On why I think Lost Boys works and improves its story on stage
I’m writing this to explain both what I appreciate about the show and what I think the haters are missing.
This musical was created based on a movie that was extremely popular when it was first released. The goal of putting it on stage is to tell the same story but in a new medium. They can’t (and shouldn’t) attempt to copy/paste the movie on stage. We’ve already seen movies attempt to copy/paste to the stage and fail. When you’re trying to adapt a piece of art to a new medium, changes are not only necessary, they’re to be expected.
One of the main aspects of what makes The Lost Boys so iconic is that it takes place in the 80s. The 80s were all about being big, loud, and expressive, both as a way to cope with and eventually accept what was happening in the world at the time. The Lost Boys Musical showcases these themes beautifully.
The lyrics are simple and cheesy??? Ok, so was everything in the 80s. It’s what makes the decade so iconic. Why would you expect anything else from the adaptation of a cult classic 80s movie???
I think the musical improves a lot of the story and character arcs in the show, especially for the stage, where it’s difficult to have smaller characters matter, but it elevates those characters in a way the move didn’t/couldn’t.
And on top of that, it makes more relevant themes around family, belonging, and feeling misunderstood fit perfectly into the story.
The movie and time period were steeped in cheese, so marrying that with musical theatre, the Queen of Cheese??? Like, cheesy 🤝 meet cheesier. It just works.
You’re welcome to disagree with me, share your thoughts in the comments but this show married all the things I love about musical theatre with the money to takes to make it a huge spectacle:
- A detailed a multi-faceted set that gets to explore both flying in and automated set pieces
- Aerial rigging (and of HUMANS)
- A story with aspects that are universal and relatable to many people (family, belonging, feeling lost/not accepted by loved ones, coping with choices made by a younger version of yourself, etc)
- Cheesy emotional lyrics and story/characters
- Supernatural themes (happy to chat about this, but I think this is apparent in most musicals, just more evident in TLB)
- A suspension of belief to enjoy a silly story
- The most insane/incredible lighting I’ve seen on Broadway in the last two decades
There’s more I could say but I’ll stop there.
I’m just unsure why people going to see a musical version of a cult classic 80s film are expecting it to be more than what it is (though I personally believe it is a better version of this story). 🤷♀️