Just last week, following his double 2026 Tony nominations, Michael Arden sat down with BroadwayWorld’s Richard Ridge to discuss bringing The Lost Boys to the stage- a production that blends horror, heart, humor, and high-flying spectacle.
How did the project come to him? Arden admitted that he had actually never seen the original film when he first got the call from producers. “I thought there was a real opportunity to do something really fun,” Arden explained. “The tone of it was so interesting that it was like horror… but there’s a love story, but there’s a family story, but there’s Goonies-like adventure. You could really pack a lot into this! And that vampires are young and sexy. It just seemed like, well this, if we can pull this off, this is gonna be something.”
The new musical came straight to Broadway, without an out-of-town tryout– a move very intenionally made.
“We made the choice early on that we wanted the money to end up on stage,” he said. “We wanted to make the thing for the people who bought tickets for the ultimate goal, which was to make a Broadway show. Not going out of town was because of that, because, you know, if going out of town, you’re spending five million or more on that, that is not going to end up on stage. So it was a much bigger risk… but luckily our producers were willing to take the risk because they knew we needed to deliver on stage.”
Instead, the production evolved in real time during its 30 Broadway previews.
“We just worked our tails off in previews and luckily the best audience and the best learning curve we had is a New York Broadway audience. The show changed so much in those previews.”
For Arden, finding the right tonal balance became one of the production’s greatest creative challenges. “We needed tonally to be able to delve into the ridiculousness so that I think the vampires could actually be scary,” he said. “I think if we spent all evening just in scary vampire land, they might not be so scary. It’s about the metaphor of: you need the light in order to appreciate the dark and vice versa.”
What does he hope that audoence will take away? “I hope they are energized and want to engage with the people they are with,” he shared. “That they want to be reminded that, yes, because we are not vampires, our lives are but brief. And what do we do with that time? We reach out for the people we love, we engage, yes we argue, but we uplift each other.
“I want people to leave and stay up all night and talk about what we have in common and what we don’t have in common,” he said. “That’s my greatest hope.”
2026 Theater Fans’ Choice Awards – Live Stats
Best Revival of a Musical – Top 3
1.
Ragtime
38.8% of votes
2.
CATS: The Jellicle Ball
22.4% of votes
