American Psycho musical at the Almeida review: Bloody brilliant
American Psycho at the Almeida | ★★★★★
A lot has happened over the years Rupert Goold has been artistic director of the Almeida. In 2013 he opened his tenure at the Islington theatre with this wickedly amoral musical: six British Prime Ministers and one pandemic later, he completes the oroborus with the same riotous show.
Back then I gave American Psycho five stars and absence has not dulled its nihilistic appeal – few nights at the theatre are this outrageously fun. There is some logic to bringing Wall Street banker Patrick Bateman back to the London stage in 2026: this totem of consumerist excess has been embraced – perhaps ironically, perhaps not – by a generation of young men on the internet, who admire his macho posturing and unapologetic misogyny. Indeed, Bateman’s obsession with a young Donald Trump, the ultimate figurehead of 1980s excess, is brought to the fore in this production; even “Jeff” Epstein gets a mention.
Matt Smith is replaced in the lead by relative newcomer Arty Froushan, whose more traditional good looks (no shade on Matt Smith) are perhaps better suited to this world in which everybody dresses the same and nobody is ever entirely sure who they’re taking cocaine with. Froushan’s portrayal of Bateman involves a little more mimicry than Smith’s, even replicating Christian Bale’s slightly nasal drawl from Mary Harron’s 2000 film adaptation.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s book also leans heavily on the movie (far more so than on Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel): the business cards scene, the axe murder set to the tune of Hip to Be Square, Bateman’s absurd morning routine. These have become cultural touchstones, shorthand for toxic masculinity, memes shared countless times. It’s hard to imagine watching this production without feeling these story beats on an almost instinctual level.
But the cultural context can be saved for the walk home: in the moment, this is a thrilling production, whether Bateman is murdering prostitutes with a nail gun to a pulsing electro soundtrack or having an existential crisis in a New York City nightclub. It’s a neon cartoon, a dizzy dreamscape, strangely uplifting despite the darkness at its core.
Duncan Sheik’s score is immaculate, matching 1980s classics – Everybody Wants To Rule the World, In the Air Tonight, True Faith – with original numbers that echo the tenor of these songs, trapping these characters in this consumerist hell like insects encased in amber.
The choreography is also impeccable: stand out moments include the cast writhing in day-glo lycra, and strutting around with shopping bags on their heads for stand-out number You Are What You Wear.
Goold will soon take over from Matthew Warchus at the Old Vic. American Psycho is a bloody brilliant curtain call for his time at the Almeida.