Adaptation Angst: Little Miss Sunshine and American Psycho

Once more with . . . oh, you know.

Everything has to be turned into a musical these days. It's the "gritty re-boot" of popular theatre. The latest films to get the jazz-hands treatment are Little Miss Sunshine and American Psycho.

My concern about LMS is that part of the pleasure of the film was the understated wryness that accompanied most of the line deliveries. That, coupled with the fact that the majority of the characters were functional low-grade depressives, makes me skeptical that a musical could succeed, despite the presence of singing and dancing in the movie. It's the surprise and incongruity of that scene that provides the delight, and that would, obviously, be lost in a musical.

American Psycho, on the other hand, I think could work. Sweeney Todd proves that singing psychopaths are actually quite terrifying, and this production has quite the pedigree. Let's just hope that the adaptation will feature the music of Phil Collins.

Check out the New York Times story for more details.