In theory, vampires make the perfect topic for a Broadway musical. From the theatricality of their stories and the drama of their creation, to the inherent mystery that surrounds them, there really shouldn’t be any reason why they wouldn’t work on a stage. So, why have three Broadway musicals failed to succeed, and more importantly, why has The Lost Boys decided to take a chance this season, given the rocky history?

First, some background about our garlic-hating friends. The first vampire musical to descend on Broadway was Dance of the Vampires, which ran for only sixty-one previews and fifty-six performances between October 2002 and January 2003. The musical was poorly received by critics, with Jesse McKinley calling it “a messy failure, an image that television advertising apparently could not reverse in the minds of ticket buyers” in his New York Times article: ‘Dance of the Vampires,’ a $12 Million Broadway Failure, Is Closing. Just a few months later Dracula, The Musical landed on broadway and quickly followed in the footsteps of its predecessor. It ran only twenty-two previews and one hundred fifty-seven performances from July 2004 to January 2005. It was similarly greeted by critics with Ben Brantley saying that it arrived on broadway with “all the animation, suspense and sex appeal of a Victorian waxworks in a seaside amusement park” in his review: The Bat Awakens, Stretches, Yawns, published in the New York Times. Finally, Lestat decided to try it’s hand at breaking the curse that was becoming apparent. Even a score by superstars Elton John and Bernie Taupin couldn’t save it; it ran only thirty-three previews and thirty-nine performances from March to May 2006. Brantley’s New York Times review: Anne Rice’s Vampires, With Elton John’s Music, Take to the Stage said that “it seems unlikely to break the solemn curse that has plagued the genre” and even called it a “musical sleeping pill.” 

I had the incredible opportunity to interview two-time Tony® winner Michael Arden, the director of the current Broadway vampire musical, The Lost Boys. When asked for his opinion on why vampires have failed to stake a claim on Broadway in the past, he said, “I think tone is hard. Often, they’ve either been completely campy or very serious. Dance of the Vampires is kind of ridiculous, but Dracula and Lestat were serious. A musical has to be both of those things to succeed.”

More recently, however, vampires have been having a comeback on stage. While not a musical, Dracula, a Comedy of Terrors, took off-Broadway by storm and created a cult following during its short run. Currently, the new immersive vampire musical Blood/Love: A Vampire Pop Opera is playing Off-Broadway and “more fun than it has any right to be,” as said by Rachel Graham in her Theatermania review: Blood/Love, a Surprisingly Enjoyable Vampire Pop Opera. And while this isn’t the most rave review, it still seems like vampires are making a sizable comeback. When asked about why vampires have had more success Off-Broadway recently, Arden said, “They can serve more niche audiences that are really into that genre. Vampire fans are rabid. You [don’t] have to sell out a fifteen-hundred-seat theatre every night.”

The recent success of vampires Off-Broadway is trying to make the jump to Broadway this season with The Lost Boys, which aims to carve out a different path from its unsuccessful predecessors. The Lost Boys is based on the 1987 movie of the same name, in which teenage brothers Michael and Sam move with their mother to a small town in Northern California. While the younger Sam meets a pair of kindred spirits in geeky comic-book nerds Edward and Alan, the angst-ridden Michael soon falls for Star — who turns out to be in thrall to David, leader of a local gang of vampires. Sam and his new friends must save Michael and Star from the undead.“It either has to be fully camp and not take itself seriously, or take the murder of vampires very seriously. I think what we’re hoping to do with The Lost Boys is really try and find both,” said Arden when asked about how this musical is going to break the previous curse. He was also the one to bring the California rock band The Rescues to the project. When asked about how he decided to bring these two seemingly opposites together, Arden explained that “It just seemed like their music was haunting, spooky, anthemic. It felt like in itself it’s happening in the 80s. I felt like it would be anthem-y and driving. And theatrical. It was a sound that Broadway hadn’t heard, and I thought it would be an interesting match for the movie. And they were luckily very excited by the idea.”

The musical isn’t an exact adaptation of the movie, because it’s not possible to take a movie from the 80s and put it on a stage in 2026. “It’s an action movie. We go to the theater to see emotion. We get to see some action here, but it has to be built around the emotion, the relationships, and the characters,” said Arden when asked about the changes made from the screen to the stage. 

There are also many difficulties in directing as in-depth a production as The Lost Boys. The technical elements of the show truly create a spectacle on stage, but they actually aren’t the most difficult part of the production. When asked about the technical aspects of the show, Arden said that “it’s technical, but it’s not technological. We’re not using cutting-edge technology like Stranger Things. We’re not using any video or any projections; it’s all stuff that existed in the 80s.” And while the tech may seem like the most difficult part for outsiders looking in, Arden explained that “The hardest part is the movement, to keep it forward moving and safe for the actors. Flying’s intense, falling is intense, just being on stage is intense. We want to make sure that even though it seems dangerous, that our cast is safe.”

The Lost Boys is trying to break the curse of vampires on Broadway this season, and in a season of few musicals and many plays, it is poised to be a standout production. Get tickets now before it becomes the next big thing, and they become impossible to get.