A Fond Farewell to a Killer Show

almeida Theatre

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s musical adaptation of American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis’s satire of 1980s Wall Street consumerism, was a huge success in Rupert Goold‘s first season as Artistic Director of the Almeida (then it starred Matt Smith). Now, 13 years later, it forms part of his final season there. Here’s Alex Wood’s summary of the plot at WhatsOnStage: ‘That story…is of a disillusioned banker, Patrick Bateman, filling the emotional void in his life with consumerist jargon, macho-posturing and, eventually, a homicidal rampage through New York.’ The critics loved the production- the music, the set, the lighting, the choreography- and praised the cast especially Arty Froushan in the lead role. Some felt it wasn’t as effective as it could have been.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar listed the reasons why she liked it so much: ‘First there is satire, deliciously dark, and then horror…unsettlingly effective when the violence comes (…) Duncan Sheik’s score contains one great electro-synth number after another, with a razor sharp book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (…) Es Devlin’s fleet set design turns nightclubs into bedrooms into hideous mounds of twitching bodies. Jon Clark’s Stringfellows style lighting and Finn Ross’s projections give off a luminous, hallucinatory quality, insinuating Bateman’s unreliable reality.’

‘it’s big, bold, and deliciously sinister’ declared BroadwayWorld‘s Cindy Marcolina. She noted: ‘Arty Froushan is exquisite as Bateman. A psychotic glint in his eye and steely arrogance make him the quintessential finance bro. He makes his inability to get a table at the exclusive Dorsia restaurant the driving force of his homicidal streak, filling his nights with violent sex and murderous escapades. The musical spells out Bateman’s contradictions, and Froushan revels in them.’

Alex Wood for WhatsOnStage stated: ‘It’s not a perfect show, and its true impact is perhaps left that bit too late in the final scenes. That said, it’s still a hypnotic, bloody good time – one that perhaps says more about the macabre dimensions of modern masculinity than anything else on a UK stage right now.’

The Standard‘s Nick Curtis noted the look of the show: ‘If I say that Rupert Goold’s revival of his hit electropop murder musical is full of surface gloss and chilly razzmatazz, I mean it as a compliment. Bret Easton Ellis’s original 1991 novel was a slashing satire on late-80s consumerist capitalism, as lived by psychotic Wall Street banker Patrick Bateman. This shiny, energetic, body-conscious production lands when greed is once again good and looksmaxxing misogynists are literally all the rage in the manosphere.’ He explained more about the men’s bodies: ‘the hench torsos and sculpted six packs the younger male actors reveal …This fits the vanity (and the semi-suppressed homo-eroticism) of Bateman’s milieu. But it seems that stage actors, like movie stars, now have to have the body of a Calvin Klein model as well as talent.’

The Independent‘s Alice Saville had some doubts but ‘if this show’s message is uncertain, its impact is undeniable. It doesn’t look or sound like any other musical you’ll see in London, and there’s something entrancing about this icy injection of nihilism into a remorselessly peppy genre.’

Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski liked it but had reservations: ‘for all the demonic razzle dazzle that Goold and his top-notch creative team bring to bear – disturbingly twitchy choreography, infernal monochrome elegance, a lot of indoor sunglass wearing – American Psycho is a deadpan show with a downbeat story that sometimes feels in conflict with the maximalist nature of musical theatre. And in humanising Bateman and stressing his anxieties, his collapse into full-blown paranoia at the end feels less momentous than in book and film.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Claire Allfree in the Telegraph was dissatisfied with the adaptation: ‘Perhaps the greatest stumbling block is the fact that the original novel is a masterpiece in narrative ambiguity. Since this adaptation signals from the beginning that Bateman is a fantasist, any sense of ghastly jeopardy is lost. Froushan…expertly conveys the sense of both moral void and existential despair but he is never remotely terrifying.’

Holly O’Mahony at LondonTheatre cautioned: ‘It’s not that the story itself hasn’t aged well, or faded in relevance, but under Goold’s watch, Patrick Bateman (an appropriately beguiling Arty Froushan) never seems as void of feelings as he says he is. We witness him spiralling his way through an existential crisis, wearing his fragility on his sleeve. And making him a shade or two more ‘relatable’ diminishes the satire of Ellis’s story’.

The Stage’s Sam Marlowe was underwhelmed, saying it was ‘a highly enjoyable satirical romp – but one that, despite some vivid gory splatters, is essentially bloodless. It’s smart and horribly pertinent. But it probably won’t give you nightmares.’

The Times’ Clive Davis didn’t get it: ‘It’s slick, it’s shiny, it’s empty (…) There are solid performances all round, but is the show itself really worth reviving?’ Like Bateman, he put the axe in: ‘As for the music, Sheik…has assembled an efficient if colourless selection of technopop anthems.’ 

Critics’ average rating 3.6

American Psycho can be seen at the Almeida Theatre until 21 March 2026.

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