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THE FRONT PAGE. Robert Ryan and Bert Convy, backed by an adroit cast, star in a revival of the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur saga of newspapering in the Chicago of the 1920s. When the time comes to put the paper to bed and bring down the final curtain on this breezy merriment, the audience may well feel sorry that it has to go home.
Off Broadway
A SCENT OF FLOWERS takes a girl on a semipoetic, semiprosaic long day's journey into the night of her suicide. Katharine Houghton gives a tender, well-wrought performance that has beauty and intensity.
A WHISTLE IN THE DARK. Irish Playwright Thomas Murphy has written a drama full of the raw, roiling energy of life. The story of the Carney clan, moving in on a brother who has tried to flee their world of animal instinct, is full of the rude poetry of the commonplace. The performances are labors of love and skill, and Arvin Brown's direction is flawless.
BOOKS
Best Reading Children's Picture Books
ALEXANDER AND THE WIND-UP MOUSE, by Leo Lionni (Pantheon; $3.95). A toybox parable for an automated age tells how a real mouse named Alexander yearns to be like his wind-up friend Willie—until he learns that children are fickle and mechanical toys grow obsolete.
RAIN RAIN RIVERS, by Uri Shulevitz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $4.50). A lyrical portrait of rain from the drips on the windowpane to rushing rivers. The author's blue and green line and wash drawings look appealingly wet and moody.
THE HATING BOOK, by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Ben Shecter (Harper & Row; $2.95). "I hate hate hated my friend." So begins this tale of a hot but brief misunderstanding between two little girls that is finally solved by confrontation: "When I wore my new dress, Sue said Jane said you said I looked like a freak." "I did not! I said you looked neatl"
SCHOOL FOR SILLIES, by Jay Williams, illustrated by Friso Henstra (Parents' Magazine Press; $3.95). A graceful parody of the classic fairy tale in which a poor, bright boy outwits a king to win the hand of a princess. This time, the young suitor creates a school for fools and cleverly enrolls the king.
THE DRAGON OF AN ORDINARY FAMILY, by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (Watts; $4.95). "Dragon, Housetrained, Unusual Pet, Very Cheap, 50¢," or so the sign said when Mr. Belsaki, the father of the ordinary family, went out to purchase an ordinary pet for son Gaylord. With considerable help from attractively grotesque illustrations, both the dragon and Belsaki's life soon expand on an extraordinary scale.
HERMAN'S HAT, by George Mendoza, illustrated by Frank Bozzo (Doubleday; $4.50). When the clown gave Herman his big black hat he warned: "Once you place it on your head you must never take it off or else everyone will know what you are thinking." And Herman, naturally, is thinking all sorts of unimaginable things. Glowing illustrations heavily influenced by Marc Chagall.