by Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier
Cult film classic American Psycho turned 25 this year, and there is plenty in the cultural zeitgeist to suggest that we aren’t done with it yet.
Published in 1991, the original novel by Bret Easton Ellis offered an annihilating satire of late-‘80s greed and excess. Murderous Wall Street yuppie Patrick Bateman was the cipher through which Ellis critiqued the interchangeable nature of mass culture in America.
Without giving too much away, the novel teases the titular psycho’s cannibalistic tendencies as a literal condemnation of capitalist consumption.
Now, arthouse darling Luca Guadagnino is in the process of bringing a new adaptation to the screen, with no confirmed star attached to play the role – though every young heartthrob from Austin Butler to Jacob Elordi has been tied to the part.
Where audiences can find some casting certainty is with a new revival of the American Psycho musical, which will be performing at Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel theatre from 6-20 September 2025.
An adaptation of the original 2013 stage musical by Duncan Sheik & Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, based on Ellis’s novel and the iconography of the 2000 film, the new production recently announced the casting of singer and actor Conor Beaumont in the title role.
To shed light on how the upcoming stage production will reinvent the pop cultural icon, we spoke to some of the creative team behind the new show: director Mark Taylor, musical director Aaron Robuck, and choreographer Sophie Loughran.
Killer moves
In many ways, a comedy film as well as an all-out horror flick, American Psycho is keenly remembered for an unnervingly funny sequence in which Patrick Bateman moonwalks to “Hip to Be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News before committing a gruesome murder. It’s an iconic scene, as Loughran is aware.
“Turning a cult slasher into a musical is no small task,” she admits, “but that’s what makes it such a wild and creative challenge. Guided by the synthy, poppy score and Mark’s stylised direction, the dancing is heightened, sexy and occasionally cringey.”
As a textbook narcissist, Bateman spends huge amounts of time in the gym to craft his godly physique. This is a major point of focus both within the book and the film, so it also guided Loughran’s approach to Bateman’s moves in the new stage production.
“The characters are all performative, and obsessed with status and image, so the movement reflects this kind of surface-level gloss. I want the choreography to have a distinctly ‘80s feel, drawing on iconic moments like Patrick’s raincoat dance to Huey Lewis, combined with nightclub culture, gym workouts and a slick, retro MTV aesthetic.”
Bateman back on the big screen
News of the upcoming film adaptation has been scattered at best – as well as dubious. “I wish I had a scoop, but I don’t,” Taylor admits. “All I’ve heard is that it’s set in the present day, which makes total sense. If Bateman was horrifying in the ‘80s, imagine him now. He’d have a podcast. Or a wellness brand.”
Taylor doubts that Guadagnino will produce a beat-for-beat remake of the original film, likely forging a markedly different path to that of the director of the 2000 version, Mary Harron. “Probably more psychological than violent,” Taylor speculates. “Less chainsaw, more quiet dread. I think it’ll feel colder. Maybe even sadder.”
Though not out of the closet at the time of writing the novel in 1990, Ellis is himself a gay writer. The novel can be perceived as a way to express his own feelings of being out of place as a queer person. Much of the narrative drive of American Psycho explores Bateman’s desire to fit in, purchasing the consumer goods and clothing that he sees flaunted by his similarly featureless, morally vapid peers.
The source material also demonstrates a strongly homoerotic thread and the only overtly gay character, Luis, is tellingly not killed by Bateman. All this to say, there is plenty of queerness to be mined from the original novel by an LGBTQ+ filmmaker such as Guadagnino, whose films frequently explore the emotional turmoil of conflicted queer characters.
His status as an arthouse director, rather than a butts-on-seats populist, also heightens the likelihood of Guadagnino’s new adaptation being substantially, and provocatively, gay.
Be it onstage or onscreen, American Psycho continues to be a striking source of fascination. As Taylor exclaims, “It’s wild how people keep circling back to it. That says a lot about where we’re at. Bateman hasn’t disappeared: he’s just morphed. We’ve literally lived through a moment where someone like Trump wasn’t just possible, he bloody got elected. Patrick Bateman doesn’t feel like such an outlier anymore.”
Photos by Matthew Chen
