The commercial backers for the American Psycho musical have killed the production.
The New York Times reports that the people at Act 4 Entertainment pulled the rights to the Off-Broadway show from Second Stage Theater. Carole Rothman, the show's artistic director, gave no explanation for the abrupt change in plans, but did issue a short statement. "We are disappointed that we will not be producing American Psycho this season, but the rights holders, Act 4 Entertainment, have decided to not move forward with the production at Second Stage. We will be announcing a new production in its place in the coming weeks."
Anonymous theater executives spoke with the Times and said that Act 4 had been looking into taking the show right to Broadway and surpassing Second Stage. The Off-Broadway production would have cost too much for development, the sources said. Anonymity was promised because the information was based on conversations that were private.
Prior to the announcement, Act 4 had been trying to close a deal with actor Benjamin Walker to play the lead role of Patrick Bateman, famously portrayed by Christian Bale in the 2000 film version of the Bret Easton Ellis novel. The show did see the light of day last year though in London, but the reviews were mixed. "The musical does its best to recreate this perspective with chalk-drawing projections (video design by Finn Ross) meant to conjure the arrested-development interior of Patrick's mind," an NYT review read. "But when you bring Patrick's high-living, desperately superficial frenemies into the open air of a musical stage, they inevitably turn into quick-sketch cartoons."
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