Best Plays in Manhattan

SERIOUS

STRANGE INTERLUDE -Nine acts, four lovers and a lady -manipulated by Eugene O'Neill and the Theatre Guild -in last season's most wordy and talked-of play (TIME, Feb. 13).

MACHINAL -Important episodes in the life of a murderess -proving that actions, louder than words, are sometimes equally inexpressive (TIME, Sept. 17).

FUNNY

THE ROYAL FAMILY -George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber smiling at the domestic antics of one of our theatrical first families (TIME, Jan. 9).

THE BACHELOR FATHER -June Walker and Geoffrey Kerr in a polite perusal of the return to the prodigal (TIME, March 12).

EXCITING

THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN -Now the vast stage of the Century Theatre is the courtroom in which a chorine tells her troubles (TIME, Oct. 3).

THE SILENT HOUSE -Chinamen, in the heart of London, doing things they shouldn't to a nice girl (TIME, Feb. 20).

THE FRONT PAGE -Pretty speeches from police-court reporters covering the jailbreak of a half-witted murderer, combined with the efforts of one of the reporters to get married before the last edition goes to press (TIME, June 4, Aug. 27).

MUSICAL

In these the suspense, if any, is terrible:

Good News, A Connecticut Yankee, Show Boat, Rain or Shine, Blackbirds of 1928, George White's Scandals, Earl Carroll's Vanities, Good Boy.