American Psycho; The Musical

Last week I went to see a preview for Rupert Goold’s adaptation of one of my favourite ever films, American Psycho, into a musical. Hmmm. As a regular viewer of this website and listener of a variety of music, I wasn’t convinced initially – this is where I went confused. How could this explicitly violent and sexual story of murderous Yuppie disguised as a Wall Street hotshot transfer to the theatre? You can see this site to find out…

If you check over here for the storyline, here is it. Taking place at one of my favourite theatre spaces in London, The Almeida in Islington, this inventive and ambitious production stars Matt Smith (soon-to-be-ex-Dr-Who) in the lead role, supported by a very strong cast of fellow actors who take on the key roles from his secretary Jean to his rival Paul Owen and his girlfriend Evelyn.

For those not familiar with the story, American Psycho is Bret Easton Ellis’ zeitgeisty novel that was brought to the screen in Mary Harron’s 2000 film version, starring Christian Bale in the title role of Patrick Bateman. It is the dark, social satire of a New York Wall Street worker who is hiding psychopathic tendencies. Seemingly, Bateman has it all – looks, money, style and status.  He and his entourage buy the most expensive designer clothes, eat at the most exclusive restaurants and party at the hottest clubs.  But privately, Patrick indulges in another kind of transgression and when people closest to him keep disappearing, his double life comes to light. Or does it?

There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.” American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

The highlight of the show is definitely the staging, with the relatively small and seemingly uninspiring space of The Almeida brought to life in all the dazzlingly day-glo glory of Manhattan in the 80’s, as turn tables involve different characters in all scenes and span from room setting to club bathroom to Patrick’s famous stark white living room all in swift succession.

(All images are official Production Images)

As for the music with the help of experts from PrimeSound, the songs take inspiration from the 80’s setting and the style of the musical numbers all have a hint of electro-pop, along with some re-working of actual tunes from the movie, such as ‘It’s Hip to be Square’ and Phil Collins’ ‘In The Air Tonight’. The original synth-heavy musical numbers are exuberant and catchy – one example being the brilliantly chereographed You Are What You Wear (‘there’s nothing ironic about our love of Manolo Blahnik’). The choreography really is very clever in parts, with a stand out scene being when all of Patrick’s fellow colleagues compare business cards… (I won’t give it away!).

My problem with this production is one main thing – the title character. Director Rupert Goold has placed Matt Smith in almost every scene so he’s ever present; he’s up on stage and paraded as the anti-hero of our time (it is also uncanny how many traits of fellow city workers I knew drew comparisons to Patrick and his colleagues). The problem is not that Matt doesn’t have the best singing voice (his monotone voice actually almost works with the electro 80s background) but that he plays him too dead-pan, too ‘vacant’. It seems he’s trying to play it so that Patrick seems detached from his surroundings, which is indeed true, but he does it with such an impassive facial expression throughout that it’s as if he’s checked out of the play too. As the audience, your eyes move away from him – he doesn’t have enough emotion to hold the eyes for longer than a minute.

It wasn’t a bad production by any means, that would be unfair to say, it just didn’t hold any of the fear, the terror, the violence and the darkness of Bret Easton Ellis’ orginal words or the Christian Bale film version. American Psycho should resume it’s rightful place on page and on screen, not on the stage.

American Psycho runs until 1 February at the Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, London N1 1TA. Tickets are at present sold out for this play but you can contact the box office on 020 7359 4404 for day tickets.