THE LOST BOYS Reviews
THE LOST BOYS Reviews
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#1
Posted: 4/26/26 at 7:00pm
The secret has officially come out for our final opening night of the 2025-26 Broadway season.
Post ‘em here, folx… give me the good sh*t. 🧛♂️ 🧛♂️ 🧛♂️
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#2
Posted: 4/26/26 at 7:07pm
EDSOSLO858 said: "The secret has officially come out for our final opening night of the 2025-26 Broadway season.
Post ‘em here, folx… give me the good sh*t. 🧛♂️ 🧛♂️ 🧛♂️"
What time is the embargo lifted?
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#3
Posted: 4/26/26 at 7:11pm
When The Reeeee-viiiiewwwwss cooommmmeee ouuuut
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#4
Posted: 4/26/26 at 7:34pm
These are honestly the reviews I am most excited and curious about but also nervous and scared as hell…either way, I cannot wait to see what the critics think.
Updated On: 4/26/26 at 07:34 PMTHE LOST BOYS Reviews#5
Posted: 4/26/26 at 8:37pm
BroadwayAndSports said: "EDSOSLO858 said: "The secret has officially come out for our final opening night of the 2025-26 Broadway season.
Post ‘em here, folx… give me the good sh*t. 🧛♂️ 🧛♂️ 🧛♂️"
What time is the embargo lifted?"
10 PM.
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#6
Posted: 4/26/26 at 8:55pm
EDSOSLO858 said: "The secret has officially come out for our final opening night of the 2025-26 Broadway season.
Post ‘em here, folx… give me the good sh*t. 🧛♂️ 🧛♂️ 🧛♂️"
“Folks” is already gender neutral ❤️
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#7
Posted: 4/26/26 at 9:02pm
The irony of offering a counter to someone who put forth a term intentionally used to signal inclusion.
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#8
Posted: 4/26/26 at 9:44pm
Four stars from TimeOut
Broadway review: The Lost Boys, a musical that goes for blood
Michael Arden directs a spectacular musical adaptation of the 1987 vampire flick.
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/broadway-review-the-lost-boys-a-musical-that-goes-for-blood-042726
"Director Michael Arden and scenic designer Dane Laffrey, whose past collaborations include Maybe Happy Ending and A Christmas Carol, have again created a world we’ve never seen onstage before: surprising, thrilling, sometimes genuinely unsettling. The good things about The Lost Boys are so good, in fact, that they make its fumbles especially frustrating; there’s a sense of lost opportunity. But to an impressive extent, the show succeeds where earlier vampire-themed musicals—the ironically short-lived Dance of the Vampires, Dracula and Lestat—have merely sucked. "
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/30/17
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#9
Posted: 4/26/26 at 9:52pm
https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/broadway-review-the-lost-boys-a-musical-that-goes-for-blood-042726
"Director Michael Arden and scenic designer Dane Laffrey, whose past collaborations include Maybe Happy Ending and A Christmas Carol, have again created a world we’ve never seen onstage before: surprising, thrilling, sometimes genuinely unsettling. The good things about The Lost Boys are so good, in fact, that they make its fumbles especially frustrating; there’s a sense of lost opportunity. But to an impressive extent, the show succeeds where earlier vampire-themed musicals—the ironically short-lived Dance of the Vampires, Dracula and Lestat—have merely sucked. ""
But here’s the catch: By elevating its material so consistently in the first act, The Lost Boys makes its subsequent change of tone all the more jarring. To some extent, this could be expected: A similar thing happens in the film, which was conceived as a Goonies-style tween-adventure comedy and reverted to that style more and more as it went along (before ending in geysers of gore). In Act Two, the musical moves its focus to its younger characters: Sam and his fellow comic-book nerds, the Frog Brothers (Miguel Gil and Jennifer Duka), who have previously served as comic relief. In the film, Sam is gay-coded; the musical pulls an Alan Turing on that code, turning him overtly gay. That’s fine, except it triggers a regrettable shift into the kind of camp that The Lost Boys has otherwise smartly avoided. In a nod to his interest in comics, the show gives Sam two numbers that are deliberately cartoonish: one featuring corny old vampire stereotypes in capes and slicked-back hair, the other with corny old superheroes and, I’m afraid, an even cornier new message: “Maybe I can be a hero here / And make it cool to be queer / Maybe that’s my superpower.”
"At intermission, The Lost Boys seemed like a home run to me: a big swing that connected. But the show’s intensity, rooted in daring sincerity, is compromised by the abject silliness of the Sam numbers and the plague of Frogs that elsewhere overruns the second act. This may be a function of the fact that the musical is premiering directly on Broadway, without prior out-of-town runs; with more development time, the creators might have devised a second half equal to the first. Instead, just when they seem poised to tap into the heart of the vampire musical, they back off and lower the stakes. "
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#10
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:01pm
NY Stage Review
The Lost Boys: Bite, But Not Enough Blood
By Roma Torre
★★★☆☆ Broadway sinks its teeth into the 1987 vampire movie and emerges with a visually thrilling if not so scary musical
The Lost Boys: Vampire Musical Lacks Bite
By Frank Scheck
★★★☆☆ Michael Arden directs this lavish musical adaptation of the 1987 cult film about a teenage boy who falls in with a gang of bloodsuckers.
https://nystagereview.com/2026/04/26/the-lost-boys-vampire-musical-lacks-bite/
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#13
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:03pm
NYT
Shaw is mixed. Not a Critic's Pick
‘The Lost Boys’ Review: Live, Die, Reprise
A Broadway musical adaptation of the 1987 movie gets a lot of mileage from ’80s rocker aesthetics and over-the-top spectacle — until its second half.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/26/theater/the-lost-boys-review.html
"When the musical version of “The Lost Boys,” written by David Hornsby and Chris Hoch, with score and lyrics by the Rescues, nails its combination of goofiness and grandeur, we can thank its two unkillable ancestors. For this Broadway production at the Palace, the director Michael Arden borrows from a thousand “Peter Pan” performances in order to thrill us with onstage flight — Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant did the stunning aerial choreography — and embraces the ’80s rocker-romantic aesthetics that made Schumacher’s movie so bloody delicious.
Still, the relationship with the film proves tricky. The anticipatory part of horror, it turns out, transfers nicely to the stage — Arden and his frequent collaborator, the set designer Dane Laffrey, are masters of atmosphere. But translating the thriller aspect is harder, and “The Lost Boys” loses its way as it tries, unwisely, to map itself onto the film’s action-packed second half."
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/30/17
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#14
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:04pm
AM NEW YORK https://www.amny.com/news/review-musical-adaptation-of-the-lost-boys/
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 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.
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 Reviews#15
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:04pm
Theatermania
Review: The Lost Boys Breaks the Curse of the Vampire Musical on Broadway
Michael Arden directs a sharp-toothed production full of nostalgia and chills at the Palace Theatre.
https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-the-lost-boys-breaks-the-curse-of-the-vampire-musical-on-broadway_1834562/
"I’m happy to let fellow fans of the film know that Sax Guy (Cameron Loyal) makes more than one slick appearance in director Michael Arden’s heart-pounding, gasp-inducing world premiere of The Lost Boys, now running at the Palace Theatre. It’s the best new musical on Broadway."
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#17
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:05pm
Vulture: Holdren is mostly positive
‘The Lost Boys’ Has Too Much of Everything, and That’s Okay
https://www.vulture.com/article/theater-review-lost-boys-broadway-musical.html
"the creative team — book writers David Hornsby and Chris Hoch, the Rescues on music and lyrics, and director Michael Arden — hasn’t forgotten that what they’re adapting is a Joel Schumacher film. This is the guy who also brought us the worst (maybe secretly best?) Batman movie, working from a script that put Peter Pan, Anne Rice, glam rock, and The Goonies into a blender and pressed purée. We shouldn’t just be gasping; we should absolutely be giggling, too.
At the no-holds-barred spectacle at the Palace, we get to do plenty of both. The behemoth isn’t perfect, and it doesn’t need to be two hours and 40 minutes long. These movie-musical stage shows are undergoing their own form of MCU runtime creep, and the majority of the bloat comes from unnecessary repetition. Too many reprises, too many restatements of theme — trust me, by the time The Lost Boys is wrapping up, we definitely get that it’s about family. But there’s also a whole lot happening in it that’s delightful."
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/27/21
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#18
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:06pm
not a disaster but certainly not what you want to see as a producer/investor on this
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#19
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:07pm
Theatrely
THE LOST BOYS Is One Bloody Good Time — Review
https://www.theatrely.com/post/the-lost-boys-is-one-bloody-good-time-review
"The musical channels the 80s maximalism of the movie in Dane Laffrey’s elaborate, towering sets and Jen Schriever’s gorgeous, cinematic lighting design. (Arden also gets credit for lighting.) Just when you think there isn’t room for another location, another one rolls in. This production has to have the record for most motorcycles on stage. Those elements, along with Markus Maurette’s special effects, could be considered worth the price of admission.
Where this grand spectacle starts to unravel is in the music. The Rescues’ cliche-ridden lyrics fail to interestingly explore the emotions of the characters while only intermittently moving the plot along. There are a few standouts among a parade of songs I can’t remember. "
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#20
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:08pm
Variety: Critic's Pick
‘The Lost Boys’ Broadway Review: Musical Adaptation of ‘80s Teen Vampire Flick is Rich in Imagination, Filled With Spectacular Effects
https://variety.com/2026/legit/reviews/lost-boys-broadway-review-musical-teen-vampire-movie-spectacular-effects-1236730779/
"Because of the size and scale of the musical production (reportedly in the $25 million-plus range), the show nixed an out-of-town run. While “The Lost Boys” could have benefitted from more work — particularly in the troublesome second act — the production should still satisfy longtime fans and be an attractive sell for a younger market."
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/30/17
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#21
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:09pm
Jordan Catalano said: "Four Stars from NY Post"
3 1/2
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#22
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:10pm
Deadline
‘The Lost Boys’ Broadway Review: A Film-To-Stage Adaptation That Doesn’t Suck
https://deadline.com/2026/04/lost-boys-broadway-review-1236870020/
"Like Stranger Things: The First Shadow playing a midtown-block away, the creative team behind The Lost Boys musical, along with a terrific cast, seem to have figured out how, exactly, to adapt the horror genre to the stage, and, yes, it has much to do with advances in stage craft and tech, from the jump-scare-friendly improvements in sound design (the better for those loud thunder-like cracks) to special effects (the aerial stunts that bedeviled Angels in America rehearsals back in the early ’90s seem more than a bit quaint compared to all the soaring these vampires do)."
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#23
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:11pm
Slant
‘The Lost Boys’ Review: Broadway’s Latest Vampire Musical Actually Takes Flight
This musical is more visually jaw-dropping and effortlessly cool than it has any right to be.
https://www.slantmagazine.com/theater/the-lost-boys-broadway-review/
"For director Michael Arden’s last hit, Maybe Happy Ending, he had the advantage of building a stunning staging out of a dramatically driven score and pitch-perfect book. The Lost Boys offers neither, though the songs (by the band the Rescues) and the script (by actors Chris Hoch and David Hornsby) are faithful to the film’s spooky-kooky, intensely ’80s vibes.
As he proved in his musically precise staging of Parade, Arden’s greatest gift as a musical theater director is rhythmic. Each vampiric liftoff, fanged nosedive toward an unsuspecting neck, and unearthly lighting effect (by Arden and Jen Schriever) is so pinpointedly timed with the music that the rock anthems seem to spill out of the show’s visuals."
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#24
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:12pm
B+ from Entertainment Weekly
The Lost Boys musical review: Singing vampires take a bite out of Broadway
The stage adaptation stakes its claim on the Great White Way.
https://ew.com/the-lost-boys-musical-review-singing-vampires-bite-into-broadway-11958889
"The Lost Boys is a big and bold production marrying technical enchantment with a talented cast of vocal heavyweights. Even if a few elements of this vampire love story remain a bit undercooked, it's definitely worth sinking your teeth into."
THE LOST BOYS Reviews#25
Posted: 4/26/26 at 10:13pm
People
The Lost Boys Finds New Life as a Cinematic Broadway Spectacle That Thrills but Never Quite Sinks Its Teeth In
An adaptation of the 1987 vampire cult favorite, the stage show delivers the feeling of a blockbuster more successfully than the substance of a great musical
https://people.com/the-lost-boys-broadway-review-11958855
"That may be the central contradiction of The Lost Boys. It is frequently fun. It is consistently showy. It offers audiences a glossy, high-voltage night at the theater. But for all its smoke, style and sensory dazzle, the show never quite finds the pulse beneath the polish."
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