‘The Lost Boys: The Musical' Wants to Bring You Back to the Summer of '87
Vampires have always been an essential part of pop culture-from classics like Dracula and Anne Rice novels, to seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and a rebirth in the mid-2000s led by the Twilight series and HBO's True Blood.
More recently, filmed media like the Oscar-winning Sinners, 2024’s Nosferatu and the Interview With the Vampire TV series prove that audiences still can't get enough of sexy bloodsuckers. And this month, The Lost Boys: The Musical is bringing vampires to the Broadway stage in a new, thrilling way that delivers frights and a lot of heart.
The musical is an adaptation of the 1987 cult-and-camp-classic flick starring Dianne Wiest, Corey Haim, Corey Feldman and Kiefer Sutherland, which follows two brothers, Michael and Sam, and their single mom, Lucy, as they move back to her hometown, the fictional California beach town of Santa Carla.
When they encounter a nefarious vampire gang terrorizing the boardwalk, the brothers link up with a pair of young vampire hunters to save themselves, Star, the main love interest reluctantly entangled with the vampires, and the rest of the town.
"We just somehow can't escape our fascination with this shadowy side to our culture–the things that come out after dark, the lust and desire that sits beneath the daylight of American culture," The Lost Boys set designer Dane Laffrey told Newsweek.
Laffrey's set recreates the "delicious, sleazy" world of a late-1980s California town that feels dangerous but also like "a home worth fighting for." The Santa Carla slogan billboard reads, “Come for the Weekend, Stay for Life,” a lovely sentiment with ominous undertones.
The production for this show is massive, with dynamic set pieces transitioning on and off stage, stage tricks, stunts and special effects that will have audiences on the edge of their seats.
In the opening scene, a police officer descends into a dark, smoky, eerie, condemned mine that was once the center of the town’s economy to investigate strange noises; the sense of danger and abandonment setting the tone for the rest of the nearly three-hour show.
Each transition between settings perfectly depicts the contrasting ’80s aesthetics-surfers, rockers, bright video stores, industrial decline, subtle queer undertones and Ronald Regan talking points about family values.
Like the film, the story tackles heavy themes of growing up amid the allure of sex, drugs, rebellion and immortality as Michael, played by LJ Benet in his Broadway debut, gets drawn into this world by the crew’s leader, David, played by Ali Louis Bourzgui (The Who's Tommy). David is the edgy frontman of The Lost Boys band, a cross between David Bowie and Axel Rose, who sits on the fine line between fear and thrill.
But, ultimately, Laffrey said it’s a story about finding acceptance in a small town.
He describes the titular vampire gang as people who are trying to navigate a thrilling, twisted Peter Pan existence of immortality that also requires violence and emptiness on the outskirts of society. The allure of the Lost Boys entices Michael, a traumatized teen with a spark of rebellion who is desperate to escape the monsters of his past and vulnerable to making all the wrong choices.
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"It is so resonant because it's inevitably relatable–anybody who’s come of age has had moments where you feel like you don't understand what you're supposed to belong to, how you're supposed to exist in this world," he said. "And it's very easy to see how temptation manifests and is sold to you in this story as the way to belong."
Laffrey is bringing this story to the stage with his childhood friend and long-time collaborator Michael Arden, the Tony-winning director behind recent hits like Maybe Happy Endings, Parade and Once on This Island.
The former boarding school roommates have worked on seven Broadway shows together, including several under their production company, At Rise Creative. Arden told Newsweek that the duo "share a brain" and have developed a shorthand and mutual understanding of both process and aesthetics.
Their ventures include revivals, originals and now a screen-to-stage adaptation that vary in subject matter but are linked by shared ethos and vision.
"I think I'm usually attracted to pieces that inspire hope and faith in humanity," Arden said. "I want to be moved when I go to the theater and that's the kind of stuff I want to make."
Arden told Newsweek that The Lost Boys: The Musical is a real spectacle–an "epic rock musical” with big songs and big heart that is worth the ticket price.
"We want to give people their money’s worth," he said. "It's really expensive to go to the theater and I think you need to hear incredible music, see incredible acting and witness visuals that are exciting and memorable and leave an imprint."
Through the medium of musical theater, The Lost Boys allows the team to "dig more into the fantasy of the story" to provide more fleshed-out character arcs, especially for Lucy and Star, who have several songs in the show, more dynamic set pieces and elevate the already high physical and emotional stakes.
"People can sing their inner thoughts and communicate in ways that they wouldn’t naturally, which, given the fact that we’re in a magical world of vampires, is fun," Arden said. "It allows us to take more liberties [in] how we were telling the story that makes sense [and] we can be much more metaphoric."
For example, since the vampires are already singing on stage, Arden said he might as well give them guitars and make them a rock band that uses their music to entrance their victims. He adds that he hopes that the soundtrack-featuring original music and lyrics from real-life rock band The Rescues-will be an enduring classic that audiences are "gonna want to jam out to in the car."
With the show opening in New York without an out-of-town run, Arden said the casting happened as the show was being written, which meant the creative team could write to the strengths of the actors. In the casting process, the team behind The Lost Boys tried to emulate the fresh and exciting feel that the film had upon its release, with a slew of young talent making their Broadway debuts.
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"I was in a position where the producer said, ‘We don't need you to hire stars, we need you to make stars,'" Arden said. "It took a long time to cast the show because we were really looking for the most exciting people for the part."
The show did land one major star, Tony-nominee Shoshana Bean (Hell's Kitchen, Mr. Saturday Night), who plays Lucy, the mom originally portrayed by Weist in the film. The rest of the cast includes Maria Wirres (Dear Evan Hansen) as Star, a lost soul herself trying to do the right thing amid the “war” she sings about in the show’s second act, and Broadway vet Paul Alexander Nola (Water for Elephants, Slave Play) as Max, Lucy's new boss and potential father figure for her sons.
Underneath the glam and the thrills, Laffrey said the "beating heart" of the show is the theme of family, "be it the family we're born into or the family we choose."
The Lost Boys: The Musical is currently in previews and opens on April 26 at the Palace Theater.
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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 2:24 PM.