26-year-old Patrick Bateman is sophisticated, rich and devastatingly handsome. He's got a sculpted body, a model-gorgeous girlfriend, a to-die-for apartment, and a Wall Street job in 1980s New York City. In short, his life's killer. There's just one snag in this dark vision of the American Dream... Patrick can't get the blood out of his $5000 suits.
Based on the best-selling novel by Bret Easton Ellis, and set in the epicenter of excess: 1980s Manhattan, this hit musical tells the story of Patrick Bateman, a young and handsome Wall Street banker with impeccable taste and unquenchable desires. Patrick and his elite group of friends spend their days in chic restaurants, exclusive clubs and designer labels. But at night, Patrick takes part in a darker indulgence, and his mask of sanity is starting to slip...
If you can resign yourself to the story's innate ambiguity, you're in for a perversely enjoyable experience. The script, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa...captures, and deftly skewers, all of Patrick Bateman's and the 1980s' most over-the-top obsessions...The music is totally '80s as well: Sheik's bizarrely catchy, entirely electronic score - far from the usual Broadway fare...Since its 2013 premiere at London's Almeida Theatre with erstwhileDoctor Who star Matt Smith as the titular psycho, AP has gotten a lot bloodier. It's also gotten a lot slicker, sharper, faster, and funnier...Patrick's secretary, Jean (Next to Normal's Jennifer Damiano), haplessly and hopelessly in love with him, and his mother (Tony-winner Alice Ripley)...these two sincere characters seem out of place in such a stinging satire...And as for the violence - it's simply part of the story, usually a joke, and often part of a stunning stage picture.
Unlike Bale, who brought a scary chill to the role, Walker is more of a man-child, his ambition and his malice subdued by a vaguely goofy smile; in his CKs he recalls not so much Jack the Ripper as Tom Cruise in Risky Business...The musical has an awkward book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa...and Duncan Sheik, who wrote the beautiful score for Spring Awakening and here delivers confident, well-crafted numbers...choreographer is Lynne Page; the dances are the most frightening thing about American Psycho, as the actors contort and distort themselves in jagged, angular paroxysms of stoned lust and raw hunger. I feared the sound of snapping limbs throughout...I no more enjoyed the mass slaughter depicted on stage than I would seeing a dramatization of Jonathan Swift...Aguirre-Sacasa and director Goold (and possibly Walker as well) have conspired to defang Patrick somewhat, embellishing his back story (the great Alice Ripley is wasted playing, among other roles, Bateman's mom) and the possibility of redemption...Didn't do much for me.
| 2016 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Benjamin Walker |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Choreography | Lynne Page |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design for a Musical | Katrina Lindsay |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Rupert Goold |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical | Justin Townsend |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Projection Design | Finn Ross |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Set Design for a Musical | Es Devlin |
| 2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Dan Moses Schreier |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Benjamin Walker |
| 2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | American Psycho |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Benjamin Walker |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) | Katrina Lindsay |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Musical | Rupert Goold |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Helene Yorke |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical) | Justin Townsend |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Musical | American Psycho |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Score (Broadway or off-Broadway) | Duncan Sheik |
| 2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Projection Design (Play or Musical) | Finn Ross |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Musical | Justin Townsend |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Es Devlin |
| 2016 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Finn Ross |
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