Joel Schumacher’s 1987 vampire film, The Lost Boys, is one of my favorite films ever. I first saw it on VHS and instantly became enamored with its music, style, horror, and most importantly its nerdy sensibilities. The characters learn about vampires from a comic book. They spend time at both video and comic shops, use water guns, and have awesome, secret hideouts. These are all things that, as a 10-year-old, I very much related to. And sure, sex, vampires, and rock and roll are pretty cool too.
In the nearly 40 years since first seeing it, the film has only resonated with me more. I love how it speaks for a time and place while remaining so effortlessly cool. The performances, jokes, and tonal balance are all unforgettable. Every day I wake up and look at Lost Boys posters and original artwork on my wall. High-end collectibles on my shelves. It’s a film that holds a special place in my heart. Which is exactly why, when I heard there was going to be a musical adaptation, I was so completely terrified.
The history of musical adaptations of movies or pop culture IP is spotty at best. Sometimes it works great, like with Mel Brooks’ The Producers. Other times, when a movie is made of something that was a musical first, it works out quite well too, like West Side Story or Chicago. But more often than not, if you see a musical of a movie or property you love—like Back to the Future or Spider-Man or Catch Me If You Can—it’s not going to be great. It might be okay. It might even be successful. But rarely is a musical made from a movie outstanding or timeless, especially if you come into it as a die-hard fan saddled with decades of preconceptions and expectations.
When I heard The Lost Boys was being turned into a musical, it just didn’t make sense. It’s not a widely celebrated, beloved movie. There’s no large built-in audience. The film has a lot of music in it, but clearly not enough to carry a full show. The mere idea of taking this cult classic I love and turning it into a musical was a risk I couldn’t believe anyone would take. Hollywood had been trying to bring The Lost Boys back for decades, and it never worked. Why would this be any different?
However, when I walked into Palace Theater in New York City last week for one of the last preview performances of The Lost Boys, I was cautiously skeptical. In the weeks leading up to it, a few friends had seen earlier performances and liked it, which was encouraging. So I knew it wasn’t the total disaster I initially thought it could be. At the very least, I was hoping to have a nice three hours out and not walk out with hatred in my heart. Then the lights went down, and the curtain rose.
From its very first scene, a creepy horror-inspired scenario that smash cuts into a large projection of the title, almost like a movie, I felt totally at ease. This show had style. It had flair. It had complete adoration for the source material but no undying adherence to it. This show was going to use the movie as its skeleton, but change it, update it, and possibly even make it better. I was ready for the ride, and by the end, the ride left my jaw on the floor and my expectations buried in the ground.
I found The Lost Boys on Broadway to be wholly entertaining and immensely satisfying. Everything a fan of the film could want, and enough to make non-fans love it too. The story itself is the same as the movie. Lucy Emerson (Shoshana Bean) and her two sons leave their old lives behind and move to Santa Carla, CA, which just so happens to be the “Murder Capital of the World.” Once there, the oldest son, Michael Emerson (LJ Benet), falls for a girl named Star (Maria Wirries), who introduces him to this brash group of young men, who just so happen to be vampires. They then attempt to turn Michael into a vampire, but not before his younger brother Sam Emerson (Benjamin Pajak) figures it out. Sam then, along with his new friends, the Frog Brothers (Jennifer Duka and Miguel Gil), team up to try to bring the vampires down and save Michael. That’s the basic gist of both the movie and the show, but the show is so much more.
In the movie, things move very fast, and it’s never super clear who or what is driving everything. Certain roles, like the mom Lucy, are kind of on the sidelines. Michael is the main character, but he still feels on the fringes of everything. The Frog Brothers are funny but make no sense. We don’t know who Star is. There’s a grandpa who pops in and out randomly. A young boy named Laddie just so happens to be there. None of this hurts the movie necessarily, but once you see the show, you see how the team behind it (which includes writers David Hornsby and Chris Hoch, director Michael Arden, and musicians the Rescues) did their best to fix all of that. And, the biggest way was making the show very much about the Emersons: Sam, Lucy, and especially Michael.
In the movie, Michael drives the story, but we never really understand much about him. Why is he willing to do these things to be friends with the vampires? What’s his problem? Well, the show does a much better job of explaining what’s going on in Michael’s head. We learn that, because of his upbringing, Michael was forced to grow up way too soon. He protected his family from an abusive father, so once the father was out of their lives, Michael is just trying to make up for lost time. He wants to be a rebellious teenager: fall in love, get a tattoo, ride a motorcycle, and drink some random liquid that turns out to be blood. All of which works because LJ Benet, making his Broadway debut, gives a powerful, star-making performance with a killer voice. Pun intended.
Michael’s emergence also means the character Star becomes much more prevalent. In the film, she’s much more of a supporting character. Here, she and Michael go through things almost in tandem. A few of their duets, about struggling with their lives and identities, are some of the show’s most powerful moments. Star is played by Maria Wirries, and she does a wonderful job, not just with her incredible singing, but also with her ability to keep us guessing about who Star is and what she wants.
Also, because Michael is such a focus of the show, we get to spend a lot more time with Lucy, and the story is so much better because of it. In the movie, Lucy just kind of floats about. But here, through many songs and interactions, we learn about her regrets, desires, and needs. It rounds out the show beautifully and turns The Lost Boys from what could’ve been just a horror musical into a horror musical swirling around an emotional family drama, as a mother fights for her children and her children fight for their lives. Shoshana Bean, the most decorated actor in the show, plays the role, and she’s so good that if this were called “Lucy Emerson: The Musical,” it would have been just as entertaining.
Then there’s Sam. Sam, in the movie, is basically the main character, in large part because he was played by the heartthrob of the moment, Corey Haim. Sam was a weird character, though, with a flamboyant fashion sense, confusing decorative choices, and music and comic passions that never quite added up. And, at the start of the musical, you see all of that dulled a bit, in a maddening sort of way. The show makes Sam not some allusive presence, but a very overt, borderline obnoxious nerd. It’s worrisome, especially since the excellent and hilarious Benjamin Pajak plays the role, and we love him so much from his role as Chuck in The Life of Chuck.
However, Sam’s arc gets corrected and then some. The show slowly, especially in act two, uses that preconception to its advantage, giving Sam a larger, more complete, and believable place to go. Pajak has a few showstopping moments, both musical and dramatic, that move him from the outskirts at the start, right into the spotlight by the end. He ends up stealing the show while also getting most of the best lines.
Finally, of course, there are the vampires. While they’re never referred to as “The Lost Boys” in the movie, here, they’re tangentially called that. It’s their band name. Yes, while the movie had them as kind of drifting troublemakers, the musical has them actually in a band. That helps with both the music in the show and explaining why they’re always together. The standout of the bunch, as you’d expect, is David, played by Ali Louis Bourzgui. As played by Kiefer Sutherland, David is one of those iconic roles of the 1980s. So cool. So ruthless. So perfect. To his credit, Bourzgui brings his own unique voice to the role, quite literally, with a seductive accent, but he also becomes almost possessed by the swagger and cool of the film version. He basically becomes a mash-up of Sutherland and rock legend Jim Morrison. He’s fantastic and brings David to life in just the way you’d want. The role is slightly smaller than in the film, but no less impactful.
I could go on all day talking about the cast and characters, but they’re only a small part of why The Lost Boys was so fantastic. Here are a few other reasons.
The second you sit down for The Lost Boys, you realize this is no regular musical. The stage is massive, and the sets on stage are equally so. Things move up and down and over and out on such a scale that the experience somehow feels like more than a musical. Characters are forced to traverse staircases to get to new locations. Even standing on the stage has its own unique motion as several sections rise up and down for dramatic effect. That allows for all types of amazing things to happen, such as people jumping off the stage and disappearing. There’s also a good amount of wirework allowing the vampires to hang, jump, and fly. I haven’t seen as many Broadway musicals as some, but I’ve seen enough, and this is easily the biggest one I’ve ever seen live. It gives the whole show an extra level of spectacle.
Two of my favorite things about The Lost Boys movie are “I Still Believe,” the beach performance by the sexy sax man himself, Tim Cappello, and the use of the song “Cry, Little Sister” by Gerard McMahon, the film’s unofficial theme song. Neither of those are in this show directly, but each is referenced in such a way to make you know they’re a part of the whole experience.
What is in the show is over 20 brand new songs by the Rescues, which run the gamut from poppy fun to emotional power ballad. Everyone gets their moment to shine, and, with maybe one exception, I felt every single song pushed the story forward and was incredibly enjoyable. Among the best, however, are a duet between Lucy and Max (Paul Alexander Nolan) called “Wild” and a duet between Star and Michael called “Now, Forever.” But really, almost all the songs are awesome.
If you’re a fan of the movie, you can’t watch this version of The Lost Boys and not notice some of the changes made. Thankfully, almost all of them are very good. The biggest and most obvious one is the infusion of diversity. The original movie doesn’t have a person of color anywhere in the main cast, and here, the cast does a much better job of representing reality. The Grandpa and Laddie characters have been removed, which sharpens the story without losing its fun (especially in the case of Grandpa). Alan Frog has been gender swapped, which is used to great effect and only bolsters the character. And, of course, there’s everything else I mentioned above—more Michael and Lucy, the vampires being a band, etc. Nothing changes the original story too much, but it all works together quite nicely and gives the story we already knew more life.
My favorite parts of the show, however, are the times when it adheres almost exactly to the original film. Sam’s scene with the Frog Brothers in the comic book shop is one example. It plays basically line-for-line from the movie. The staging of Michael riding his motorcycle with David and his crew is stunningly beautiful and is obviously inspired by the film. The bridge scene, with the vampires hanging and then dropping down into oblivion, is something you never thought could be adapted for the stage, but it is, and it’s perfect. Also, every single classic line you remember from the movie is in there, even if it’s there in a slightly different way. Several are even given subtle setups early on for fans to catch on to.
Also, we get it. You look at some of these photos and think, “Oh my God, how cheesy is that?” “Why do those people look so ’80s?” Well, first of all, the show, like the movie, is set in 1987. But, more importantly, everything about the show tiptoes on that line between wholly serious, emotional, family-centric horror movie, as well as “Yes, we know, this looks a little goofy.” Watching the show, you very quickly realize it’s well aware of its heightened theatricality and uses that to its advantage, creating great moments of levity and surprise.
As much as I’ve raved about the show, though, I will admit that there are a few things that did hurt it slightly. The biggest example is the final showdown between the Lost Boys and the Emersons. In the film, this is a big, epic action set piece, and, because all the sets and staging are so big and impressive throughout the show, you’d expect the ending here to follow suit. It does not. There are a few fun moments of pyrotechnics and magic, but a few of the show’s biggest climactic moments felt painfully small by comparison to the show around them. These didn’t need to be exactly like in the movie, with people flying all over the place, but they could have been bigger and more impactful. As it stands now, a few key deaths are small, quick, and don’t live up to the rest of the show.
Also, a few of the scarier, more violent moments don’t really hit that hard because it’s such an expansive canvas. A vampire killing someone by biting them on the neck is pretty small in comparison to the epic sets and staging.
But it doesn’t really matter. The Lost Boys does a few things at the end that basically made me forget any tiny problems I had and just bask in everything glorious about it. One example, without spoiling anything, is that it adds some subtle final imagery for you to talk about with some key characters. Then, there’s the biggest moment. So, the show ends. The cast comes back out for a curtain call. I stood and cheered as they all took their bows, and then *click* all the lights went out. When they came back up, everyone was off stage, and one more scene began to unfold. Something that tied back in to the beginning of the show. And it was so awesome and unexpected, it made me cheer even louder. You can kill the Lost Boys, but vampires never die.
The Lost Boys had its official opening night earlier this week and, as you can probably tell, we really loved it. In the same way that a show like Cobra Kai took a beloved 1980s franchise and treated it with an equal level of reverence and respect, but also welcome revision, The Lost Boys does the same. And it does so on a massive scale, with wonderful music and lots of vampires. We hope it plays on Broadway for many, many years, mainly so we can go see it again and again.
For info, tickets, and so much more, visit lostboysmusical.com.
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Source: Gizmodo