Duncan Sheik 'psyched' about 'American Psycho'

NEW YORK - Duncan Sheik didn't think a musical about a yuppie serial killer made a ton of sense.

"I said, 'This is a terrible idea,' " the Grammy- and Tony-winning singer-songwriter admitted in a phone interview from Boston this week.

Now Sheik, who had the 1996 smash-hit single "Barely Breathing" and is the songwriter of the hit musical "Spring Awakening," finds himself deep in the process of trying to ready a stage version of Bret Easton Ellis' novel "American Psycho."

Sheik and playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa are about halfway done. Aguirre-Sacasa, a comic book writer who recently worked on HBO's "Big Love," has completed the first act and Sheik has written seven songs.

"Now we're in the thick of it," said Sheik, 41. "There's a pretty long road still to go, but I'm psyched about it. The more time I spend on it, the more excited I get about it."

The 1991 novel - later made into a 2000 movie starring Christian Bale - chronicles a homicidal New York yuppie named Patrick Bateman who is obsessed with high-end clothes and beauty products even as he slashes his way through Manhattan. Bateman also fancies himself as a bit of a music critic, but spews out mostly inane ruminations about Genesis and Huey Lewis and the News.