Genre: Thriller/Musical
Director: Rupert Goold
Cast: Benjamin Walker, Jennifer Damiano, Colin Donnell, Helene York, Kristen Bell, Steven Pasquale, Cheyenne Jackson, Andrew Rannells, Grant Gustin, Raul Esparza
Plot: Patrick Bateman (Benjamin Walker) is an investment banker living in New York City at the end of the 1980s. Bateman documents his morning routine, which involves fastidious grooming, tanning and carefully selecting a designer suit, before travelling to Wall Street ("Opening (Morning Routine)"/"Selling Out"). He arrives at Pierce & Pierce, the elite bank for which he works, and is greeted by his secretary, Jean (Jennifer Damiano) ("Everybody Wants to Rule the World"). He inquires about the Fisher account, an exclusive account that is highly sought after by Patrick and his colleagues. Later, Patrick has lunch with his coworkers: Tim Price (Colin Donnell), Craig McDermott (Cheyenne Jackson), Luis Carruthers (Andrew Rannells) and David Van Patten (Grant Gustin). They exchange fashion tips and critique restaurants before another colleague, Paul Owen (Steven Pasquale), enters. Patrick learns that Owen has secured the Fisher account as well as reservations at Dorsia, New York's most exclusive new restaurant. Patrick attempts to save face by showing everyone his new business card, which leads Owen to show his ("Cards"). Owen mistakes Patrick as Marcus Halberstam, another coworker of Bateman's. Patrick then invites him to his birthday dinner, thrown by his girlfriend Evelyn Williams (Zosia Mamet) and Courtney Lawrence (Helene York), her best friend and Luis Carruthers' girlfriend. Patrick calls Evelyn, telling her about Owen coming to the party. Evelyn hates the idea of having an odd number at her table, so Patrick also invites Jean to appease her ("You Are What You Wear").
Patrick and Price arrive at Evelyn's townhouse late, which irritates Evelyn. Over dinner, the party blandly pontificate about social and political issues. After dinner, Patrick and Price go to a club, where they dance and do cocaine. Suddenly overcome with despair and an awareness of the hollowness of his existence, Patrick leaves the club and angrily vows to never go clubbing again. ("True Faith"/"Killing Time"/"In the Air Tonight"). Patrick meets a homeless man on the street, offering him money before taunting him and killing him.
At the gym, Patrick's coworkers work out and comment on the physiques of their female instructors. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Patrick is having an affair with Courtney. After having sex, Courtney decides to end the affair, telling a dismissive Patrick that they are betraying their respective partners. He meets his friends at the gym and attempts to strangle Luis in the steamroom. Luis misinterprets Patrick's actions as a sexual advance. Patrick flees. During the intermission of a showing of Les Misérables, Evelyn broaches the subject of marriage with Patrick.
Patrick heads to the Meatpacking District and picks up a prostitute named Christine, introducing himself to her as Paul Owen. He hires another prostitute named Sabrina and pays the two to engage in violent, sadistic sex with one another and with him ("Not A Common Man"). Patrick escorts his mother to Evelyn's Christmas party, where he binges on drugs and alcohol ("Mistletoe Alert"). He runs into Paul Owen at the party and invites him back to his apartment. The two dance to "Hip to be Square". Patrick spikes Owen's drink, puts on a raincoat and begins a long one-sided analysis of the artistic and commercial merits of the band Huey Lewis and the News. Patrick then beheads Owen with an ax.
Patrick takes Owen's body to an apartment he owns anonymously and dissolves it in a bathtub with a bag of lime. Afterwards, he lets himself into Paul's apartment and stages his disappearance by resetting his voicemail and packing many of his possessions into a suitcase ("Clean"). Months pass, during which Patrick murders several people ("Killing Spree"). One afternoon, Detective Donald Kimball (Raul Esparza) calls on Patrick to question him about Owen's disappearance. Uneasy, Patrick tries his hardest to evade questioning and asks Kimball to keep him updated about the manhunt. Patrick calls Evelyn and suggests a holiday, and so the two take a short break in the Hamptons. The idyllic setting cannot heal Patrick's psyche, however; while Evelyn flourishes amid garden parties and Pilates classes, Patrick's grasp on reality loosens further ("At The End of An Island"). He promises Evelyn that if they return to New York he will marry her. On his return, he appropriates Paul Owen's apartment as a place to host and kill more victims, beginning with Sabrina and Christine ("I Am Back").
Luis runs into Patrick at a Barneys store and begs Patrick to run away with him. Patrick responds aggressively, assaulting Luis. With his appetite for murder now totally unchecked, Patrick targets Jean, offering to take her to dinner at a restaurant of her choice. His sense of inferiority is piqued once again when she suggests Dorsia, where he is still unable to get reservations. Patrick gives Jean the rest of the day off and she wonders about her feelings for Patrick ("A Girl Before"). At Patrick's apartment that night, the pair discuss her hopes and aspirations. As he is preparing to murder her, Jean tells Patrick that she is in love with him. Her confession causes him great distress and he implores her to leave. He leaves a long voicemail for Kimball confessing to the murder of Paul Owen and countless other people.
The next morning, Jean apologizes to Patrick for what happened the night before. He forgives her and tells her that he will be recommending her for a junior executive program. Tim Price unexpectedly arrives at Patrick's office, having been AWOL from Pierce & Pierce since Bateman's birthday. Patrick asks him where he's been; Price responds by saying that he's been in New York the whole time, but their paths haven't crossed. He also asks Patrick about Paul Owen's disappearance.
Patrick and Evelyn have their engagement party at Tunnel nightclub ("Don't You Want Me"). Patrick is noticeably ill at ease and is desperate to go to dinner. Price says he is able to get reservations at Dorsia, which impresses the guests. Patrick sees Kimball at the bar and approaches him, asking him about the voicemail confession. Kimball breaks into laughter, stating that he found Patrick's joke hilarious, despite Bateman's protestations that the confessions were genuine. Kimball tells Patrick that his narrative of what happened to Owen is impossible, as Owen is in fact in London; Kimball allegedly had dinner with him there twice. The next day, Patrick goes to Paul Owen's apartment, expecting it to be full of decomposing bodies and cordoned off by the police. Instead, he finds the apartment vacant and in pristine condition; the real estate agent, Mrs Wolfe, deflects all of Patrick's questions about Paul Owen and the bodies that were left in the apartment, before asking him to leave and never return. He marries Evelyn and resigns himself to a pointless existence in which the punishment and notoriety that he craves will forever be denied him. ("This Is Not An Exit").
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