Sink Your Teeth Into a Preview of The Lost Boys, A New Musical on Broadway

A musical adaptation of the vampire flick The Lost Boys is motorcycling onto Broadway this spring. Before performances begin, the production held a press event to showcase the cast and creative team, with a special live performance and conversations about what makes this show so special.

Tony winner Michael Arden, who is directing this production, spoke reverently about the 1987 cult classic film and its director. "Joel Schumacher's work is amazing. It's visually stunning and it's just so sexy," says Arden. "[The Lost Boys is] funny, it's an adventure, it's a melding of genres and tone that the world hadn't really seen before—like a horror-comedy vampire thriller. So to now be part of doing that as a musical, it feels so right, because of all the things we get to do in theater. Plus, in a musical we get to stop time, we get to hear a character's inner thoughts. So it seems like a perfect fit.”

LJ Benet, who plays the teenage protagonist Michael Emerson, also feels that a musical is the perfect medium to expand upon the source material. “To be a part of a story like this in a new, unique way while still honoring what the movie was but being able to flesh out what was behind the eyes of everyone on screen, it's an honor.”

The show’s music is penned by the indie rock group The Rescues, which is made up of Kyler England, Adrianne “AG” Gonzalez and Gabriel Mann. For Arden, getting the LA-based trio on board was a no-brainer. “I definitely stalked The Rescues for years before getting them to write this musical. I mean, what I love about their music is it's somewhere between your favorite rock or pop album and your favorite musical. It's emotional, it tells a story, it's dramatic. They know how to write for singers as well, because they are storytellers and performers themselves. So it's kind of shocking that this is the first time they've done this, and I'm never letting them go.”

Broadway titan Shoshana Bean is lending her talents to the role of single mom Lucy Emerson. Bean, who is an accomplished singer-songwriter in her own right, echoes Arden’s sentiments. “This score is so special. While it's non-traditional in the sense that it's pop-rock, I think [The Rescues] did an impeccable job of honoring the time period, of creating a world with this sound. It's really cohesive, but it's really theatrical. It's at once a pop song and a musical theater anthem.”

“I think inherently, the idea of vampires is such a heightened, dramatic concept that it belongs on a stage," says Rescues rocker AG. "If you do it right, it can really be successful and it gives you permission to create on that level."

Hollywood leading man Patrick Wilson serves as a producer on the project, having worked with Schumacher on the 2004 big screen adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. “We knew the movie, like, sang," he says. "There's something about the movie that's grounded in this beautiful reality of a family in search of belonging and a single mom moving to California with her kids and trying to make the best of this new life. Those were all very human emotions.”

14-year-old Benjamin Pajak is gearing up to play Michael’s kid brother Sam Emerson. The young actor spoke emphatically about the unique pleasures of being in this particular show. “You get to have a rock concert every night, you get to kill some vampires and you get to sing about it. What else could you want in this show? It's amazing and it's a hell of a lot of fun.”

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