Duncan Sheik - Live

Bush Hall, London

****

Duncan Sheik

In London to premiere his latest musical American Psycho, Duncan Sheik headed across a wet wintry capital to front a gig at (Shepherds) Bush Hall, his first appearance in town since playing Dingwall’s in 1997.

With Spring Awakening already to his Broadway credit and notwithstanding its predominantly rapturous but certainly eclectic critical reception, American Psycho likely to follow suit (a West End transfer must surely be on the cards) it would be easy to assume Sheik is little more than an occasional writer of hit shows. Actually he’s a whole lot more and there is not just depth but breadth to his work too, with his singer/songwriter role borne out in an ever increasing number of album releases.

Under Simon Hale’s musical direction and backed by a string quartet, two keyboards and drums, Sheik was the sole and occasionally solo guitarist on the night. Starting on acoustic, The Love From Hell an acerbic album number, suggested a hint of Tom Waits amongst its angsty guilt. Lucie Jones, who impressively took time out from the gruelling demands of opening American Psycho at the Almeida, was to give a scorching Mama Who Bore Me from Spring Awakening, with Sheik’s accompaniment giving an edge of authentic nuance that sometimes only a song’s composer can truly achieve.

Sheik’s respect for the sound of the 80’s is well documented and in 2011 he released his album Duncan Sheik Covers 80s, featuring his own take on a dozen or so hits of the synth-pop era. On the night, his interpretation of Depeche Mode’s Stripped was another fine work and along with much of Sheik’s performance, continued to define him as a fine musician and performer.

With electric guitar replacing acoustic, Sheik treated the packed-out hall to This Is Not An Exit, as a snatch from American Psycho. The show is an 80’s satire and it says much for Sheik’s work that with hits from the era sprinkled throughout the work, his new compositions preserve the sound and the mood of so much that was vacuous in that decade. Matt Smith acts the song sublimely eight times a week, but in Sheik’s hands the number evolves from a musical theatre moment into a piercing comment upon the time. The show's original London cast need to release a recording soon for Sheik’s work demands nothing less than a considered listening.

Nearly twenty years has been too long to wait to hear this man on stage. He spoke of finding this west London audience and venue much more welcoming than his 1990’s Camden gig. With a new album due out in 2014, here’s hoping he returns here soon.

American Psycho plays at London's Almeida Theatre. My review can be found here.

American Psycho

Almeida Theatre, London

*****

Book by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik

Based on the novel by Brett Easton Ellis

Directed by Rupert Goold

Matt Smith

Trading sonic screwdriver for shotgun, Matt Smith sheds his Dr Who persona to emerge as Patrick Bateman the damaged anti-hero of American Psycho. A bestselling and sometimes darkly comic comment upon the vacuity of the 1980's, Brett Easton Ellis’ novel was famously realised as a 2000 movie starring Christian Bale. Since then a musical version has been talked of, but it has taken until now for Rupert Goold to helm the first ever translation of an Ellis novel from page to stage.

A young and talented investment banker, Bateman is devoted to style and success, finding failure nauseating. His psyche however is complex and being surrounded by chatteringly beautiful Vogue-devoted peers, (the women in particular have a clever early ensemble number You Are What You Wear) whose pursuit of fashion or the next major deal leaves him cold, only deepens his frustrations as his actions become increasingly barbaric.

Smith represents perhaps the most inspired casting of recent years. Where the eponymous Doctor is at best semi-detached from society, Bateman’s mind is truly a world apart from his surroundings and when it comes to detachment, nobody does it better than Smith. His antic disposition early on sets him apart from his banker buddies and as his reason ebbs away, Smith perfectly captures Bateman's mental decline, never once losing focus nor resorting to cliche. His signature number Clean is a clinically chilling performance from an actor not usually associated with melody.

The company work is classy and consistent. Susannah Fielding is Evelyn, Bateman's fiancée, more focused on the carat count of her engagement ring than the slowly crumbling cognisance of her betrothed. Goold has given her a persona more often associated with a Roy Lichtenstein pop art painting. Fielding's characterisation is one of the most fleshed out depictions of a shallow two dimensional woman to be found. Cassandra Compton’s Jean, whose love for Bateman touches the very heart of the beast, has us fearing for her safety whilst gasping at her performance as during her assured solo of A Girl Before, Bateman seductively undresses her, all the time his nail gun close at hand. Amongst the men Hugh Skinner’s closeted gay Luis who mistakes a murderous grip from the homophobic Bateman as a sign of affection, delivers a recurring vulnerability that is never offered cheaply. Seasoned trouper Gillian Kirkpatrick, playing Bateman’s mother, suggests just a whiff of Hitchcock’s Mrs Bates as we seek to comprehend the complex motivation of her son.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s book takes a scalpel to Ellis' original, fashioning a carefully crafted arc that is original yet also true to source. Aguirre-Sacasa's background is in comic book creativity (his is the Vegas-bound Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark) and his eye for the graphic makes for a seamless interpretation. With music and lyrics by Spring Awakening's Duncan Sheik, the 1980’s pedigree of the show is assured. Sheik's songs are consistently concise and on point. No trite lyrics here, Bateman himself would be proud.

Es Devlin uses the compact Almeida space effectively, enhancing the minimalist set with two inspired revolves on stage left and right that stylishly shift the action from Manhattan’s high society to a Hamptons beachfront with Finn Ross’ video projections completing the illusions. The story’s violence, mostly suggested and only once depicted with extreme gore, is tastefully portrayed with Lynne Page’s choreography brilliantly depicting the (blood-free) shotgun blastings of a deranged nightclub massacre.

Whilst the story may not be timeless, some thirty years on and amidst London’s multi-million pound properties, chic eateries and an ever widening gulf between rich and poor, much of the ethos that Ellis despised lives on today. But much as Bateman takes an axe to his victims, so too will this show split critics and opinions. Not for children, nor the easily offended, American Psycho is shocking and uncomfortable theatre. Brutally inspired, brilliantly realised and stunningly performed.

Ticket details:

In one of those episodes of life imitating art, with the run already sold out and until this show transfers to the West End (which it surely must), you are more likely to score a table at New York’s fictional Dorsia restaurant than at the Almeida.

Day tickets are available until the show closes February 1, details below. Queue early and wrap up warm.

http://www.almeida.co.uk/your-visit/booking-information/american-psycho-tickets/