The Theatre: Best Plays: Jun. 11, 1923

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

THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL—The cast includes John Drew, Robert Mantell, Walter Hampden, Francis Wilson, Ethel Barrymore.

AREN'T WE ALL—Smart, sophisticated, sparkling English comedy, giving Cyril Maude every opportunity to score as a delightful old reprobate lord who sought his amourettes in the depths of the British Museum.

ROMEO AND JULIET—Last week of the longest Shakesperian run in American dramatic history, wherein Jane Cowl proves to everyone's satisfaction that you don't have to be over draft-age to present an enthralling Juliet.

ICEBOUND — The Pulitzer prize play, concerning one of those grim New England families whose members spend their lives annoying each other. Honest and well acted.

RAIN—Jeanne Eagels knocks the spirit of the blue-laws for a row of foreign missionaries in a gorgeous reductio ad absurdum of inbred Puritanism, accompanied onstage by a tropical downpour that makes you wonder why you forgot your umbrella.

MERTON OF THE MOVIES— "How To Be a Successful Movie Star," keenly and amusingly satirized, in the person of Merton Gill who learned the technique of Valentino by correspondence and became a new Charlie Chaplin against his will.

ZANDER THE GREAT—Alice Brady attracts much critical encomium in an amusing if conventional comedy concerning bootleggers and an innocent che-ild whose naiveté reforms them.

YOU AND I—A genuinely American comedy, pleasantly salted with irony, developing the thesis that you can't have your artistic cake and eat it too, with a cast as beautifully balanced as the old Athletics' infield.

SEVENTH HEAVEN—Drama in a Paris garret, revolving about a modern Cinderella whose wicked big sister beats her. The worm turns and Helen Menken flagellates her evil relative with a blacksnake whip in a moment of thrilling melodrama.

WHISPERING WIRES—The last theatrical shocker to stay into the warm weather. If you have ever thought of murdering your enemies via tele-phone—see this. Arterio-sclerotics should keep away.

THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE—Theatre Guild revival of one of Shaw's early comedies that shows the Devil not so black as other people paint him. Roland Young remarkable as the only British general in history with a sense of humor.

BOMBO—The discovery of America by the Shuberts, in the usual luxurious Winter Garden, manner, inspired by the presence of the inimitable Jolson.