NYC Trip 2026 - Day 2, Part 3/The Lost Boys Musical

I am really excited to share this blog post because I loved this musical so much. We originally planned this whole trip around seeing "Just In Time" - which I also loved - but this musical ended up being a huge surprise for me. It is now in my top three favorite musicals (Hamilton and Phantom Of The Opera are in my top three as well). 

 

A few months before we went to NYC, Briana was chatting with me and Doug about Broadway (per usual) and brought up that there was a new musical coming up called "The Lost Boys." She thought it was about Peter Pan's Lost Boys. I looked it up and said - "Oh no - it is based on the 1987 movie about vampires." She was then very intrigued. We told her we needed to watch the movie together - and we did...

 

She really enjoyed it, and she and Doug started looking up some more info regarding the musical. They started watching some clips and then showed them to me. The clips looked really cool. The show was still only in previews when we decided we wanted to buy tickets for it. It was a bit of a risk, but we hoped it would be good...

 

Going in, the main thing I knew was Broadway veteran Shoshana Bean was in it (she plays Lucy) and that is who I wanted to see. Briana was doing all kinds of research on it before seeing it and she really wanted to see Ali Bourzgui (who plays David).

 

 The show was at 7pm. The Palace Theater was just a block from our hotel. You can't get any better than that.

 

Briana dressed for the occasion...

 

I did too...

We got in line right away...

 

The theater is huge and really pretty. We were third row center...

 

The stage is three stories tall and they use all of it...

 

The Pride Month playbill...

As soon as we walked into the theater though, Briana saw on the screens in the lobby of the theater that Shoshana Bean wasn't performing that night. Her first time ever calling out of this show (I found out later that she didn't perform the entire weekend). I was bummed. You have to understand - we are NOTORIOUS for getting understudies at the performances we see. Alex Brightman was a no show to Beetlejuice. We had the understudy for Hamilton in Hamilton, Orpheus in Hadestown, Elphaba in Wicked. It happens all the time to us. I will say every understudy we have seen has been terrific, but it is just kind of crazy. I was a bit upset about not getting to see Shoshana, but at least Ali was going to be there for Briana. And Delaney Westfall, Shoshana's understudy, was phenomenal that night. I just don't know how we always manage to miss main performers so often.  

 

The show started. It started with a super cool pre-credit scene (like in a movie) and then the theater went black, the music swelled and the large The Lost Boys sign rose from the bottom to the top of the stage. I knew at that moment, this musical was something different.

 

 Since I obviously couldn't film anything in the theater, here are a few performance clips to watch... 

 

 

 

The first half of the show was amazing. The number "The Secret Comes Out" right before intermission was phenomenal. Everyone was spectacuar - LJ Benet (Michael), Maria Wirries (Star), Benjamin Pajak (Sam). Ali Bourzgui was an absolute superstar - next level (he speaks similarly to Kiefer Sutherland in the movie). And that is why he won the Tony Award two nights later.

 

Intermission hit and we took some pictures with the sign...

 

While we were standing and chatting at intermission, a woman in a black leather jacket walked to the middle of the aisle, held up a playbill and stared at the stage. Doug noticed her right away and he said something to me and Bri about it. We turn around and she is having her picture taken from behind. I had no idea who she was. As she walked away, Briana said "She is one of The Rescues!" (Adrianne Gonzalez). The Rescues are the songwriters for the show." I would have snapped a photo of her from my angle if I had known at the time! So I checked on Instagram the next day and wouldn't you know it - D, B and I were on The Rescues' and Adrianne Gonzalez's Instagram pages...

 

 

 Then it was time for the second act. While the first act focused on Michael and the vampires, the second focused more on Sam and Lucy. The first act was darker and the second was a bit lighter and campier. The stage had hydraulic lifts, the vampires were flying on invisible wires and the lighting was insane. There was just so much going on - incredible. 

 I was so sad when the show ended because I enjoyed it that much.

 

Curtain calls...

 

 

I saw on social media that someone took some photos of the cast that night we were there...

 

 

I loved how supportive the cast was of Delaney when she took her bow. She was so happy...

 

The cast did their bows and then the theater went dark again. There was a fun post-credit scene! Such a pleasant surprise. 

 

 As we were leaving the theater, Briana was explaining that the post-credit scene had been pulled for a few performances, but people wanted it back, so they put it back. A girl walking out overheard us talking and said that she had been there for a performance without the post-credit scene. Bri asked her how many times she had seen the show. We were there on a Friday night. She said that upcoming Tuesday would be her THIRTEENTH time! And this is what I am seeing online. People going over and over and over again. It's insane!

 

It would have been cool to try to wait at the stage door after the show to see some of the cast, but it was already about six rows/people deep behind the railing when we exited the theater, so it would have been difficult for us to see anything. 

 

It was so great that Shoshana and Ali won Tony Awards on Sunday night...

The Lost Boys also won Tony's for best scenic design and lighting for a musical. Not surprised at all.

 

 Sunday evening, we passed by the Palace Theater and I asked Briana to pose for a few pictures (it was Tony award night at Rockefeller Center, so no one was around)...

 

A couple of weeks later, I saw online that two of the OG Lost Boys (Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland) went to see the show...

 

 I read that Kiefer saw some of the musical's creation and loved it so much, he became a producer of the show. Patrick Wilson is the lead producer.

 

There aren't many shows that I would say I would like to go back again and see, but I would see this one again in a heartbeat. If you are GenX and like musicals, 80s nostalgia and vampires, this show is for you. I will reveal that the grandpa and the young boy half-vampire were left out of the stage production, but honestly they weren't needed. The musical expanded a lot on the characters, but they did stay true to the movie for the most part. I was 13 years old in 1987, so this show brought back a lot of memories - of the 80s, not the vampires. What I find interesting is that a lot of young adults (Gen Z) seem to be really enjoying this show as well.

 

And I cannot wait until the cast album comes out! 

 

Here is a clip of the vampires flying...

  

Quickly, before the show - we did get dinner at Dos Caminos...

 

I am not someone who likes to eat dinner at 10pm at night, so we ate beforehand.

 

 So that is my "The Lost Boys" recap. I am a bit of a superfan now if you could tell. Heh.

 

 My next post...Day 3 - Staten Island Ferry, Chinatown and the Blue Fin.