Monday, Apr. 09, 1928
Best Plays in Manhattan
SERIOUS
COQUETTE--A frail beauty in a small southern town disobeys her father, falls in love, commits suicide. Helen Hayes is the girl (TIME, Nov. 21).
STRANGE INTERLUDE--The Theatre Guild unveils Eugene O'Neill's nine act monument to a neurotic lady and the lovers who have failed to make her happy (TIME, Feb. 13).
TWELVE THOUSAND--Mary Ellis handsomely illustrating a demure and determined paragraph out of the unwritten history of Europe (TIME, March 26).
Other well-regarded serious plays: CIVIC REPERTORY PRODUCTIONS, MARCO MILLIONS.
MELODRAMA
THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN--In the capacity of jury, the audience hears about a chorus girl who is guilty of much but not of murder (TIME, Oct. 3).
THE SILENT HOUSE--About a Chinaman whose activities are fearfully fatal (TIME, Feb. 20).
INTERFERENCE--Poisoning politely performed among people who would call a murderer a cad (TIME, Oct. 31).
Other able melodramas: DRACULA, THE FURIES.
FUNNY
THE COMMAND TO LOVE--The ambassador enters the boudoir from motives less personal than patriotic (TIME, Oct. 3).
THE ROYAL FAMILY--Stage folk keep the home fires burning brightly (TIME, Jan. 9).
PARIS BOUND--Madge Kennedy in a glib solution of the ball and chain problem (TIME, March 12).
THE BACHELOR FATHER--Bastards, too, can be well bred (TIME, March 12).
Other funny plays: BURLESQUE, THE SHANNONS OF BROADWAY, THE QUEEN'S HUSBAND.
MUSICAL
Hot stuff and nonsense: Funny Face, Good News, Rain or Shine, Manhattan Mary, Keep Shufflin', Take the Air.
Dulcet and decorative: Show Boat, A Connecticut Yankee, The Three Musqueteers.