Duncan Sheik Says AMERICAN PSYCHO Planning Fall 2015 Broadway Run; 'Sad' About Second Stage Cancellation

Tony Award-winning songwriter Duncan Sheik discusses the Broadway plans for his new stage adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho as part of a new interview.

Sheik relates, "American Psycho is definitely still happening though sadly not off-Broadway this coming season. We are work-shopping it in January with an eye to a Broadway run fall of 2015. That does give me the spring and summer to tour and entertain the states, Asia and Europe with whatever slight of hand I have to offer."

Furthermore, Sheik says of the fusion of rock and theatre throughout his work, "The fact is that there is less overlap between the musical theatre going public and the alternative music listening public than I wish there were. I know that there are many rock musicians and theatre composers who are actively working to change this but it's been slow. The sound design aesthetic of musical theatre is so different from alternative music. The vocal style of the two camps is also incredibly different. But there are shows (Hedwig and the Angry Inch to give a recent example) that really have tied the two worlds together. I will try to keep fighting the good fight here because I know that the two audiences would really love some of each other's music if they gave it a shot."

Additionally, Sheik elaborates on balancing acoustic and electronic sounds in American Psycho, sharing, "Since I started making records in 1996 I have always had a balance of acoustic and electronic elements in the recordings. Initially that balance was weighed much more towards the acoustic and and over the past decade I've started to be more interested in electronic sounds or, at least, the relationship of electronic and organic sounds. Working on the all-electronic score for American Psycho afforded me the opportunity to dive back into using the analog synthesizers and drum machines of my eighties adolescence (in combination with exciting new technologies like Ableton's Live.) Creatively this felt exciting and right and so I continued to use this expanded sonic palette on Legerdemain and other theatre scores that I've been writing over the past few years. I still love guitars and pianos - but sometimes I love my Roland Juno 106 more. I'm really searching for ways that those things can sound great together."

Check out the original article on the matter here.

Of note, American Psycho was announced for an Off-Broadway production at the Second Stage Theater earlier this year, but plans were cancelled in July in lieu of pursuing the upcoming January 2015 workshop production and subsequent potential Broadway bow in the Fall.

Also, view my extensive InDepth InterView with Duncan Sheik for much more on American Psycho and his solo albums, available here.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride