Best Plays in Manhattan

SERIOUS

PORGY--The Theatre Guild's spectacularization of life among the Negroes on the Charleston docks, in a return engagement (TIME, Oct. 24).

COQUETTE--Helen Hayes in a true tragedy of love in a small Southern town (TIME, Nov. 21).

STRANGE INTERLUDE--Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize play performed with tireless excellence by a Guild cast (TIME, Feb. 13).

MELODRAMA

THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN--A chorus girl wriggles in the witness chair (TiME, Oct. 3).

THE SILENT HOUSE--Fun for shock absorbers (TIME, Feb. 20).

FUNNY

BURLESQUE--Love behind the footlights of the two-a-day (TIME, Sept. 12).

THE ROYAL FAMILY--Haidee Wright and others very much at home in a gay chronicle about stage notables (TIME, Jan. 9).

PARIS BOUND--Wit and wisdom sprinkled on the adultery dilemma (TiME, Jan. 9).

THE BACHELOR FATHER--In which an uncommon variety of rake scratches up the remnants of his past and, having done so, sheds his teeth (TIME, March 12).

VOLPONE--A Venetian miser trying to skin his friends and getting fooled by his assistant, who is Alfred Lunt (TIME, April 23).

THE HAPPY HUSBAND--Miss Billie Burke at one of these houseparties where people are witty before breakfast (TIME, May 14).

AND

There are eight other dramatic entertainments functioning in Manhattan. These, in the order of their appearance, are:

THE LADDER (See Advertising, Dopey).

EXCESS BAGGAGE--Honkytonk version of Burlesque and fairly funny (TiME, Jan. 9)

MARRIAGE ON APPROVAL--A cipher by someone who regards companionate marriage with bewildering solemnity (TiME, March 12).

DIAMOND LIL--Mae West in an amusing uproar about weak sisters and big brothels (TiME, April 23).

THE SKULL--Mystery and thrills for the highly susceptible (TIME, May 7).

SKIDDING--A home-folks comedy, sometimes funny, full of plot and the antics of little Junior (TiME, June 4).

THE CYCLONE LOVER--Routine farce, played to the hilt (TIME, June 18).

MARRIED--AND How!--How a chorine married for money and fell in love with her husband--very bad indeed.

MUSICAL

For those who like legs, jigs and giggles, these are the possibilities: Good News, A Connecticut Yankee, Show Boat, Rosalie, Rain or Shine, The Three Musketeers, The Greenwich Village Follies, Present Arms, Here's Howe, Blackbirds of Grand Street Follies of 1928.