The Best Plays

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

SWEET NELL OF OLD DRURY -- Laurette Taylor enjoying herself in a very old-fashioned melodrama-romance in which ladies wear yard-wide hats and gentlemen lace pants. A clean show about Charles II.

ZANDER THE GREAT--Humor and shootin', sisterly love and the other kind on a bootleggers' ranch in Arizona. Alice Brady makes the most of her first adequate role in legitimate drama.

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.

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.

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.

SEVENTH HEAVEN--A long snake-whip and a rendering of La Marseillaise off-stage are the emotional assistants to Helen Menken in a skillfully concocted assembly of Parisian eccentrics.

POLLY PREFERRED--A diverting splutter of salesmanship, southern accent, money and a movie director. Opens in the Automat and closes in Hollywood. Genevieve Tobin is " Polly."

YOU AND I--The clash between love and artistic aspirations repeats itself in father and son. Brilliant American comedy, splendidly cast, with moments of touching irony.

MERTON OF THE MOVIES--A skilful dramatization of Harry Leon Wilson's story of the movie-struck youth who quite unintentionally becomes a great comedian, with a corresponding loss of illusions.

RAIN--Hard language and a realistic rainstorm combine as atmosphere in an attack on the forcibly fed Christianity of foreign missions. Jeanne Eagels presents the most successfully uneasy virtue of the season.