Best Plays in Manhattan

SERIOUS

PORGY--Paul Robeson and other able Negroes acting a tragedy of the Charleston docks (TIME, Oct. 24).

COQUETTE--Death mocks a Southern flirt when she discovers love (TIME, Nov. 21)

STRANGE INTERLUDE--Eugene O'Neill's long story of lovelorn lady, complete, with asides and soliloquies, in nine acts (TIME, Feb. 13).

Other well-regarded serious plays: ESCAPE, Civic REPERTORY PRODUCTIONS, MARCO MILLIONS.

MELODRAMA

THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN--in the courtroom, a pretty girl gets away with murder (TIME, Oct. 3).

INTERFERENCE--In which poison is served as politely as a cocktail (TIME, Oct. 31).

THE SILENT HOUSE--Mongolian blood-spout, as bewildering, as dreadful, but more exciting than the Chinese revolution (TIME, Feb. 20).

ROPE--What no Southerner thinks about when the band plays Dixie (TIME, Mar. 5).

FUNNY

THE COMMAND TO LOVE--Affaires of state are a diplomat's job and nobody's business (TIME, Oct. 3).

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW--Shakespeare's noisy comedy brought laughably up to date (TIME, Nov. 7).

THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA--Bernard Shaw revived by the Theatre Guild, looks sourly at a sawbones (TIME, Dec. 5).

THE ROYAL FAMILY--How high grade actors act off-stage (TIME, Jan. 9).

PARIS BOUND--A charming marriage almost slips from bad to divorce (TIME, Jan. 9).

Other laughing matters: THE SHANNONS OF BROADWAY, THE QUEEN'S HUSBAND, THE BACHELOR FATHER.

MUSICAL

These productions are frivolous and shinful: Funny Face, Show Boat, Good News, A Connecticut Yankee, Manhattan Mary, Take the Air, Keep Shufflin'.