The Best Plays

These are the plays which, in the light of metropolitan criticism, seem most important:

Drama

RAIN--Jeanne Eagels rapidly making Sadie Thompson the most widely known courtesan in the world. Sex in the South Seas.

TARNISH--Expert disquisition on the evil that men do and how they act when they are found out.

SEVENTH HEAVEN--Melodrama of Paris in War-time soothed to a syrupy conclusion. Worth while because of Menken's magnificent performance.

QUEEN VICTORIA--Fragmentary but shrewdly illuminating pageant of 60 years of English history.

MOSCOW ART THEATRE--The most distinguished unit of the Continental theatre in repertory.

THE LADY--Reviewed in this issue.

THE FAILURES--The Theatre Guild intent upon the demoralizing effects of artistic starvation. Brutally modern.

SUN UP--Searching scrutiny of love, feud, hate, patriotism among the mountains of North Carolina.

Comedy

AREN'T WE ALL?--Cyril Maude as an amiable objector to marriage and other semi-sacred institutions of Society.

THE SWAN--Romance of modern Continental Royalty made almost unbelievably amusing by Eva Le Gallienne and Basil Rathbone.

THE NERVOUS WRECK--The custard pie comedy of the current play bill. Funniest farce in five years.

SPRING CLEANING--Suave and scintillating conversation well over the heads of the babbitts. Brilliantly played.

THE POTTERS -- Reviewed in this issue.

MEET THE WIFE--Flurry of satire and farce directed at the type of woman who entertains visiting British novelists.

THE CHANGELINGS--An entertaining expose of the futility of modern ideas. Henry Miller, Blanche Bates, Ruth Chatterton.

Musical Shows

Specially soothing to the musical comedy complex are the following: Poppy, Music Box Revue, Ziegfeld Follies, Runnin' Wild, Mr. Battling Buttler, Wildflower, Topics of 1923.