On & Off Broadway

'American Psycho'

Review by Elyse Trevers

Posted

Despite all its glitter, glamour and great bodies, the new Broadway musical American Psycho does not have mass appeal. It's not the kind of show one might recommend to out-of-town visitors unless they are among the cult followers of the Bret Easton Ellis book or 2000 Christian Bale movie. There's lots of sex and violence and blood splattered all over. (The show even has a splatter skim that comes down to protect the audience.)

The show is certainly pretty to look at and so are the performers. Benjamin Walker (Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson) plays Patrick Bateman, a stereotypical Wall street type, very much concerned with status symbols and possessions. He’s got it all — the classy girlfriend, Evelyn (adorable Helene Yorke), the designer clothes, and an incredible NY apartment in the same building where Tom Cruise has the penthouse apartment. The only problem is that Bateman’s only feeling is violence; he’s a serial killer. At first he limits his kills to prostitutes, but as his bloodlust increases, he becomes less discriminating. He kills a bum who smells bad and then sets his sights on his neighbor who laughs at him for hanging an expensive $50K painting upside down.

Unfamiliar with the source material, I was a bit confused when Bateman openly threatens his friends and girlfriends and no one reacts. He tells one prostitute that he works in "murders and executions" and she responds that she knows someone else in “mergers and acquisitions.” Are they not hearing him? And then there's the second act when he spends the bulk of the act clad only in his bloodstained underwear and no one notices. Is this really happening or is it all in his head? Is it just showing us what's underneath? Do we care?

Well, we don't care about him at all. How can we? He, like all his peers, is shallow and vain. In the very first scene he explains in excruciating detail what he is wearing, carefully naming each name designer. It's actually satirical and quite amusing. In a later scene, Evelyn and her best friend sing about fashion designers in “You Are What You Wear.” These are not likable people.

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