The Theatre: Best Plays in Manhattan

You Can’t Take It With You. Kaufman & Hart’s hilarious family with their snakes, stamps, xylophones, fireworks and funny business (TIME, Dec. 28, 1936).

The Women. Clare Boothe’s sharp analysis of her sex, with only women in the cast but only men in the offing (TIME, Jan. 4, 1937).

Susan and God. Gertrude Lawrence as a strong-minded woman suffering from an overdose of Buchmanism (TIME. Oct. 18).

Amphitryon 38. The Lunts in approximate Version No. 38 of Jupiter’s assumption of human form for all-too-human reasons (TIME, Nov. 8).

Golden Boy. Clifford Odets’ play about a pugilist-fiddler who, having to choose between his fists and his fingers, chooses wrong (TIME, Nov. 15).

Julius Caesar. The Mercury Theatre in collaboration with Shakespeare presents a long, breathless one-acter, full of modern meaning (TIME, Nov. 22).

Of Mice and Men. Playwright John Steinbeck’s fine adaptation of Novelist John Steinbeck’s best seller (TIME, Dec. 6).

The Shoemakers’ Holiday. A lusty Elizabethan comedy turned into lusty bawdyville (TIME, Jan. 10).

Shadow and Substance. Sir Cedric Hardwicke in a first-rate Irish religious play, full of wit and feeling (TIME, Feb. 7).

On Borrowed Time. A whimsical play about a very old man, a very little boy, and Death (TIME, Feb. 14).

Our Town. Thornton Wilder’s warm study of Everytown, played without scenery (TIME, Feb. 14).

I’d Rather Be Right. The Kaufman-Hart, Rodgers-Hart, George M. Cohan musical spoof about F. D. R., the Cabinet, the Supreme Court and the U. S. A. (TIME, Nov. 15).

Pins & Needles. The Ladies’ Garment Workers’ crisp satirical revue—a kind of I’d Rather Be Left (TIME, Dec. 20).

The Cradle Will Rock. Marc Blitzstein’s original, hard-hitting strike-set-to-music (TIME, Dec. 13).