American Psycho - The Musical brings 1980s America to the Canberra Theatre Centre stage and it's more relevant than ever

It's a question that director Alex Burlage is asked a lot, which is not surprising. How do you make a musical out of American Psycho? A story about a narcissistic serial killer is not exactly something you would expect to go well with song and dance.

But think back to the first time you experienced American Psycho, be it Bret Easton Ellis' original 1991 novel or the 2000 film adaptation starring Christian Bale. You may not have clocked on at the time - perhaps the acts of Patrick Bateman distracted you - but Huey Lewis and the News, Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, they're all there. And they're not there to provide a soft backing track to set an - albeit, juxtaposed - mood.

Patrick rattles off his monologue about each of them - as if he were reading a Wikipedia entry - just to demonstrate his obsession with the popular and on-trend. The music and artists are a hot topic and therefore he has to know everything about it.

"The music is so iconically throughout the novel. He's constantly referencing Phil Collins, Tears for Fears, and Huey Lewis and the News," Burlage says.

"For someone who speaks so much about music, it does make a lot of sense that music would play a heavy factor in bringing the world of Patrick Bateman to the stage."

In a way, the music itself is a larger part - or perhaps, a larger indicator - of who the character of Patrick Bateman is, more than the violent acts themselves, no matter how horrific they may be.

It's been 30 years since American Psycho was released, and to say that it proved to be divisive and controversial is an understatement. Even today, copies of American Psycho - which is rated R in Australia - are sold in plastic wrap.

A New York Times review encouraged people not to buy it, saying that the non-act "would say that we are disgusted with the gratuitous degradation of human life, of women in particular". The Washington Post called it a "loathsome book".

However, The Guardian hailed Ellis' work, saying "He gets us to a T. And we can't stand it. It's our problem, not his. American Psycho is a beautifully controlled, careful, important novel which revolves about its own nasty bits."

And that's what this latest incarnation of American Psycho hopes to continue.

At its core, American Psycho is a social satire that gives insight into a society driven by capitalism, self-image and wealth through the story of Patrick Bateman - a young and handsome member of Manhattan's elite who indulges in sadistic sex and murder - although it is never clear whether this is real or imagined.

And in the end - as Burlage says - whether these acts are a matter of realism or surrealism is beside the point.

"Yes, the violence in the book and film is horrific, and the acts that Bret Easton Ellis writes and that Patrick does are absolutely grotesque and hideous," he says.

"But it's interesting when you look at these really violent acts and violent thoughts that he has. You compare them against these moments of grotesque capitalism, the grotesque use of money and resource and exploitation, and you look at what relevance that these moments have to our lives.

"The fact is that these things are actually a reality and it makes you see them as being equally as shocking, if not more shocking. It's a very dark social satire, which holds up a mirror to who we are as humans in this self-obsessed capitalist world."

All you need to do is take a look at Patrick's extensive morning beauty routine to see how self-obsessed he is. He starts his day with a cold eye mask - which he wears during his morning stretches - to reduce puffiness. He then goes on to numerous body washes, a facial mask and a moisturising routine. It leaves a viewer wondering - at the very least - how long it takes him to get ready in the morning. And to think the novel's Patrick Bateman has an even longer morning routine.

But is Patrick Bateman's 1980s life of excess that far removed from today?

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"It's almost like the culture has dipped and come back to this insane new relevance," Burlage says.

"These characters are obsessed with wearing the best designer clothes, eating the most outrageous food and having the best bodies and the best beauty regimes.

"We have people who have made a career out of showing you how to put makeup on your face on YouTube, or by having #Fitspo Instagram profiles. It even comes down to whenever you get your plate delivered at a dinner table the first thing you do is you take a picture of it to put online.

"I feel like the American Psycho world is shockingly us. I think that's the thing this musical asks you to do. This musical asks you to basically see just how ridiculous these lives that we are living are."

Perhaps it's this thinly veiled dose of reality that has helped American Psycho - The Musical gain popularity and awards.

In 2019, American Psycho - The Musical earned nine Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Production from its sell-out season at the Hayes Theatre Co.

This latest production sees Ben Gerrard reprise his role as Patrick Bateman after the role earned him the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Male Actor in a Musical in 2019.

It's a role that Gerrard is happy to be back in - as funny as that may sound considering Patrick is a literal American psycho. But while he may need to wind down after each show by watching something as wholesome as dog videos, it's a chance for the actor to once again pick apart modern culture.

"I'm really proud to come back and be a part of the production that makes fun of these types of people," he says.

"In a post-Trump world, we really can afford to yes, be afraid of these types of men, but also at the same time, we see how we appreciate their weaknesses, and the patheticness of them a lot more.

"We don't find these men sexy or aspirational anymore. And I think this Patrick Bateman really undoes some of the aspirational mythology he's acquired in pop culture in the last 20 years. This American Psycho pulls him apart and makes a lot more fun of him than perhaps previous iterations of the novel have."

For Gerrard, American Psycho was the book that he always wanted, but was never able to read as a child - for obvious reasons. An avid reader, the novel was always enigmatic and out of reach, wrapped in plastic on the bookshop shelf.

It wasn't until he saw the film adaptation that he got a taste of what had kept him wondering all those years.

He found himself fascinated by Bale's almost Jim Carrey-ish performance of Patrick Bateman that gave a bizarre humour to the character, and brought out the dorky, nerdy side that Patrick desperately tried to mask.

It was a portrayal that Gerard really appreciated when he finally got around to reading the book that was so mysterious to him as a child.

"Culture's turned him into this aspirational, smooth criminal but he's anything but," Gerrard says. "He is a big, anxious geek in the novel."

What comes to mind when Gerrard mentions Patrick's anxiety is American Psycho's business card scene. Patrick is so proud of his new business card, complete with its bone colouring and (the fictional) Silian Rail typeface. Until, that is, he loses a business card standoff with his colleagues and it completely shatters his ego.

"It's such a perfect example and the musical absolutely captures that moment beautifully and in a really fun way," Gerrard says.

"It's this crushing of a fragile male ego, in the face of such a status undercut. And it's pathetic. It's hilarious, but it's also so observant.

"When we look at these men in charge, and how fragile they are, and the consequences for people around them when their egos are threatened by such hilarious things."

American Psycho is an interesting story to revisit in a post-Trump world.

Even Bale - when participating in a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the American Psycho film, recently - said Patrick Bateman would probably run for president if he was real and around today.

And that's partly because the character idolises Trump. Everything Trump does - at least in the 1980s when American Psycho is set - Patrick Bateman does.

He goes to the same restaurants, he references interviews he's seen on TV and Trump's The Art of the Deal is his bible. Trump is his hero because Trump is Patrick's idea of success.

Trump appeared as a man who had so much money that buildings were branded with his name. He was appearing in films, and he always had a model on his arm. He was living the 1980s and early 90s New York-American dream.

But this Trump idolisation aside, it's also not hard to see a Patrick Batemen-type character being in a position of power because success and power go hand in hand.

"I do think we live in a time where our countries are still ruled by men of this nature," Gerrard says.

"The violence in American Psycho is always toyed with as potentially allegorical. But it's about the fact that it's driven by such a weak sense of entitlement and fragility of ego. It's self-soothing destruction in order to pull through in the face of not getting the power he feels that he's entitled to simply because he is an upper-class, straight white man.

"But something this production does is hold the mirror up to ourselves in the age of Instagram and social media where we know we're guilty of constructing fantasies to torment, not just to those around us, but in order to bolster our own sense of self-worth."

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