American Psycho: A brilliant play trapped in a mediocre musical
Woman: ‘So What do you do?’
Patrick: ‘I’m into, uh, well, murders and executions, mostly.
Woman: ‘Do you like it?’
Patrick: ‘Well, it depends. Why?’
Woman: ‘Well, most guys I know who are in Mergers and Acquisitions really don’t like it.’
Patrick Bateman to a prostitute he invites to his apartment
It’s a fitting send-off to the Almeida’s artistic director, Rupert Goold, that his final show is the one that launched his tenancy. Directed by Goold himself in both the 2013 world premiere and now this revival, American Psycho certainly put him and the Almeida into the wider public consciousness.
Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ breakthrough novel, American Psycho feels an odd choice for a musical. The novel remains hugely divisive – considered either a satirical masterpiece or an uber-violent, misogynistic wake-up call for a lost generation. Either way, it captured public attention and continues to provoke debate.
Set in 1989, the story centres on Patrick Bateman (Arty Froushan), a wealthy New York investment banker who epitomises the yuppie culture that dominated the period; money and what it can buy superseding everything else. But despite his trophies (the beautiful and even wealthier girlfriend, the designer brands, the penthouse apartment, access to the finest food, drinks and drugs), Bateman is far from happy. He’s teetering on a complete nervous breakdown, though only we can see that.
Aside from money, his only obsession is serial killers, and this dark corner of his psyche pushes him to extreme ends. As his environment becomes overwhelmingly claustrophobic and his sense of value erodes (he doesn’t win the company’s key client, he cannot get into New York’s hottest restaurant, and most cutting of all, his new business cards are not the slam-dunk success he’d expected), he finds calm, relief and happiness in violently torturing and killing people. As his life spirals further out of control, the violence increases; a vicious circle he cannot escape.
The brilliance of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s adaptation is how he’s distilled Ellis’ original into something more emotionally revealing and engaging. Gone are the hysterics around the violence and misogyny… they’re there, but in a more tempered, palatable way. What we actually get to glimpse is the true horror of Bateman, and it’s not the violence he inflicts, but a person out of his depth, playing catch-up with a fantastical world that values nothing more than the superficial. American Psycho emerges as a blisteringly brilliant tale of ’80s excess and how it shaped a culture.
Es Devlin’s set is a visual marvel, streamlined and simplistic, it’s an effective evocation of the ’80s aesthetic. Despite the 2h40m runtime, Goold keeps everything moving at pace. While there are multiple subplots, he anchors the show firmly around Bateman and his descent into personal chaos.
The cast are uniformly solid, but it’s Froushan’s Bateman and Emily Barber as Evelyn Williams (his materialistic, self-absorbed girlfriend) that anchor the piece. Both deliver nuanced performances that sit squarely on the right side of caricature, embodying the emptiness of the society they live in.
Unfortunately, where this show disappoints is in the musical element. As a play, this is a bold and powerful interpretation of a disturbing text, but the musical elements almost uniformly fail to support this vision. The soundtrack blends original songs by Duncan Sheik with a few interpretations of pop songs from the period. For the most part, the original songs deliver nothing but an annoying distraction.
While the lyrics leverage the narrative tone of the book, they lack anything for the audience to latch onto. This is further compounded by lacklustre performances: the music taps into ’80s electronica but lacks impact, and the vocal performances, especially in group singing, sound amateurishly robotic. The choreography, meanwhile, recalls the less memorable Top of the Pops performances. This may be deliberate parody, but when the rest of the show takes that approach to an exciting contemporary place, the musical performances seem decidedly out of sync.
There are moments where the musical sections work, and when they do, they’re blisteringly brilliant. Most notably in “Killing Spree,” where a number of Bateman’s killings are conflated into a single musical number, the combination of song and dance is a feast for the eyes and ears. Unfortunately, of the 20+ songs in the score, barely five come close to this and, for a musical, that’s really not enough.
But all this said, the overall production is able to ride out the musical disappointments and deliver a show that’s exciting, energetic and compelling to watch.
Verdict: Despite being let down by lacklustre musical numbers that feel out of sync with the rest of the production, this bold adaptation of Ellis’ divisive novel delivers a blisteringly brilliant exploration of ’80s excess through strong performances and sharp direction that make it compelling viewing nonetheless.
Musical Numbers
Act One
Clean
Everybody Wants to Rule the World
Cards
You Are What You Wear
Oh Sri Lanka
True Faith
Killing Time
In the Air Tonight
Hardbody
If We Get Married
Not A Common Man
Act Two
Mistletoe Alert
Hip to Be Square
Clean (reprise)
Killer Wolf
A Nice Thought
End of An Island
I Am Back
Don’t You Want Me
A Girl Before
Production Notes
American Psycho
Music and Lyrics by Duncan Sheik
Book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis
Directed by Rupert Goold
Cast
Starring:
Emily Barber
Daniel Bravo
Jack Butterworth
Hannah Yun Chamberlain
Arty Froushan
Oli Higginson
Kirsty Ingram
Kim Ismay
Alex James-Hatton
Liz Kamille
Anastasia Martin
Millie Mayhew
Posi Morakinyo
Joseph Mydell
Asha Parker-Wallace
Tanisha Spring
Samuel J Weir
Zheng Xi Yong
Clare Foster
Creatives
Director: Rupert Goold
Choreographer: Lynne Page
Set Designer: Es Devlin
Costume Designer: Katrina Lindsay
Musical Supervisor : David Shrubsole
Lighting Designer: Jon Clark
Sound Designer: Dan Moses Schreier
Video Designer: Finn Ross
Musical Director: Ellen Campbell
Information
Running Time: Two hours 40 minutes with an interval
Extended and Booking until 21st March 2026
Theatre:
Almeida Theatre
Almeida Street
London N1 1TA
Phone: 020 7359 4404
Website: almeida.co.uk
Tube: The Angel
Reviewed by Sonny Waheed
at the Almeida
at the performance
on 31st January 2026
