Last year, Michael Arden turned a musical about two robots into a Tony Award winner for best musical. This year, he’s taking on vampires.
The Tony-winning director is at the helm of “The Lost Boys,” a pricey stage adaptation of the 1987 cult-classic film. With 12 Tony nominations, including two for Arden himself (as a director and shared lighting design credit), the production has emerged as a frontrunner in several technical categories and become one of Broadway’s most talked-about new shows. But it’s also an expensive gamble, with a reported budget of $25 million. After all, the track record of shows based on vampires is truly frightening with everything from “Dracula, the Musical” to “Lestat” failing to draw crowds. Can “The Lost Boys” break the curse?
“You have to tune out the noise and listen to how people react in the theater,” Arden says.
A lot may depend on how “The Lost Boys” fares at Sunday’s Tony Awards, where it will compete for best musical alongside “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York,” “Titanique,” and “Schmigadoon!”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
