A Many-Storied Murder

What happens when lunacy, money and theater collide? On June 25, 1906, Harry Thaw, the wealthy son of Pennsylvania industrialists, shot and killed high-society architect Stanford White during a performance of a new musical at Madison Square Garden.

Thaw’s attorneys successfully claimed that Thaw was afflicted by “dementia Americana,” a condition that causes an American man to become temporarily insane when he learns his wife’s honor has been compromised.

Never mind that Thaw’s wife, former showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, had been deflowered before marrying Thaw. Never mind that Thaw’s problem wasn’t exactly temporary.

In her inventive and highly entertaining play with music, “Harry Thaw Hates Everybody,” at the Los Angeles Theatre Center’s Theatre 4, writer-director Laural Meade gives a decidedly warped retelling of what the musical “Ragtime” called “the crime of the century.” Meeting in another time dimension, Evelyn (Anneh B. Gabriel), her mother, Florence (Susan Rubin), Harry (Daniel T. Parker) and Stanford (Chris Wells) tell their sides of the story, with Evelyn serving as narrator between acts.

Meade filters the sordid details through different theatrical genres. The brash and egotistical Stanford tells his story as a vaudeville act, showing slides of his famous designs, including Madison Square Garden, until he slips into salacious yearnings.

Evelyn’s mother presents her side as a living newspaper. She recounts how Stanford soon tired of Evelyn and sent her to boarding school. Florence turned to another suitor, Harry, when Evelyn needed medical help. Yet even as Harry wed Evelyn and then took her and her mother to Europe, Florence continued to accept financial assistance from Stanford.

Harry attempts to re-script his own trial, causing the disgruntled Stanford to leave, eventually followed by the women. The enigmatic Evelyn returns and transforms the play into a somewhat overlong avant-garde performance.

Although Meade ostensibly puts Evelyn in control, we’re not encouraged to sympathize with her any more than with the others. The night belongs to the hate-filled Harry with his constant demands and interruptions. Parker’s Harry is a bubbling, contrite man-child with ruffled hair and oddly staring eyes. Wells’ Stanford is abrasive and unrepentant of his lechery. Gabriel plays a knowing vixen upset that she died in obscurity, having “lost her looks.” Rubin’s Florence is a deceptively dim deal-maker.

In the end, we aren’t quite sure who was the real victim. As the characters bicker and cajole, a textured pattern of interdependence is revealed: The moneyed men use the women and are then used themselves.

Although the pacing and structure abruptly change in the fourth act, the play is an interesting distortion of “Rashomon” storytelling techniques.

BE THERE

“Harry Thaw Hates Everybody,” Los Angeles Theatre Center, Theatre 4, 514 S. Spring St. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 27. $12. (213) 485-1681. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.