How ‘The Lost Boys’ Director Michael Arden Conquered Broadway’s Fear Of Flying – Tony Watch

The flying comes early and thrillingly in The Lost Boys, the new Broadway musical nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical and, for Michael Arden, Best Direction of a Musical. Not to simplify this show to that one element, but the soaring and air-dancing is certainly the signature visual of what just might become Broadway’s first hit vampire musical in, well, ever. (Non-musical stage vampires have a better survival rate, if only because of two Draculas – Bela Lugosi and Frank Langella – back in ’27 and ’77.

Far from shying away from Broadway’s Vampire Curse, though, The Lost Boys goes for the jugular fast. The brief opening scene features a police officer checking out a reported disturbance at a creepy old abandoned steel factory. Even if you can guess what’s about to happen, the moment when the vampire swoops in from high above the stage and makes off with the victim is both creepy and, from a stagecraft perspective, quite lovely. That prologue sets the tone for what’s coming.

Stage flying is notoriously difficult. Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner, who knows about tangling with winged theatrical beings, once cautioned theater companies mounting his play, “It’s incredibly hard to make the flying work. Add a week to tech time.”

In this interview with Deadline, Arden, a two-time Tony winner most recently honored in 2025 for Best Direction of a Musical with Best Musical winner Maybe Happy Ending, talks about getting his vampires airborne, why it was important and much else about making a credible stage adaptation of the beloved 1987 horror-comedy film that made stars of Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Corey Haim and others.

Here, Arden also speaks about the story’s relevance today – the musical, among other things, brings out a queer undercurrent in one plotline that Hollywood in the 1980s couldn’t accomplish – as well as the disappointment of his other Broadway project this season, The Queen of Versailles. Popular, not popular, Tony nominated or Tony snubbed, they are both his theatrical children. Don’t expect him to choose a favorite.

The Lost Boys opened April 26 on Broadway at the Palace Theatre, with music and lyrics (Tony nominee) by The Rescues, a book (Tony nominee) by David Hornsby and Chris Hoch, choreography (Tony nominee) by Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant and music supervision (Tony nominee) by Ethan Popp. The musical is produced by James Carpinello, Marcus Chait, and Patrick Wilson, all actors making their Broadway debuts as producers. Scenic design is by Arden’s frequent collaborator Dane Laffrey (Tony nominee), costume design by Ryan Park (Tony nominee), lighting design (Tony nominee) by Arden and Jen Schriever, and sound design (Tony nominee) by Adam Fisher. The cast features Shoshana Bean (Tony nominee), LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui (Tony nominee), Benjamin Pajak, Maria Wirries, Paul Alexander Nolan, Jennifer Duka and Miguel Gil.

The official synopsis: “When Lucy and her teenage sons Michael and Sam move to town in desperate need of a fresh start, they soon uncover the darker side of this sunny coastal community. While Lucy tries to piece her family’s life back together, Michael keeps pulling away in search of belonging. As he finds connection with a local rock band and its charismatic leader, his younger brother Sam comes face-to-face with a startling reality: When night falls, Michael’s new friends are even more dangerous than they first appeared.”

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

DEADLINE: I want to jump right into this. How difficult was the flying? Tony Kushner, I think, way back when Angels In America opened [in the early 1990s] said production delays were mostly because of technical difficulties with the angel flying. Has the technology advanced to where you can have multiple vampires flying over the stage?

MICHAEL ARDEN: I think no, the technology is actually probably the same that Tony was battling with on Angels. We just really allowed ourselves a lot of time to do it. We first designed a kind of an abstract where our flying rig would be, where the tracks would go, and how they would interact with the set. And then we built a mock up version of that in a warehouse at the Foy headquarters in Vegas. Probably a year ago, we went to Vegas and started choreographing the sequences, and then we refined them in the computer system, and then built our entire fly rig in actual, exact scale up at SUNY Purchase this fall. We had our cast come up, and we worked on the flying there, and built the sequences kind of exactly, and then we gave ourselves another week in the [Palace] theater before tech started.

So it really took a long time. One, people flying through space takes a lot of training for the bodies. Then there’s how those people interact with the scenery and with each other, and making sure it’s safe. And then Three, just the artistic part of it, how we wanted it to go. And then the final piece was lighting it, which is incredibly complex and time consuming. So we worked more on the flying than anything because it really took a long time. But we knew it would. We really built that into our development process so that we could end up with what we have on stage right now.

DEADLINE: Are there some people who just can fly, like having a talent same as having a talent for dance? It must take a certain amount of athleticism, a certain ability to dance.

ARDEN: It was part of our audition process, actually. We worked with an incredible company called 5th Wall Studio that’s based in Brooklyn. They do a lot of flying, and had worked with our choreographers before, and they have a studio where they can put people in harnesses and teach them the basics of how to hold your body and how to spin when you’re facing the wrong direction. How to make it seem like you’re not just a sack of potatoes being pulled around on a string. And so that was part of the audition process. Everyone who would need to fly, we sent to Brooklyn. Just like we would do dance auditions, we had flying auditions. One, we had to make sure people weren’t afraid of heights. We had asked them in the auditions, but we had to make sure. And then Two was, How did they hold themselves in air? Did they have the coordination needed? How much work was it going to be? Luckily, everybody that we wanted for the parts passed with flying colors. No pun intended.

So they began training out there in Brooklyn. How to hold your body in the air, how to maneuver in space. How do you get your arms through wires without looking like you’re trying to get your arms through wires? How to turn yourself in midair. What happens if you go the wrong way? How do you course correct that? And how do you get in and out of the harnesses quickly without the audience seeing?

DEADLINE: How do you not get sick to your stomach? Vertigo would be my major concern, I think.

ARDEN: I think repetition is part of it. I think probably when they first started, it was a little queasy. But now they know what to do, and they love it.

DEADLINE: Walk me through how Lost Boys came to you, or how you went to Lost Boys.

ARDEN: I was contacted by my agent, and he said these three producers, all of whom I knew from their work as actors [James Carpinello, Marcus Chait, and Patrick Wilson], were going to be producing for the first time, and wanted to make a musical version of The Lost Boys. This was summer of 2021 and I had never seen the film, so I of course watched it, and thought, well, this is a crazy idea. How will you do this? There’s motorcycles and there’s flying and there’s all this stuff that seems very hard. And you know, vampire musicals don’t always work. But I think I like the youth and the sexiness of it, and the fact that it was an adventure comedy but also a horror thing and a coming-of-age story. I thought there might be an opportunity to make something that could really speak to many different people. And that’s something I always look for in the work that I want to approach. I wanted to reach as many people as possible, not just a select group.

And so we started working on it, and that’s when I suggested that this band that I was obsessed with, The Rescue, is right to score it. Luckily the producers heard their music and loved them and went with it. And here we are, five years later.

DEADLINE: You mentioned the Vampire Curse. So not only was there the flying to deal with but there was also this idea that Broadway audiences don’t seem to like vampires.

ARDEN: I sort of had to do a little, you know, scientific research, like, Okay, why haven’t vampire musicals worked? I was actually in the first reading of Lestat back in the day, one of my first jobs in New York, so I had a little first hand experience. And Chris Hoch, one of our book writers, was in Dracula, which I had seen. What struck me was that all of those shows were either like with dancing vampires and leaning completely into the campy silliness of it, or, with Lestat The Musical and Dracula The Musical, leaning completely into the seriousness of it. So I felt like, Okay, if we can do something that is both serious but also acknowledges the silliness of the fact that we’re doing a vampire musical, that might be the sweet spot. In our show, we do that. We have vampires who are incredibly serious and singing about incredibly serious themes. But then we also have, like, vampires dressed up like Count Chocula, you know, like we were able to laugh at ourselves and acknowledge the silliness, which I think actually helps the seriousness and vice versa.

DEADLINE: In terms of special effects, in terms of lighting, in terms of just how the horror genre can be presented on stage now, all of that seems to make it more convincing as a genre. I’m thinking of Stranger Things: The First Shadow and Harry Potter: The Cursed Child.

ARDEN: It’s funny that in the past two years, I’ve started to tackle science fiction [Maybe Happy Ending], documentary [The Queen of Versailles] and horror [The Lost Boys] on Broadway, which is never something I thought I would be doing in the musical sphere. I think more people want theater to be an event in a way that sort of lends itself to getting the blood flowing. They want to be able to leave their couches and see stories that they enjoy watching on stage. It’s not like we’re reinventing the wheel here, certainly with any technology in this show. We’re relying on sort of basic old theatrical techniques. There’s no video in The Lost Boys. It’s all incredibly practical. Look at something like Phantom of the Opera – we’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s just, I think the tools have sharpened a little bit, and I’m hoping that just means we’re bringing more people into the theater that might not have visited otherwise. Hopefully that makes them want to go see another Broadway show that might be something that isn’t horror.

DEADLINE: Does the audience openness to this kind of thing play into getting investors? It’s a tough market, and most big musicals aren’t making their money back. How do you go to people with money and say, I want to do a musical about robots falling in love or I want to do a vampire musical?

[Editor’s Note: At Rise Creative, the producing company of Arden and frequent collaborator/scenic designer Dane Laffrey raised millions of dollars for the reportedly $25 million The Lost Boys, with the company’s mission to produce “dynamic storytelling with an emphasis on design and innovative technologies.” Arden and Laffrey are the only creatives in the Broadway industry who direct, design, and produce, with three Tony Awards to date.]

ARDEN: I think anyone investing in theater has to acknowledge that it’s an incredibly high risk venture, and so they have to be willing to accept that, and realize that ultimately you have to be okay with acknowledging that your money might not come back to you, but that in that pursuit you’ve possibly created something that is incredibly meaningful to thousands of people even if it doesn’t run very long.

I think, in a way, theater producing nine times out of ten is charity. But also, I think, it’s people who want to be part of something that hasn’t been done before, and that becomes even a higher risk, but ultimately, hopefully, higher reward. You look at a show like Maybe Happy Ending that on paper sounds absolutely insane. You know, why would anyone want to give their hard earned money to that? But oftentimes the things that sound most preposterous on the page become the best musicals. Look at Hamilton. I mean, there’s not a long line of people that would want to throw money at that, but now it’s become one of the most successful pieces of art in history. It’s ultimately about trusting in artists that have vision and the teams they put together, and does the material speak to you? And do you believe that if it speaks to you, it might speak to other people along the way?

So it’s a real tightrope walk and a bit of a leap of faith to make theater right now. That’s why we see so many TV shows that are turning into musical or plays. They’re just saying things like, Okay, well, we know this works, so let’s try to create or recreate that on stage.

DEADLINE: But movie and TV stage adaptations are difficult to accomplish, and I think it’s fair to say, most don’t work either commercially or artistically. So how do you know what might work?

ARDEN: Certainly in the case of The Lost Boys, which is really my first film adaptation, or take Queen of Versailles which was loosely based on a documentary but also not, it’s ultimately that I need to make something for audiences who may not have seen the movie. I don’t want to make an experience where someone comes in and is like, oh, I didn’t see the movie, I don’t know what’s going on. So that’s like the first rule – this has to be for everyone, including someone who doesn’t know the story at all.

But the second thing I want to do is maintain the spirit of the film. With Lost Boys, I wanted to have the sexiness, the emotional palette, the adventure, the angst, you know, the vibe of it. So I’m finding the moments where we can really honor the greatest parts of the film. What are those tent pole moments? In Lost Boys [movie], it was the motorcycle race, the falling off the bridge, the dancing at the concert, the things that people really latch on to. Now I’m never gonna be able to recreate those, but I want to give audiences that same feeling they felt when they like watched the movie in those moments. None of those things that we pulled from the film really look like they did on screen, but hopefully they emotionally resemble them. There’s a bigger emotional demand when you come to the theater than when you go see a film. We come to the theater so that we can share space with strangers and share in something that actually changes our chemistry, our make-up, so when we leave we’re actually different people because we’ve shared oxygen and chemical particles and vibrations with other people in that space. There’s a responsibility [on creators] to make it a bit more epic emotionally for people, which is what we tried to do in Lost Boys by bringing out the human and family story. We’re kind of giving people a bit of a challenge on their way out to consider the families you build and how you might hold on to them a little more tightly.

DEADLINE: Two things that struck me in the musical that were elaborated on or shifted a bit from the movie were the inclusion of the rock band and, secondly the queer aspect with the character of Sam [played by Benjamin Pajak], which is only hinted in the movie maybe with the Rob Lowe poster in Sam’s bedroom. People on theater blogs are saying Sam’s big song, “Superpower,” sounds very much like your 2025 Tony acceptance speech. Was there any connection?

ARDEN: Oh, that’s interesting. There isn’t a connection. That was a song that The Rescues wrote. I remember hearing it for the first time. I was just so moved by it. But I think that is a sentiment that a lot of young people need to hear, to be reminded that the thing that sets you apart could very well be your greatest strength, your superpower. I just love that, and it so happens to fall in line with my worldview.

With Sam’s queerness, in my mind, it’s not a story about a kid realizing he’s gay, but more of a reclamation of the word queer. In the opening scene, Sam’s mom says, Oh, people around here are a little queer, but that’s okay, you’re a little queer too. And Sam sort of bristles at that, because he doesn’t want to be different. And then by the end, he sort of realizes that’s the thing that will save the day…I wanted that story to work on a couple levels. One, strictly adhering to the plot and what that meant to this character, like finally accepting his weirdness and actually being proud of it and not ashamed of it. And number two, for audiences in 2026 hearing the word queer and what that means to them and that might like empower and be meaningful to a young person, or an old person, needing to hear that. It just felt like an opportunity to empower people.

As for the band, I was like, okay, in the movie they’re a biker gang, but we can’t do a bunch of motorcycles riding around stage. That’s going to be hard. So what is the metaphor? Why is this a musical? And you know what? Of course it’s ‘Oh, man, the vampires should be a band.’ Music should be how they lure people in. When they sing “My Heart With You” in this beautiful a cappella sequence in the show, that is their spell, that is what makes them sexy to people. So early on I came up with the idea that, yeah, if this is a musical they should absolutely be a rock band. What’s sexier than that?

DEADLINE: You mentioned Versailles earlier. Just this season, you’ve had one show, Lost Boys, we can safely say seems to be a hit and one, Queen of Versailles, that was not. When you look back on this year, will you love both of your children equally?

ARDEN: When I think of Versailles, I’m so proud of that show and the work that every department did on it, from a design perspective, from what I think it was trying to articulate and interrogate about America, and in relation to French history. I think the actors were incredible. I do feel like it should have been recognized [in the Tony nominations], but I’m well aware that, ultimately, the Tony Awards are a commercial for Broadway, and that show isn’t running. It’s like, you’re not going to advertise a product that is now no longer on the shelf. So as much as we want it to all be about honoring the work, it is a calling card for commerce and to get people to come and see and support the product. So I’m not surprised that it wasn’t nominated. It was a New York Times critics pick, and a lot of people come up to me and say, I love that show, it meant so much to me. It was a shame that it didn’t get more of a shot than it did, but I’m still really, really proud of it, and proud of all the artists who worked on that show who have now been recognized for their work on The Lost Boys. Our choreographers. Our associate costume designer on Versailles – Ryan Park – became the costume designer on The Lost Boys and received his first Tony nomination. Dane’s work [on scenic design]. So it’s certainly bittersweet, but I think we all are really proud, certainly in retrospect, of the work, but wish some of the other artists had been recognized. So yes, you love all your kids. They all shine in different ways.

DEADLINE: Let’s talk about some of the things you have coming up. Happy Feet, and the Huck Finn sequel West.

ARDEN: West is loosely inspired by the [2017] novel Huck Out West by Robert Coover. It’s like a sequel to Huckleberry Finn which takes place, or it will in our version, in and around the Lakota wars with the United States in the late 1800s. Huck becomes involved and meets a Lakota Warrior, who kind of takes over the narrative. It’s a look at American history from several different vantage points, and interrogates how history is often told by the victor but true history needs to be told from every point of view. So I’m really, really excited by that, and working with Native writers on this project. Half the cast is Native American, and we’re doing a big reading in association with Center Theatre Group at the end of this month. This has been something that I’ve been developing and producing for the past couple years, and I’m really excited by it.

And then Happy Feet. I’m currently in a puppet and costume workshop for that right now, so I’m going to be heading there after I speak to you. I’m working with the incredible Basil Twist and Susan Hilferty and Dane Laffrey, on developing characters and working on puppetry and how that all integrates into the ice world of Antarctica. It’s really fun to move between all these worlds, like, Okay, I’ve been in this kind of black, scary void for months [with Lost Boys] and now I get to be in a white, ice world. It’s nice to have a real palette cleanser. So we’re going to be doing that in summer ’27.

West will probably be a few years from now. These things take forever. Hopefully we’ll be doing it out of town first in the next year or so. It’s a big undertaking, a complex, big, vast story.