*Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie!
Anjali O’Brien ’30
Guest Writer
The Lost Boys has taken Broadway by storm, earning twelve Tony nominations, winning four, and gathering a devoted fanbase in just the short time it has been open. Yet, there are critics who believe there never should have been an adaptation, and the original film should have remained untouched. However, I believe that the songs give many characters much more depth and context added in the musical helps us understand the characters even more, especially Michael, Lucy, and Star.
Let’s start with the changes made to Michael and Lucy Emerson. In the movie, we see that the Emersons have left Phoenix, Arizona after a divorce, and that there may be more to the story, but it does not heavily impact the main plot. Meanwhile, in the musical, we learn that Michael’s father was abusive. Eventually, things got very physical, as shown in the numbers “Secret Comes Out” and “You Belong to Me,” and they had to run away one morning.
In the film Michael’s struggles come across as a teenage rebellion, “just a phase.” In the musical, with the context of what happened before they left Phoenix, Michael yearns for somewhere to belong. As shown in the number “Lose Yourself,” Michael wants to get lost in the “big black hole” that is the Santa Carla boardwalk. While originally Michael is turned into a half-vampire because he is just following along, in the musical, he truly just wants to “Belong to Someone” and finds a connection with the Lost Boys that he never felt with his own family.
While she’s an important character in the movie, Lucy never really stood out to me as having that much depth past being the mother of two teenagers and trying to deal with a life-changing move. In the musical, Lucy’s songs give us more insight into her spinning emotions. “The Good Part” in Act One showcases her optimism about the new life they could have in Santa Carla and how she wants to leave the past behind. “Wild” is her showstopper in Act Two, expressing how she lost herself for so long and wishes she could go back to being as “wild” as she was in her youth. Her final solo, “Michael,” a ballad sure to bring everyone to tears, conveys her regrets over how Michael had to grow up too fast and she couldn’t protect him. She thinks that he no longer trusts her, because she allowed him to be hurt for so long. Michael and Lucy are able to come together in the end, when Lucy kills the head vampire in order to protect her sons, following through on her promise of “No More Monsters” both in the literal and metaphorical sense. The character development packs more of a punch because of the backstory that viewers are shown, and we see that Lucy has grown even in the few weeks since leaving Phoenix, and that she will no longer be pushed around by anyone, or let anyone hurt her sons.
Shifting gears, Star is another character who gains so much in the musical adaptation. In the film, Star is treated as many female characters were in the media at the time. She was a love interest, a damsel in distress for Michael to save. She is still Michael’s love interest in the musical but she is also so much more. Star’s internal conflict is introduced early on with “Hurt a Little,” where she tries to warn Michael that she and the Lost Boys are bad news and he should run away. Star has been hurt in the past, and that leads her to see the darker sides of everything, and especially after being stuck as a half-vampire, she does not see much good in the world at all. Her powerful number in the second act is where we really see her development. “War” displays all of her pain and anger towards the world’s unfairness and all of the lives lost to the whims of others. In the staging, she becomes surrounded by all of the characters killed by the vampires, and all of the people that she feels responsible for, despite having no part in their deaths. Star in the movie always seemed to me like a wispy girl dancing on the boardwalk, waiting to be saved, while the musical makes her more grounded.
This musical dives deeper into the characters with the help of the electric soundtrack and is honestly one of the best performances and stories that I have ever seen. To anyone who claims that it dishonors the original, I would have to strongly disagree, because the musical actually made me love the movie more than I ever would have on its own.
Copy edited by Eliza Martin ‘29
Featured image courtesy of The Lost Boys
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