The Theatre: The Best Plays: Dec. 31, 1923

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

Drama

"LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH!"—The familiar Punchinello plot made shiny and new by the skillful Belasco-Barrymore (Lionel) touch.

THE LADY—A cheerfully old-fashioned melodrama that stirs you in spite of yourself.

TARNISH—Two chapters of feminine amatory psychology—the pure and the stained—bound in a single volume by the love of one man.

RAIN—Probably the most unsparing portrait of a fallen woman on the current stage. Jeanne Eagels chiefly concerned.

SUN UP—Engrossing study of the primitive among the poor whites of the Carolina mountains....