‘American Psycho – The Musical’ is coming to the Wollongong stage this month at IPAC from April 23-25. This production is from local theatre company Rising Arts Productions. I had a chat with Alex Perritt, the actor taking on the role of a murderous Wall Street bro, about his craft, singing about killing and the continued relevance of ‘American Psycho’ today in Australia and beyond.
Kirsten: Tell us about your theatre background. Do you have a connection with UOW?
Alex: Yeah, I started my started my performance degree there, graduating back in 2013. And I’ve been kind of performing since I was very, very young: musicals, theatre, Shakespeare, all kinds of stuff. I moved to New Zealand for a couple of years, did some film and TV work over there. Came back and started drama teaching, which has been fun. Basically, what I do now is perform or direct or teach drama.
Kirsten: Can you tell us about the role that you’re playing in this performance?
Alex: The character Patrick Bateman is a pretty well-known character, which is a cool challenge to kind of play a character that people have already set ideas about. I remember when auditioning for the role, talking to other people about it, they had all these things that came to mind when I told people that I was auditioning for. I think the the self-absorbed nature was a big one. The fact that he’s in incredibly good shape was another one. And then, he’s a bit… What would I say? Unsavory. Unsavory, yet, I think there’s also the kind of the sexual deviancy side to him as well. Of course, which is also unsavory. But yeah, there are all these different things that make it a interesting and challenging role.
Kirsten: So how then, how has it been stepping into that role of the psychopath?
Alex: Pretty easy! No, I I get typecast. This is the second musical I’ve done with this company where I have played a murderous psychopath. I don’t feel like I am that character, the kind of cocky and obnoxious, high-status character, but I often do end up playing those characters because they’re fun or because I’m good at playing them. I don’t know. But it’s common for me.
Kirsten: Can you tell us about the are similarities between the film and the musical? How do they diverge?
Alex: I watched the film before doing the musical just to give myself an idea about it. I found the film very funny. And I think what was important for me was how pathetic Patrick was in the film. Patrick Bateman played by Christian Bale is very young, really unstable in an emotional way. He’s so fragile. That smallest thing will knock him off his perch and he’ll spiral. And then I’ve now watched the Broadway version. I feel like the actor in the Broadway version is quite strong. It’s quite a different way of playing the character. He is very strong with a commanding presence and is also very tall, which helps in the West End production as well. I prefer Christian Bale’s interpretation, because I think that weakness is important, that fragility and the insecurity is key to the character. I feel like he can’t be played as the strongest person in the room. He can’t be played as someone who is confident in everything that he does because he’s questioning everything he’s doing. He’s over-analysing the smallest thing about the way he dresses and wears his clothes. He wears his body, his face, everything—he’s so meticulous about them because he’s so self-conscious. And I feel like that kind of that dynamic is really interesting. I think in our production, that’s an important thing. We needed to not show him as this Adonis, godlike character who everyone worships even though it kind of comes across that way, but he is also so neurotic and obsessed with other people and comparison. I think that’s an important distinction.
Kirsten: So, what is your favourite song to perform from the show?
Alex: The finale song, it’s called ‘This Is Not an Exit’. I just think it’s a really cool song to perform. There are some really cool songs but I think that one is my favourite. It’s at this point in the play, where he’s gone through everything that he goes through. He’s confessed to killing all these people and then they kind of laugh at his confession. And then he’s questioning whether any of it was real, but he’s also it’s this thing of the audience questioning the ambiguity of “did he kill all these people?” But then we’re given this clear evidence that he did, but then it’s still questioned. And then he’s at the very last moment, in this existential pit of “do even I exist? Is anything real?” And in this moment, as a performer, I get to acknowledge the audience, break the fourth wall a little bit and just kind of sing this existential song, which is a beautiful song, a pinnacle moment of harmonies from the rest of the cast. It’s very ballad like.
Kirsten: The title ‘American Psycho’ – so it’s set in America in the 80s, do you think that the story, as a book, film and a musical hold relevance here and now in Australia?
Alex: I do, not just in Australia. I think that it’s an interesting one because it has this cult following like the book and the movie both have a pretty significant cult following and I feel like a lot of the people who are obsessed with it, don’t quite get it, because it’s about them. It’s presenting Wall Street investment bankers or white rich, privileged men in America, in Australia. It’s still relevant to Australia, they look at it and they go, “yes, that’s us”, even though it’s presented as this insecure murderer who is just so awful. But it’s the purpose of the film. The purpose of the book and the musical, as relevant as it was then, is about shining a light. Like like The Wolf of Wall Street. You don’t watch that and go, “yeah, that guy’s amazing.” You look at that guy, he is disgusting. The things he and his friends are doing are atrocious. But it’s shining this light, this satirical light at Wall Street and these kinds of people. It also shines a very significant light because it’s referenced so much in the movie and in in the play on Donald Trump. He is referenced a lot because he is Patrick Bateman’s idol, which I think is interesting because obviously Trump is running for president again. And that quote that Trump said that he could walk out into the middle of the street and shoot someone, and no one would do anything about it. He could get away with it, and he’d still get voted in as president, which I still think is true, which is what’s so terrifying. That’s what this story does, it critiques that Patrick Bateman is like Trump – a white, privileged, rich man who could kill these people and completely get away with it. Even if you tried to get caught, he couldn’t because of his position. I think that is very relevant today, especially with how prevalent Trump is. And people like him and people in positions of power, the billionaires of the world and what they can get away with, that’s really what the story is about. These kinds of people are not normal people. They’re not like the rest of the world. They can do whatever they want and succeed and kill people if they wanted to. So, I do think it’s quite relevant today.
Kirsten: How do you feel about being involved in this re-imagining through song and performance?
Alex: I feel like originally in auditioning for the process, I was on the fence because it is quite a confronting story. I had to really put myself through it and go like, “do I agree with this message?” And try to understand what the message is because I don’t want to do work that I don’t find interesting or that I agree with but then, in realising how satirical it was, I think I became quite excited by the idea of presenting something that pokes a hole in that world. For me, it was very exciting to take that kind of opportunity in a big role like that. To put my hat in the ring and say “yeah, I’ll have a crack”. So, it’s been a lot of fun. It is a worthwhile story, for me, as horrific as it is. It’s very funny having this kind of surrealist nightmare of music and comedy. I don’t think it has a comparable show out there. Duncan Sheik is incredible composer, so having that too, it’s awesome.
Kirsten: Do you have any other thoughts that you’d like to share?
Alex: The cast are incredible. I’ve worked with a lot of the people in this cast before in different productions with different companies. The Illawarra is great in that it’s such a small community, but it has so much theatre. It’s like walking around and on West End, there’s just a different theatre company on every corner and they all have their different groups. What I love about this cast is that they are from these different groups. It’s cool to have all of these incredibly talented people, the cream of the crop in the same room working together on a cool show.
If you’re in the mood for silly and sick satire, buy a ticket to ‘American Psycho – The Musical’ now…
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Image credit: @risingartsau