Out of the Box Theatre Company (OOTB) opened its ninth season at Center Stage Theater with an engaging production of “American Psycho,” Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Duncan Sheik’s 2013 musical based on Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel-turned-Christian-Bale-film, a scathing commentary on late 1980s superficiality taken to the extreme.

The musical component and scaled-down production soften the slasher gore of the book and film, but the essential social evaluation comes through in OOTB artistic director Samantha Eve’s intentional staging. Shallow, “successful” yuppies in 1980s Manhattan assert their status-fixation as values.

Stylized black, white and red sets and costuming reflect a psychopath’s rigid view and the Patrick Nagel-inspired aesthetic of the day.

Titular lead Tyler Matthew Burk as Patrick Bateman opened the show with “Morning Routine” in nothing but underwear, laying out his exacting, status-driven ambition, which at first blush seems ordinary enough for the times.

“Cards,” an energetic, entertaining male dance number at the office makes plain there’s more to Bateman’s competitive nature than your average upwardly mobile twenty-something.

Chloe Roberts’s slick choreography, and witty lyrics about fonts and paper-stock, sharply performed by seven characters in suits, set the stage for Bateman’s antagonistic relationship with the charming, successful, self-assured Paul Owen (played to smug, whitened-smiling perfection by Willie Simpson) that triggers his psychosis.

In turn, the women – including Bateman’s caricatured fiancé Evelyn, played with nasal-ly bright consistency by Renee Cohen, and Marni Stone who turns in an unnervingly convincing performance as his co-dependent secretary – give a crisp, light rundown of the fashion brands at the center of their world.

Lightness in those numbers belies the sinister reality to come, but early in each act, the ensemble performs an affecting song with all players lined up facing the audience, motionless. Those pieces bring to the fore the gravity of the material.

Murders do take place on stage, but Bateman’s most disturbing compulsions and actions come to light through his own description: verbal contempt, mutilations, beatings, decapitation, strangulation. 

Original music and lyrics simultaneously propel the action and provide critical looks at the social and interpersonal dynamics at play.

And covers of iconic pop music of the day – “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears, Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” Huey Lewis and the News’ “Hip to Be Square” – sung with unexpected tones and harmonies, took on new flavors in the context of social vapidity and serial murder.

Hilarious bits including a cameo by Tom Cruise, a Jane Fonda-esque aerobics class, and an ATM that speaks to Bateman, “Feed me a dead cat!” provide further levity. It is after all, a musical, if a gruesome one.

The entire ensemble was so strong, not a single performance stood out as lacking. Vocals and movement were crisp and comprehesible throughout the performance.

The genre of horror musicals operates in both directions, putting space between us and the scary, creepy content, and also changing the rosy light of old-school musicals to something deeper and more complex.

Most of Out of the Box’s theater seasons have included either horror or transgressive musicals: “Rocky Horror,” “Heathers,” “Evil Dead,” “Lizzie,” “Carrie,” “Bonnie and Clyde,” along with Tony Award-winning productions like “Spring Awakening,” “BARE” and “Hair.”

Uplifting and tender are not outside their repertoire, either, as with last season’s “Amelie” and “Fun Home.”

Their second production of the 2019-20 season is still to be determined, but whatever Out of the Box has up its sleeve next, be sure to make time to go see this innovative company offering theater unlike anything else you’ll see locally. You can sign up for Boxmail from the company to stay in touch about what’s coming next.

— Local arts critic Judith Smith-Meyer is a 24/7 appreciator of the creative act.