It’s been a long-standing Broadway tradition that vampire musicals, well… suck. But here comes The Lost Boys to defy that bit of gravity. The musical version of Joel Schumacher’s 1987 horror movie favorite sunk its teeth into Broadway on Sunday night as the last major production to take its opening night bows during the 2025-26 season. And these teen vamps emerged from the shadows just in time — nominations for the 2026 Tony Awards are announced one week from now on May 5.
But even before its opening, The Lost Boys drew first blood when it comes to Tony precursors. The musical received a dominant 11 nominations from the Outer Critics Circle earlier this week, the most of any production. That’s evidence that the Sinners effect could very well propel the show to great heights at the Tonys, putting a stake through the idea that vampire blockbusters can’t also win statuettes.
Certainly, in terms of sheer stage spectacle, there’s nothing quite like The Lost Boys in Tony contention this season. Director Michael Arden and his creative team have embraced elaborate set design and staging techniques that make full horizontal and vertical use of the cavernous stage at Manhattan’s Palace Theatre. When Gold Derby attended a recent performance, the audience audibly gasped at some of the mega-budgeted show’s wild special effects and flights of fancy, including a recreation of the movie’s signature train bridge scene, as well as the climactic home invasion that ends with multiple vampire slayings.
But the musical also has its big, beating heart in the right place, framing the story around a family that’s looking for a new place to call home, and two brothers (LJ Benet and Benjamin Pajak) trying to be the best, most authentic versions of themselves. Much like The Outsiders — which won Best Musical two years ago — The Lost Boys rides a rocket of youthful energy generated by its fresh-faced cast and the propulsive rock anthems written by The Rescues. It’s a big, earnest and only-slightly apologetically goofy musical that vampire fans will be fang-ful for.
But how do Broadway critics feel about these Lost Boys? Here’s a sampling of the reviews.
It sparkles
Count Deadline’s Greg Evans as a believer. “It’s killer fun,” he writes of the show, crediting the cast and creative team for reversing the vampire musical curse brought about by such failed productions as Dance of the Vampires and Lestat. “Yes, it has much to do with advances in stage craft and tech, from the jump-scare-friendly improvements in sound design to special effects. “But there also seems to be a certain fearlessness going on, or at least a lack of inhibition (maybe a lack of embarrassment even?) in live-action genre storytelling. The Lost Boys… goes for broke in embracing the admittedly loonier side of their chiller-thriller adventures. Carrie The Musical they are not.”
Entertainment Weekly‘s Dalton Ross is ready to join this bloodsucking coven as well. “What is awaiting audiences is a massive spectacle with tinges of both horror and humor, yet wrapped in a whole lot of heart,” he writes. “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.”
Over in Vulture, Sarah Holden enthuses: “The creative team hasn’t forgotten that what they’re adapting is a Joel Schumacher film. We should 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. …But there’s a whole let happening in it that’s also delightful.
“Did I, whatever the issues of The Lost Boys, also have a pretty great time?” Holden concludes. “Well. Is a vampire a pain in the neck?”
It sucks
But The Wrap’s Robert Hofler didn’t feel his heart taking flight as The Lost Boys unfolded. “Michael Arden directs The Lost Boys as if it were an obstacle course I would not wish on any contestant of Wipeout,” he japes. “Even the Met Opera hasn’t used this many elevators to facilitate scene changes. Much scarier than the vampires is that set: will somebody fall into an elevator shaft, be crushed by a descending living room? Dane Laffrey’s scenic design can best be described in two words, ‘dangerous’ and humongous.’
“The Lost Boys doesn’t know what it wants to be: a shocker, a tear-jerker or a parody,” Hofler adds. “We’re supposed to find the vampire gang frightening, but at one point Arden sends Ronald Reagan, dressed up as Dracula, across the stage.”
And in amNY, Matt Windman curses Broadway for not learning from its history with vampire shows. “When I was in college, three vampire musicals crashed and burned on Broadway in quick succession,” he writes. “If anything, “The Lost Boys” is worse than all of them.
“The original film was never especially good, but it survives as a piece of 1980s kitschy teen fluff,” Windman continues. “On stage, that thin material is inflated into a large-scale production that never justifies itself as a musical. …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.”
People‘s Dave Quinn delivers the final blow, writing: “Spectacle can only carry a musical so far. …Nearly every number arrives at the same emotional temperature: loud, intense and sung at full blast. There are highlights… but too few songs vary the texture of the evening.
“In its rush to keep momentum high, the musical often takes narrative shortcuts that leave characters underdeveloped,” Quinn concludes. “The result is a show that loses its center just when the stakes should be sharpening.”
