Playing at Melbourne’s Chapel Off Chapel from 29 October 2026 and Brisbane’s Powerhouse Theatre from 5 February 2027, AMERICAN PSYCHO – THE MUSICAL pulls no punches in its critique of capitalism, consumerism and excess.
Jean is intriguing because her purity contrasts so starkly to the insidiousness of the other characters and the American Psycho world. Her effervescence begs a barrel of questions; is it a conscious choice for her to be so nice? Is it a defiant response to her environment? Or is she simply incredibly naive and susceptible? She’s a bit of a puzzle piece that just doesn’t fit into the overall narrative. My initial approach to the character was more in line with the movie and West End portrayal; a somewhat subdued ‘nice girl’. However as rehearsals went on and we were encouraged to bring our own interpretation of the world through Patrick’s distorted eyes, Jean became increasingly overtly cartoonish, like a nerdy virginal Disney princess.
I definitely feel like a juggling octopus at times but it’s incredible skill building to change hats throughout the show. It’s like running on sand! Analysing the music so closely also helps me immerse myself into and understand more about Jean’s character and how the AP world operates.
The juggling octopus strikes again. I don’t think the identities feel inseparable, in fact, they feel very separate at this point in time. Each job/genre is often a completely different culture with different sets of rules, and it’s taken some time for me to be able to automatically adapt from job to job (like putting on different costumes or becoming a different character for each scene.) Eg, classical piano is ‘play exactly what’s on the page’, songwriting is ‘sing/play what you feel and create something from nothing’, session work is ‘think on your feet and deliver precision inside a specific aesthetic within the allotted time”, touring is ‘be a good person to be around and make every audience feel special’, musical theatre is ‘tell x story through x character’. Maybe I feel like a musical shapeshifter? More probably, I feel like an eager musical sponge.
Primarily that every audience has come to a show because they want to feel something, regardless of the musical genre or context. For so long in my early days, I focused on technique; can I hit that high note? Can I scat? Can I act? Am I warmed up enough? Do I look good enough? Somewhere along the line I realised that it’s never about me, it’s about how I can serve the audience and transport them somewhere else for a few hours. Performing is a selfless act, not a selfish one.
I’m not so sure that they did, to be honest, not that they both weren’t amazing and formative experiences for a young adult! Oh to be travelling the world as a 20/21 year old with your best friends. I just mean that the Australian musical landscape is particularly unique and in many ways incomparable to Europe and the US. The pool is so small and niche here that quite frankly you have to have a lot of creative disciplines going at once in order to make a living. I was more shaped by my teachers at Monash University in Melbourne who stressed the necessity of portfolio careers if we wanted to realistically pursue being a full-time working musician in Australia. I will say, though, that sitting in on Lisa Fischer doing a live session at NYU was definitely a core memory, and I was very inspired to be a session musician after watching her. She is the vocal definition of “yes and”.
6. You made your musical theatre debut as Lucille in Parade before moving into American Psycho. What have you discovered about yourself as a performer through these two very different productions?
I’m laughing fondly to myself as I write this because at the time of starting rehearsals for Parade, I hadn’t done much acting or been in a musical in almost a decade, and I was the embodiment of a nervous fish out of water amongst all these MT pros who had trained their whole life for this. As soon as we got into the theatre, somehow my body quietly said “oh wait, I remember this!” and it felt like I was reunited with a long lost important part of me. So, what I have discovered about myself is that for all my anxiety, insecurity, and meticulous self-scrutiny, something within me already knows how to do this and to do it well.
Helps and hinders because I know I have choices, but I can sometimes stew on the best choices to make whilst other people just go for it, but I’m getting better at that! I used to see my non-traditional MT background as a fatal flaw, but I’ve come to realise that my ‘otherness’ or versatility is what makes me refreshing to the industry, so even if I can’t do a triple pirouette, I’m trying to embrace how my own diverse musical background can be a superpower.
The music to the ear is bubblegum pop artifice, but it’s paired with deeply disturbing thematic content, and the vast gap between these two things is what makes it so unsettling (and exciting!) to perform and to experience as a viewer. I won’t spoil too much, but Jean’s solo number for example is very vocally and lyrically earnest, dreamy, and full of innocent yearning, all the while something really dark and confronting is happening to her live on stage. The challenge for me as the actor is to ignore what’s happening to my body (and its concomitant visceral assault on my senses) and stay inside Jean’s squeaky clean nerdy virginal Disney princess bubble. La la la la la 🙂
I think both of these Melbourne scenes are deliciously gritty and authentic. It’s the best place to be a multidisciplinary performer because I’m valued for my skills and not how well I can sell my soul. Of course there’s a layer of competitiveness in the MT scene but I’ve felt that it pales compared to the collaborative attitude that is very unique to the Melbourne vibe. Corny to say, but the most valuable experiences over the years have involved working with wonderful people towards a shared goal and making lifelong friends, NOT standing in a spotlight and feeding my ego.
I’m going to write a musical, not sure when or how, but I have a strong sense that all of this dipping of all ten of my toes in every musical genre will culminate in this.
Tickets for AMERICAN PSYCHO – THE MUSICAL will be available from the following dates:
AMERICAN PSYCHO – THE MUSICAL TOUR 2026-27
Melbourne, from 29 October 2026 – Chapel Off Chapel, 12 Little Chapel St, Prahran
Brisbane, from 5 February 2027 – Brisbane Powerhouse, 119 Lamington St, New Farm
TICKETS: https://www.americanpsycho.com.au/
