‘American Psycho’ is a Bloody Good Time (Review)
It's murder on the dance floor, and all over the stage, in Monumental's delightfully demented "American Psycho."
In its gung-ho gruesomeness and gleeful sense of camp, Michael Windsor’s lively staging of American Psycho at Monumental cuts to the quick of the macabre musical-comedy based on Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel.
From the nylon tarps covering the theater walls to a strobe-lit massacre set to Huey Lewis’ “Hip to Be Square,” Windsor’s production captures the humor throughout the adaptation by Duncan Sheik (music and lyrics) and D.C. native Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (book).
The show also aptly conveys the horror of homicidal protagonist Patrick Bateman’s foul acts and urges. Namely, lead Kyle Dalsimer nimbly treads the bloodstained tightrope of embodying Bateman in a tight song-and-dance performance, while savagely letting loose as the demon banker of Wall Street who fears his mask of sanity will soon drop.
Often taking his prey on a raised hexagonal mini-stage, where he slays with style, Bateman spills blood all over the sets by Windsor and co-scenic designer Laura Valenti. Banquettes and chairs fill out the trendy bars Bateman frequents with his equally superficial, if not necessarily murderous, banker buddies.
Some of the bar seats are occupied by audience members who will have a front-row view of the grisly thrills, though they might also occasionally be asked to lend their seat to a performer in a scene. The dark but upbeat atmosphere is immersive, assisted heavily by the well-chosen soundtrack of hits evoking the American Psycho era, the last gasp of the ego-driven ’80s.
Those hits by Whitney, Tears for Fears, and Duran Duran evoke the era more consistently than the styling. Style is text and subtext in a show about someone as image-obsessed as Patrick Bateman.
The look for these money men — as it was at the time, and as portrayed in Mary Harron’s razor-sharp 2000 movie starring Christian Bale, and as the show suggests — is slick and luxe. But this cast of dudes, in Elizabeth Morton’s costumes, doesn’t ring that bell.
That is, with the exception of Dalsimer’s Bateman, and Noah Mutterperl as unwitting nemesis Paul, who makes a great first impression on the audience, at least, with a suave yet playful turn in the number “Cards.”
There’s also playfulness, and a persuasive take on ’80s style, exuded by the ladies in Bateman’s life, led by his oblivious girlfriend Evelyn (Jordyn Taylor, appealingly ebullient), and including the show’s music director Marika Countouris, onstage in a DJ booth where she plays keyboards and keeps the party rocking.
The women of the ensemble, hair teased to the rafters, serving Working Girl skirt-suit realness while dancing Ahmad Maaty’s zippy choreography, generally supply an authentic ’80s feeling. And they put over some of the most affecting musical moments, notwithstanding the less than crisp run of the ladies’ “You Are What You Wear.”
Women in this story also are treated to the worst of Patrick Bateman. A shark in wolf’s clothing, he’s an everyman who makes every man look dangerous, or worthy of suspicion. Ellis created him as the perfect-seeming face of American male malice, which we glimpse here, clearly at times — though, lacking the indelible detail of the Reagan years, or some definitive moment, it’s a well-composed portrait just slightly out of focus.
American Psycho (★★★☆☆) runs through July 28 at Ainsley Arts Center, Episcopal High School campus, 3900 W. Braddock Rd., in Alexandria. Tickets are $45, with options of traditional Riser Seating, or “Psycho Experience” seated at one of the show’s immersive booths for an up-close view of the action. Visit www.monumentaltheatre.org.
For the July 19 performance, a shuttle bus from Shaw’s Tavern in D.C. will transport ticketholders to Episcopal High School, and will return to Shaw’s after the show.
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