Michael Arden has had, undoubtedly, the most interesting past 12 months of anyone in the theater industry. In June 2025, he won his second Tony Award for Best Director in three years for his work on Maybe Happy Ending, which crowned him as one of the great young talents in an industry that desperately needs young talent. By late summer, Maybe Happy Ending’s narrative had curdled. The show came under intense criticism from fans and Broadway actors for casting a white actor, Andrew Barth Feldman, in a role that was originally played by Darren Criss. A few months later, Arden opened his newest musical, Queen of Versailles, starring Kristin Chenoweth with music by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. Despite being created by a dream team, the musical was an unmitigated flop that our critic Sara Holdren referred to as “a two-hour-and-40-minute luxury-car crash.”
Instead of taking time off to lick his wounds, by the time Versailles had closed in December, Arden was already in the process of putting together his next project: a musical adaptation of Joel Schumacher’s 1987 teen-vampire flick The Lost Boys. The musical, which was the last show to open this season, is a spectacle with a scope unseen on Broadway in recent years. Harkening back to the Cameron Mackintosh–produced projects of the ’80s (Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, etc.), nearly every number includes a major set piece of some kind. The story follows a mother named Lucy Emerson (Shoshana Bean) and her two boys, the despondent elder brother Michael (L.J. Benet) and the younger, quirkier Sam (Benjamin Pajak), who move to a fictional town called Santa Carla to escape their abusive father. It turns out the town is crawling with vampires, led by David (Ali Louis Bourzgui), who attempt to recruit Michael. The vampires fly with shocking agility and hang upside down; there is a queer superhero number featuring an ensemble in rainbow costumes; Bean belts while being spun around a playground roundabout. It’s all so much. For many, in a world where musical theater is an increasingly risky business financially, the spectacle is ultimately thrilling. And the Tonys agreed: This week, the show scored the most nominations of any show this year (tied with Schmigadoon!), including one for Arden as Best Director.
