chair for it (TIME, Oct. 3).

INTERFERENCE--A modern Enoch Arden, with several wives, goes Galahading off to jail for killing his true love's enemy (TIME, Oct. 31).

Another able melodrama--DRACULA.

FUNNY

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW--Showing what can be done with a noisy old farce by dressing it up for cocktails (TIME, Nov. 7)-THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA--George Bernard Shaw handles the medical profession without rubber gloves (TIME, Dec. 5).

THE COMMAND TO LOVE--In which European diplomats, no dull boys, mix work inextricably with play (TIME, Oct. 3).

THE ROYAL FAMILY--Tea and temperament as a stage dynasty gets through the daily job of living (TIME, Jan. 9).

BURLESQUE--Life on the burlesque wheel seen through the dressing-room door (TIME, Sept. 12).

Other laughing matters--PARIS BOUND, THE QUEEN'S HUSBAND, THE SHANNONS OF BROADWAY.

MUSICAL

Satire and silk legs twinkle in: Funny Face, Hit the Deck, Show Boat, Good News, A Connecticut Yankee, Manhattan Mary.