Yesterday we had the opportunity to press Duncan Sheik for details on the American Psycho musical he's been working on. The musical will open in London later this year—after that, Sheik says, "One crosses one's fingers that it will come to New York." There have been almost zero details about the music that will be incorporated into the production, so we asked Sheik to list off some song titles: "There's a song where they're in, like a Barney's, and it's called 'You Are What You Wear,' there's a song called 'Cards,' and 'I Am Clean, or just 'Clean.' And 'This Is Not An Exit,' which is probably my favorite that I've written, which is the last in the show."
Photo by Jen Carlson/Gothamist
He tells us, "The music is all electronic. You know, the conception of it, at least on my end... I kind of feel like, you have Broadway musicals, and you have the sound of the Broadway musicial—Les Mis, Phantom of the Opera, Cats—and then in some way there was a transition away from that. Spring Awakening [which Sheik scored and won a Tony for] happened, you had American Idiot, Next To Normal, Memphis... this whole set of things using more contemporary, guitar-oriented rock music. For me, I feel that's a shark that's been jumped. So the idea of doing a score that's completely electronic, that's exciting to me. You're being progressive about the form, you know, rather than saying, 'Well people like listening to rock music now in the theater.' That's not so interesting to me... it's really important that you do new stuff. I want to attempt to do stuff that's moving it forward. As opposed to repeating a successful formula."
But will there be nods to Patrick Bateman's CD collection?
Sheik tells us, "Yeah... 20 to 30% of the music will be what I'm referring to as cover songs, which are songs that are either referred to in the book directly, or would have been ubiquitous in that cultural moment. You know, Huey Lewis, Phil Collins..."
As for when you'll hear the songs, Sheik says, "A few of them are going to be made available in some fashion, sooner rather than later, just in an effort to educate people on what the aesthetic is of the sound of the show."
