1971's Ten Best Plays

NO, NO, NANETTE. A toothsome nougat of nostalgia in which an ageless Ruby Keeler kicks the calendar goodbye.

THE GREY LADY CANTATA. Huge papier-mache puppets do a silent, hierophantic dance of death, as if Picasso's Guernica were unfolding in slow motion.

HERE ARE LADIES. How Irish writers sass and celebrate Irish women, with a graciously high-styled solo performance by Siobhan McKenna.

FATHER'S DAY. Divorce, U.S. style, done with perception, hilarity and lashing honesty.

LENNY. More masochist than martyr, pornocratic Lenny Bruce nonetheless mainlined some painful truths into the U.S. psyche. In the title role, Cliff Gorman gives a herculean performance.

FOLLIES. Apart from being dazzlingly lovely, this musical is wise in heart. Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics beguile the ear while seducing the mind, and the Corybantic ardor of Michael Bennett's dancers is a sight for glad eyes.

WHERE HAS TOMMY FLOWERS GONE? Tommy is a sort of Holden Caulfield at 30, an asphalt urchin who is tart, smart and often touching.

STICKS AND BONES. A blind veteran, home from Viet Nam, is as welcome as a hand grenade to his sad-funny, surreal-absurdist family.

THE PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE. Neil Simon, in top form, strews laughs like roses along the sooty sidewalks of New York City.

THE STY OF THE BLIND PIG. A superb quartet of actors draws Chekhovian music out of the humor, passion and frustration of black life in Chicago in the early '50s.

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