American Psycho: The Musical

“My need to engage in homicidal behaviour on a massive scale cannot be corrected.” 

Anyone that’s read Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 original novel or seen the 2000 Christian Bale film surely entered the Almeida Theatre with an enormous sense of trepidation. How on earth would Patrick Bateman’s insane life of sex, drugs, finance and murder translate into a musical?

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It seemed an improbable and almost ridiculous concept, but American Psycho: the Musical turned out to be an outstanding piece of theatre, electrically charged and bursting with energy from beginning to end.

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Director Rupert Goold brilliantly reinterprets the tale of Patrick Bateman (Matt Smith), the New York investment banker hell-bent on indulging in all of the finer things in life while hiding his penchant for psychopathic murder from his colleagues and friends, through terrific choreography and an incredible soundtrack.

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Emerging from the centre of the stage on a tanning bed, stripped down to his $60 tight white Ralph Lauren underwear and displaying a surprisingly ripped body, Matt Smith certainly made a memorable entrance as Patrick Bateman. Most famous for donning a bow tie, running around chasing daleks and brandishing a sonic screwdriver, he didn’t seem an obvious choice for the role. The notoriously clumsy hipster and eleventh doctor, however, really pulled it out of the bag and delivered a hugely entertaining performance. He captures Bateman’s vanity and complete disinterest with the normal world perfectly and blurs the line between fantasy and reality with an expert hand.

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Bateman is an unreliable narrator, and Smith keeps the audience laughing and repulsed in equal measure in the scenes where his murderous alter ego takes the spotlight, handling a chainsaw with alarming glee. Even more impressive was his portrayal of the hedonism of an investment banker with money to burn, a man desperate to dine at the ‘it’ restaurant and competing for clients, all the while obsessing over his physique, questioning if it’s acceptable to wear tasseled loafers with a business suit and concerned with the quality of his business cards. It’d be funny if it didn’t seem so familiar. Smith well and truly exceeded expectations and breathed a new life into the iconic serial killer.

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American Psycho shouldn’t work as a musical but bizarrely it really, really does. The soundtrack is a wonderful amalgamation of classic ‘80s music - with the likes of Phil Collins and Huey Lewis blasted throughout the theatre - effortlessly woven into a repertoire of original songs from Duncan Sheik. A personal highlight was ‘You Are What You Wear’ in which the two leading women led by Bateman’s girlfriend belt out a lyrical ode to high fashion, with a chorus featuring a role call of designers from Chanel to Giorgio Armani. These are women that know how to look good and have the disposable income to make it a reality.

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From the hysterically funny ‘Hard Body’ – think ‘Call On Me’-style exercise class with lurid neon lighting, leg warmers and an abundance of thrusting – to the beautiful and emotional ‘A Girl Before’, the songs add another level to the script and firmly place the characters in their electric ‘80s environment.

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The striking white set provides an alarming backdrop to the blood of the murders, and the almost clinical nature of Es Devlin’s design truly reflects the hollowness and emotional detachment of Smith’s Bateman. Susannah Fielding is an inspired choice as Bateman’s girlfriend, Evelyn, a woman infatuated with the lifestyle that comes from a high-flying career and marrying a rich banker. In a wonderful supporting role, Cassandra Compton plays devoted secretary Jean with aplomb, her appreciation of Les Misérables and love for her boss perfectly executed with heartbreaking excellence. Her singing voice alone is stunning and cannot be overlooked.

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The rest of the supporting cast fantastically fills the small modern stage with arrogant bankers, doomed prostitutes, and Manhattan yuppies, with an elevator appearance from a Top Gun-era Tom Cruise.

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It was a slickly choreographed, hilarious, and devastatingly stylish production, retaining all of the charm of the original text with the added dimension of a killer collection of original songs. American Psycho: The Musical was an utterly thrilling ride from start to finish, the hysterically witty script underscored with comically violent murders and a clever commentary on society’s dangerous preoccupation with vanity, consumerism and excess. It’s no wonder the entire run sold out months in advance: this was a truly spectacular, innovative and devilishly exciting musical.

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Now, time to return those videotapes…

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