Evening star., 1933-03-26
Picking the Best Plays
Of the New York Season
Prof William Lyon Phelps of Yale Sends in His
List, but He Is Silent Concerning Drama
Which Gave Him No Entertainment
By Percy Hammond.

Alien Corn"-An extremely good
ultty at Yale have a lot more fun than
the specialists at Conway. Katharine
Cornell is superb
Dinner at Eight don't believe
Edna Ferber or George Kaufman could
either OF them be dull if she or he
tried; together they are grand. Each
Is milestone for the others wit. This
Is tragedy. pleasantly mixed with
The Late Christopher Baan"-A
most attractive piece, with The very
unusual merit Of the ending being
much better than the opening. This
closes at 4:45. SO you can catch the s
o'clock
"Biography"-A diverting play. much
Claire.
Both Your Houses"-An admirable
drama drawn by Maxwell Anderson.
magnificently acted. This must not be
missed
'one Sunday Afternoon"-A matter
for rejoicing that this had Suspended
animation rather than death.
Autumn Crocus"-Made attractive
by Francis Lederer and Dorothy Gish.
Dangerous Corner" original
mystery play.
Three Cornered Moon"-With Ruth
Gordon, Cecilia LOTUS and others. I
have seen Cissy Lotus act as Ophelia
ana IN earlier days initiate Tony Pas
tor; This play is paradoxically a sat-
eulte with many stars.
o AS AS husbands Goa good revival Of
"Good-by Again''-Ever since saw
Osgood Perkins in Jed Harris incom-
parable production Of Uncle Vanya"
l have felt sure that he would lend
distinction to any play.
nope to see "A Saturday Night"
owen Davis and Peggy Wood make a
fine combination.
L was interested some time ago to
observe that my friend, John Golden.
trleo an experiment in the way of
carrier evening curtain-raising. for the
oeneht OF suburbanites John bristles
WIN gooo IDEAS and he loves the thea
Yer as much as I do; it would be i'm
possible for any one to love it more
=! myself shall start a campaign in the
autumn to raise the afternoon curtains
promptly at 2:30. The reason for this
IeVoiutlonary proposal is that express
trains for Connecticut towns and .Ier-
Sey and Pennsylvania cities have the
haplt OF leaving at S o'clock. am a
missionary of the New York theaters in
partlous nfldelium am always urging
these cltlzens to spend their Wednes-
Gay: thursday and Saturday afternoons
IN 'front.' OF various plays. If the play
pesins at ESQ. these people can eat
eneH various dinners in New Haven
tween. at z o'clock AS it is now. near
~ all matinees begin at 2:47 and close
at 4:58, thus making all these o,,t-of-
town visitors wait a full hour for the
O'CLOCK train in the largest city in
America, with nothing to do. and
bringing them back to their homes at
Q. When you say that people cannot
reach the theaters at 2:30, I say that
trains leave at the advertised time.
tnat people catch them, knowing thew
Will catch something else if they don't.
nate In America than they are in
England, where the dinner hour-and
even those Englishmen who cannot. af-
Iord to have q dinner always have a
dinner hours or later. Some time
ago the theater managers in London
sent around a QUESTIONABLE, asking
at what time should the curtain rise.
meaning z or 8. Bernard Shaw re-
pied that for the majority of English
plays the curtain should not rise at
all, which sounds paradoxical and isn't:
for the majority Of plays in any season
are not worth seeing.
However, think the present season
Is good. hear varying reports on the
Shakespeare plays. But one should
see any play by Shakespeare, II one
has not seen it before.
Why on earth did George Cohan
eclipse the gayety Of nations by with
drawing Pigeons and People?" A
brilliant comedy impeccably> acted.
WILLIAM LYON PHELPS.
Yale University. New Haven, March
l9, 1888.
THIS corners sympathies and re-
= grets are at the disposal of the
authors, producers and actors of "Twen-
tieth Century" which, after a gay, ex-
pert and gallant battle against both
the old deal and the new, was forced
last week to cali 1t day. It did fairly
well for month or two, but not what
1t deserved to do. nor what in less
bathing times 1t would have done.
When think OF its many crafty per-
fectionsu5ts now cruel, now genial
humor. ~ flashes of witty satire, trav-
estry and buriesque, and the cunning
Of all ~ presentation am disposed
to 80 INTO mourning over its- failure
to he yefmaneut. a