American Psycho, the...Musical?

Written by Kyle Slagley

Certain movies fall into a group of “cult following staples,” if you will. Among this group you will find films like Boondock Saints, The Big Lebowski, almost any movie made by either Quentin Tarantino or Kevin Smith, and also American Psycho.

American Psycho started as a novel by Bret Easton Ellis that was published in 1991. It is a stream-of-consciousness novel, narrated by the main character Patrick Bateman. The film, released in 2000 and starring Christian Bale, follows the same formula. The plots are also largely the same. Bateman is a 27-year-old Wall Street protégé by day, and a sadistic serial killer by night. Both the novel and the film were intended to be satirical interpretations of the narcissistic, yuppie culture of the late ‘80s, and they both do a very good job of that…if you can get past just how disturbing the plots are.

I won’t ruin the ending for you, but suffice it to say it’s equally surreal.

Because the movie was, well, disturbing, imagine my surprise when I read about American Psycho: The Musical earlier this week. You read that correctly. American Psycho: The Musical is an actual thing, it’s currently in rehearsals, and stars Matt Smith, who has spent the last three years growing his fame playing the infamous Doctor Who. The show is set to run at the Almeida Theatre in London from December 3 of this year through January 25, 2014.

Of course American Psycho is not the first musical to hit Broadway or the West-End that deals primarily with murder in some way, shape, or form. Others include Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Assassins, Little Shop of Horrors, and Phantom of the Opera.

No word yet on if American Psycho will make its way across the pond to Broadway, but if you’re really curious, the show’s director Rupert Goold has been tweeting photos from rehearsals that you can check out on his feed.