The Manor

Reviewed by Jenny Lower
Theatre 40/City of Beverly Hills at Greystone Mansion
Through August 15

Photo by Ed Krieger

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Kathrine Bates’ The Manor, staged by Theatre 40 for the 12^th year in a row at the lavish Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, owes its success as much to the popular taste for highbrow voyeurism that has fueled shows like Downton Abbey as to its own particular merits.

Directed by Flora Plumb, this retelling of the real-life misfortunes that befell the Doheny family (rechristened here as the MacAlisters) lets audiences eavesdrop on the confrontations that culminated in a murder-suicide and the family’s near financial ruin. Our slipping inside the sequestered grounds — as the last survivor(s) to the tempestuous events, with the attendant glimpse into the lives of the fabulous and troubled — is the single most compelling reason to see this satisfyingly sudsy production.

The event opens as patriarch Charles MacAlister (Darby Hinton, double cast with Mark Rimer) bequeaths his newly built estate to his son Sean (John-Paul Lavoisier) and his new bride Abby (Annalee Scott, sharing the role with Shelby Kocee) on their wedding day. The play traces the buildup to and fallout from the Teapot Dome scandal that eventually embroiled the senior Doheny and the Harding administration. Events soon spiral when Charles is asked to finance a loan to his crony, Senator Alfred Winston (Daniel Leslie).

Audiences split into groups, guided among the downstairs rooms by a trio of grave-faced servants. If scenes occasionally feel less than fresh, it’s worth noting that the show’s structure demands most be performed thrice. (And then there’s the matter of the decade-plus run.)

The women turn in the most convincing performances: Bates is regal as the second Mrs. MacAlister, with Sarah van der Pol a standout as the brassy cockney wife to Abby’s tormented childhood friend Gregory Pugh (Jaymes Wheeler in the performance reviewed). Scott makes a compelling ingénue as Abby, the newest entrant to the MacAlister clan, struggling with divided affections.

The setting requires few props, and an early show time lets the cast take advantage of the natural light filtering in from the floor to ceiling windows. As we wander across the tiled floors, there’s time to savor the neoclassical fireplaces, the carved, gleaming woodwork of the main staircase and the million-dollar views of Los Angeles, a thriving borough when the play’s incidents took place.

Theatre 40 in association with The City of Beverly Hills Recreation and Parks Department at Greystone Mansion, 905 Loma Vista Dr., Beverly Hills; July 24, 25 and Aug. 7, 8, and 15, 6 p.m. (310) 694-6118; www.theatre40.org.