The Lost Boys’ Cast & Crew on Telling a “Human Story“ with Vampires

Michael Arden considers himself a “baby vampire.” After all, before the acclaimed director was approached to helm the new Broadway adaptation of The Lost Boys, he’d never actually seen the movie.

The 1987 vampire flick follows Michael Emerson, a teenager who moves to the fictional California enclave of Santa Carla with his mother, Lucy, and younger brother, Sam, only to fall in with a gang of wild motorcycle-riding, bridge-hanging nosferatu.

Starring screen heartthrobs of the decade like a young Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, The Lost Boys became a cult classic of the home video era and is often credited with helping popularize the teen vampire trope that continued with films and TV shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, My Best Friend Is a Vampire, The Twilight Saga and The Vampire Diaries.

“It was really exciting,” Arden tells Ticketmaster of the chance to bring The Lost Boys to Broadway, “because we get a chance, in a vampire story, to grapple with what it means to be human through the lens of death not being part of the equation.”

Starring LJ Benet, Shoshana Bean, Ali Louis Bourzgui and more, The Lost Boys brings the film’s edgy vampire story to fantastically undead life with help from a score by L.A.-based indie band The Rescues. In doing so, Arden says the musical touches a universally human nerve underneath the thirst for blood and ‘80s-inspired music.

“You know, there’s something incredibly alluring not only about never-ending life, of course,” the two-time Tony winner continues, “but about belonging to a chosen family. And so, I think what this show is exploring is what it means to assemble a family and what it means to choose the family that you already have.”

At the end of January, the cast and creative team of The Lost Boys assembled at Baryshnikov Arts Center in Midtown Manhattan to give members of the press a peek inside rehearsals ahead of the show’s first performance at the Palace Theatre on Friday, March 27.

Below, Arden dishes on how The Lost Boys made its way to the Broadway stage along with cast members Benet, Bourzgui, Benjamin Pajak, Maria Wirries, Jennifer Duka and Miguel Gill, and book writers David Hornsby and Chris Koch.

What drew you to The Lost Boys?

Michael Arden (director): Well, I got a call from our incredible producers, Marcus [Chait], Patrick [Wilson] and James [Carpinello], saying, “Would you be interested in working on The Lost Boys: The Musical?” And I hadn’t seen the film. So really, I’m a newbie. I’m a baby vampire. I watched the film and I was like, “Huh. How would we do that?” Which usually is a sign that I need to think about it some more.

After thinking about it some more, it was really exciting because we get a chance, in a vampire story, to grapple with what it means to be human through the lens of death not being part of the equation… you know, there’s something incredibly alluring not only about neverending life, of course, but about belonging to a chosen family. And so, I think what this show is exploring is what it means to assemble a family and what it means to choose the family that you already have.

Chris Hoch (writer): I was in Dracula, The Musical, which perhaps was not as… successful as everyone would’ve liked? But literally since I did that, I wanna say it was in 2004, it has been on my mind. ‘Cause it was my first original Broadway show. And I’ve spent countless hours thinking, “If only we did that! If only we did this! If we made the vampires a little bit more human, if we did that!” So I think that there were so many times here that we tried to kind of break the [vampire] curse, as it were.

LJ Benet (“Michael Emerson”: I got the call about the audition and I told my agent, “I don’t know if I can put it in…” I was working in L.A. as a handyman and I was just like, “I’ve got a job to do today and tomorrow… do you think we can get an extension?” I was building stuff for people. And she was like, “No, you need to put this in right now, this one is good. You need to do it.” From there, I watched the movie and [was] like, “Oh! Now I understand why this is gonna be big. ‘Cause it’s a cult classic.”

Ali Louis Bourzgui (“David”): We’re building from the ground up, and there’s so many new things: We’re experimenting with new stagecraft; The Rescues are this incredible band who’ve written music that I’ve never heard before on a stage; and they’re bringing their film scoring abilities to it. And then we have these producers that are all both incredible actors, but also have done things in Hollywood. So it’s like mixing the cinematic universe with the stage universe, which I think is something we’ve been wanting for a long time. It’s very cool.

Chris and David, were you fans of the movie before you got the opportunity to adapt it for the stage?

Hoch: Oh god, yes. When I misbehaved as a child, my parents would boot me out of the house. And there was a West Coast Video about a mile down the road. And this was when they would just show videos at the video store, and they would show The Lost Boys. So I saw Lost Boys, like, 20 times before I was, you know, 16.

David Hornsby (writer): Funny story is that I had not seen the movie, and Chris said, “You have to watch it right now.” He made me watch it at that moment and we sat on the phone together — ’cause we were in different cities — and I watched it with Chris on the phone.

Hoch: It was the worst experience of your life watching it with me on the phone.

Hornsby: It was the worst cinematic experience, but as we went, we started talking, getting ideas, and I knew that we were already riffing on the ideas of what the musical could be, what we could change, how that could be a song moment. And by the end of the movie, we were in.

What do you think is the undying appeal of vampire stories?

Arden: I think why we return to vampire stories is it asks questions that we don’t normally get to ask ourselves. Because death is an integral part of our lives every day. You know, the fear of death, the reality that we all have an expiration date. And when that’s taken away, I think it asks questions about what defines a character. What choices would you make if death were not part of it? What is your true nature?

Hornsby: It’s the vampires as a metaphor, about how they can reflect upon the human story… the fact that vampires can reflect society today as a metaphor, and that we do have a lot of young men that are lost in society right now. It just felt more relevant than ever.

Benet: Have you ever asked yourself the question, “What would it be like to live forever?” We get to figure that out. And that’s a big question: would you want to live forever if you had the chance?

Benjamin Pajak (“Sam Emerson”): We’ve had so many conversations about it in rehearsals, too. Like, would you be lonely? Would you enjoy it? It’s a tough question to answer, and it really depends on the person, I think.

LJ and Benjamin, your characters act as the audience’s human portal into this dangerous world of vampires.

Benet: I play Michael Emerson, I’m the big brother. And Michael is a kid who’s kind of rediscovering himself. Moving from state to state, trying to get a fresh start. For him, I feel like he’s just trying to discover who he is. And he’s trying to figure out what love is for him, what a true family dynamic feels [like] for him, and I feel like a lot of kids go through that. I know I’ve gone through that.

Pajak: I think [that’s] true for almost everyone in this show. Everyone’s trying to find some sort of love or someone to hold onto.

Ali and Maria, you play David and Star, two of the vampires who Michael meets when he moves to Santa Carla. What’s the secret to channeling the undead?

Bourzgui: You kinda have to lock into a thirst and you just have to imagine your senses are on 110 percent. But at the same time, you’re really, really tired and really bored. You’re just trying to find the next kick, the next thing that’s gonna give you anything to keep on living. So it’s that push and pull between being literally undead and also looking for life anywhere it can manifest.

Maria Wirries (“Star”): Being a vampire is such a thrill because you can do anything. You can kind of get away with anything. And they’re these creatures of the night, so they’re sexy and fun. They get to be larger than life, which is so exciting, especially set in the ’80s. We’re just, like, absolute rock stars.

Conversely, Jennifer and Miguel, your characters are sort of pitted against the vampires, right?

Miguel Gil (“Edgar Frog”): We play the Frog Brothers. And we are the protectors and defenders of Santa Carla. We are here to vanquish all evil, specifically vampires. We meet Sam at an interesting point in his moving to Santa Carla, and we help him on a quest to save Santa Carla.

@lostboysmusical

Who’s your main?? smashbros #chooseyourcharacter #thelostboys

♬ original sound – Kristin Chirico

Tell me a bit about the themes of the show.

Jennifer Duka (“Alan Frog”): I feel like with the show dealing with vampires, you can think a lot about how they’re dead, they’re not human anymore. But I think this show highlights the humanity in everybody, and I think that’s so beautiful. It’s a show about family, maybe finding a family that you’ve never had before or rediscovering that the family you’ve always wanted has always been there with you all along. It’s gonna be really, really touching and a wonderful story.

Arden: The theme of brotherhood, certainly. And that that can mean so much more than two men who are related; it’s a shared goal and belief and value. I think the show deals with the theme of forgiveness in a huge way. About regret and shame and how forgiveness is vital. And not just forgiveness of each other, but the forgiveness of ourselves. For our past mistakes in order to heal and move forward. So that’s a theme that I really hang my hat on in this show, that I love that we get to explore here.

What do you think the show can teach audiences about humanity?

Hoch: Probably the importance of making the most of the time you have with the people you love.

Hornsby: Yeah. The thing about mortality is it makes you appreciate the time you have. And hopefully people walk away feeling a bit more connected, perhaps. Through the humor, the human story in the show.

Benet: Meeting people where they’re at. Accepting them for where they’re at, and growing with them. And embracing the pain along the way, and what that looks like.

Even if they’re vampires?

Benet: Depends! [Laughs] I mean, if [a vampire’s] trying to hurt you… run!

Tickets for The Lost Boys are available on Ticketmaster.