New Plays in Manhattan

Seen But Not Heard (by Marie Baumer & Martin Berkeley; D. A. Doran. producer) is one of those semi-serious melodramas in which the actions of the characters are motivated entirely by necessities of plot. Its principal actors are three juveniles. That circumstance permits the authors to finesse one natural denouement after another by having the old folks squelch the children every time they are in a position to reveal important evidence as to who killed Aunt Helen and Uncle John.

Little pitcher with the biggest ears and part in the show is Frankie Thomas, 15, a solemn, bushy-haired youth of theatrical parentage who has created a large following in the past five seasons in such plays as Wednesday's Child and Remember the Day. An even younger member of Seen But Not Heard's cast is a puckish 10-year-old named Raymond Roe. In his impersonation of a peewee hypochondriac who gains his end by holding his breath for protracted periods, he rises far above his material, shows a natural aptitude for high comedy.

Arrest That Woman (by Maxine Alton; A. H. Woods, producer). A large but dowdy production with a numerous but inept cast, this unprofessional melodrama appears to be merely a rough preliminary sketch pointed toward a later and more finished film version. Several of the roles are undertaken by minor Hollywood actors, whose performances are about on a par with what is expected in a Works Progress Administration show. A reformed prostitute shoots her high-born but estranged father when he refuses to give her money for her true love, who has been forced to steal $1,000 to send his old mother to a sanatorium.

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