American Psycho the musical is a fascinating show...I'm just not sure it's a very good one. And although I applaud producers trying to find edgy, adult, subject matter for the Broadway Musical stage where dancing animals and pastiche seem to be the new normal, one has to wonder why they chose Bret Easton Ellis' cult classic book; more importantly did they ask themselves the question...DOES THIS IDEA SING? After seeing a preview performance of the the show last night my answer is no, I don't think they did. And unfortunately for the cast and creatives, this is the problem that plagues some actual good art that is happening on the Schoenfeld stage and may make American Psycho the flop of the season.
Duncan Sheik's music is cool. He finds a way to give a nod to the synth music of the 1980s while also creating something modern that I'm not sure Broadway has ever seen at the same time. His lyrics wittingly represent the yuppie New Yorkers of the era with a lot of humor. The joke ends quickly, however and the lists of fashion icons, trendy night clubs, and fancy restaurants only reach the surface of these characters that prevents us from feeling invested in them. The tricky thing to remember here is that this is by design...these characters are far too narcissistic to actually reveal their real inner emotions. But isn't that what a good musical does; reveal the true emotions of people? Brilliant or bad idea? Hard to say. Fortunately, the few times we get truly inside a characters head it is from the lead characters Patrick Bateman's. Plus Sheik's melodies have such a yearning quality that even though the characters aren't saying how they feel you feel it through the sound.
Fans of Bateman will be very pleased with Benjamin Walker talking the torch from Christian Bale. He understands the surface unemotional, unmoved attitude of the character very well and scores many laughs with his bougie accent. For this character to be believable he needs to have great sex appeal and walker is dripping with it from his great physique to his masculine rangy baritone. He's giving a real performance here letting Patrick's rage and vulnerability come out in small spurts. He is perfectly cast. The other major standout is Helene Yorke as Patrick's spoiled, gratingly vain girlfriend. She finds the humor in this woman's behavior and squeezes every laugh she can find out if it. The chorus feels young and inexperienced. The bits they plan don't work well and their dancing feels silly and a bit amateur (the choreography isn't helping). Jennifer Damiano (looking gorgeous btw) is lifeless as Patrick's Secretary Jean. She has the shows most beautiful song and seems to struggle for the high noties or whatever vocal style the song requires. But the biggest disappointment is seeing Tony Award Winner Alice Ripley in a small thankless role of Bateman's mother and others. It's an insult to her talent for sure. One wonders why she took the role. Are there just not roles for older women being written?
Roberto Aguirre Sacasa (a very good playwright btw) has written a book that finds the right mood to this dark fantasy, but structurally doesn't tell a great story. A day later I'm still not sure what we re supposed to walk away with at the end of the show. He doesn't answer the why for the Audience and so we flounder through most of it trying to figure out Patrick's motives. Plus the decision to make 90% of Bateman's murders happen in one big production number becomes more camp than horror. There is one truly horrific scene at The end of act one in which Bateman kills his frenemy Paul Owen with an ax. A modern designed plexiglass scrim is lowered to the foot of the stage that shields the audience from the soon to be splatters of blood as Bateman hacks Owen to bits ...great suspense: unfortunately there is almost no suspense in this story afterwards, but it's desperately needed. Another reason why a musical doesn't seem to be the perfect fit...a film can create that with camera alone. Plus Duncan's music doesn't create suspense the way the great Sondheim does in Sweeney Todd.
Then of course the ending negates everything we've just been through which is harder to make work in the theater, a far too visceral medium to say at the end, "this actually didn't happen, gottcha!" And the way he does it is far too drawn out (the creative team knows this and will fix it) and doesn't leave it up to the audience to decide if he actually committed the murders like the film does so brilliantly with the notebook of Patrick's violent sketches keeping it very ambiguous. Don't get me wrong, it's not a terrible book for this kind of tough material. His use of the word faggot will turn people off even tbough it's era and character appropriate.
The direction works better in Goold's production. He skirts the line of camp though in many of the scenes but is bright enough to know how when and where to Maintain it. There is lots of fun to be had here, from a tanning bed popping out of the floor to an Areal shot of yuppies hanging out on beach chairs in the hamptons. But act 2 goes a bit too far by having Bateman strip down to his underwear at the brink of madness as he keeps getting more and more spattered with his victims blood. They keep him in this state way too long, almost to the end of the show. I'm guessing this is to show how far off the deep end he's gotten, but it ruins some otherwise serious moments because all you are doing is staring at his blood covered body and hoping he doesn't get it on other characters who he is touching and kissing even (not since Carrie anyone?) he also uses the supporting cast as a Greek chorus far too much and far too carelessly which again teeters on camp.
The design is mostly a stand out. With a see through plexiglass scrim letting you peer into Bateman's stark white modern minimal apartment with sleek black leather chairs and two shelves up to the ceiling on the right and left walls lined with video cassettes all labeled with an ocd perfectness in black marker. A skylight straight out of architectural digest caps the apartment. The now dated horizontal strip blinds cover the upstage wall of his apartment opening and closing and even switching sides to let in light and give us peekaboo looks at what's behind them. Two circular conveyer belts one stage right and one stage left bring on set pieces entering the downstage right and left doors and exiting the upstage right and left doors. The effect changes the scene to Patrick's office, to friends apartments, to the hamptons in seconds it even brings on people and carries them off.
The lighting and projections help greatly taking inspiration from the neon light scapes of James Turrell and the sexually explicit but humorous art work of Bruce Numan (both 1980's contemporary art darlings). There are color and videos surprises around every corner.
The costumes are handsome and elegant, a hard thing to pull off considering almost every notable designer calls the 1980's the worst era for fashion in the twentieth century. The cast looks expensively dressed and surprisingly not costumed which is a good thing. The club scenes have the chorus looking a bit too camp though.
Unfortunately, the choreography and musical staging is just so trite and over the top parody of 1980s everyday and club life that it ruins almost every number. An orgy is treated like it was staged for a drag bar, a killing spree like this is a zombie apocalypse musical. This is really a problem for the show...like spring awakening it needs a type of movement that is a unique language for these characters and this world. The taste level goes to an all time low here.
The horror/suspense genre is a tough one to make work in any medium, but ESPECIALLY the theater. Unless you translate camera techniques for the stage it's hard to set a pace that actually scares or surprises people. Film directors go through dozens of different edits to get the timing and mood right. Goold has not done that here. Honestly, this show might benefit from even MORE camp humor, make it a send up of the material as opposed to an earnest attempt, that could work. But as is, American Pscho the musical just doesnt work and that's because like Rocky from last season, it doesn't sing. It has no chance of gaining a commercial following....it's controversial without being poignant. It will polarize instead of excite audiences. The night I went the audience was hooting and hollering in the middle of numbers. You have to remember that this book film is considered a cult classic and has an underground following and that is where I think it will stay....a show for small companies to do around Halloween.
Updated On: 3/28/16 at 06:47 PM
