When I was in college, three vampire musicals crashed and burned on Broadway in quick succession: “Dance of the Vampires,” “Dracula,” and “Lestat.” Each had something going for it, whether it was gothic atmosphere, pop appeal, or the occasional strong song, but none quite worked.
You would think Broadway might have learned its lesson.
Instead, here comes “The Lost Boys,” a musical adaptation of the 1987 teen vampire film, now at the Palace Theatre, where “Lestat” opened exactly 20 years ago. If anything, “The Lost Boys” is worse than all of them. It arrives at the tail end of what may be the weakest season for new musicals in decades, and any hope that it might redeem the season quickly disappears.
The original film was never especially good, but it survives as a piece of 1980s kitschy teen fluff. On stage, that thin material is inflated into a large-scale production that never justifies itself as a musical.
An enormous stage show
The plot is unchanged. A recently divorced mother, Lucy, moves with her two teenage sons to the coastal town of Santa Carla, where “Missing” posters hint at something darker beneath the surface. The older son, Michael, falls in with a group of young vampires led by the charismatic David, while his younger brother Sam begins to piece together what is really going on.
Director Michael Arden stages the show on an enormous scale. A multi-level set rises and falls, with vampires perched above. There are aerial stunts, trap doors, performers hanging upside down from chains, and even a moment in which the orchestra pit turns into a mosh pit.
The Palace Theatre proves too large for the material, and the actors are often dwarfed by the set. The effects pile up without building momentum, turning what should feel dangerous or exciting into something oddly monotonous.
The score, by the band The Rescues, is the show’s biggest problem. The songs are generic, belt-heavy pop and quickly blur together. They are not just unmemorable but often cringeworthy, and they rarely move the story forward. The sound design does not help. Loud instrumentals frequently overpower the vocals, making lyrics hard to catch.
The book leans on self-aware humor that undercuts the material. At one point, a character remarks that turning a movie into a musical “reeks of desperation.” It is meant as a joke, but it lands as a statement of fact. The structure does not help. Sam is given fantasy sequences that appear out of nowhere, including one in which he imagines himself as a comic book superhero and another featuring Dracula lookalikes on skateboards.
Shoshana Bean delivers a warm solo
One bright spot is a solo for Lucy, in which she reflects on her past in the 1960s. Shoshana Bean delivers it with warmth and vocal strength, briefly grounding the show in something resembling real emotion. She stands out, along with Paul Alexander Nolan, who brings a degree of credibility as Max, the video store owner and Lucy’s suitor.
The younger cast makes little impression. LJ Benet’s Michael is moody but blank, and the show gives little reason to care about what happens to him. Ali Louis Bourzgui has presence as David, captain of the teen vampires, but leaves no lasting impact. Benjamin Pajak, who plays Sam, was out at the performance I attended. No matter.
The most interesting thing about “The Lost Boys” is its producing team, which includes Patrick Wilson and a long list of co-producers from film, theater, and music. It is a reminder of how much it now takes to get a new musical on Broadway. It takes a village.
A more useful comparison than earlier vampire musicals may be “The Outsiders,” another adaptation of a 1980s film about teenage outsiders. That show is not perfect, but it is emotionally engaging and carefully made. “The Lost Boys” is neither.
If nothing else, “The Lost Boys” feels like a warning. Broadway cannot keep pouring enormous resources into oversized adaptations of middling films with generic pop scores and expect better results.
“The Lost Boys” plays at the Palace Theatre, 160 W. 47th St., Manhattan; lostboysmusical.com
