B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: The Lost Boys, Beaches, Fallen Angels, The Adding Machine

Two musicals based on films from the late 1980s are among the plethora of openings as the 2025-26 New York theater season comes to a close—one is a surprise hit (The Lost Boys), the other a disappointment (Beaches). In addition, there are two plays from the 1920s (Fallen Angels and The Adding Machine) representing very different dramatic sensibilities, but both with their merits.

LJ Benet and Ali Louis Bourzgui in
The Lost Boys.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

The Lost Boys had a lot going against before it premiered at the Palace. Broadway has had three previous vampire-themed tuners in recent memory—Dance of the Vampires, Lestat and Dracula. Each one deserved a stake through the heart and vanished into their graves after brief runs. But this latest venture into the horror genre is a genuinely scary, popcorn-crunching, Broadway equivalent of a hit summer movie. I was prepared to despise the show based on past bad bloodsucker experiences (I saw all three of the aforementioned bombs) and an overload of alienated-teen movies and TV shows, but I wound up loving The Lost Boys.

David Hornsby and Chris Hoch’s solid book adheres closely to Joel Schumacher’s cult 1987 film which spawned two direct-to-DVD sequels. One supporting character has been changed from a boy to a girl, a kindly grandpa is now deceased and resides in an urn of ashes, and another character’s possibly being gay is more explicitly addressed. But the main thrust of horror remains. Divorced mom Lucy Emerson (beautifully belting Shoshana Bean) and her two teen sons (properly sullen LJ Benet and spunky and funny Benjamin Pajak) relocate to her California beachside hometown to escape an abusive husband. Searching for community and attention, rebellious older offspring Michael falls in with with a punk rock band who just happen to be card-carrying members of the undead (led by charismatic, sexy Ali Louis Bourgui). 

LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui and cast in
The Lost Boys.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

The librettists find room for character development and nuance while maintaining a humorous edge. The family and the vampires are not just sources for jokes or screams, but credible people—within the fantasy context. Even the vampires have motivations for their bloodcurdling actions. The powerful rock score by The Rescues (Kyler England, Adrianne “AG” Gonzalez and Gabriel Mann) delineates and expresses emotions without descending to cliche. The group is also responsible for the gorgeous harmonies in their vocal arrangements and effective orchestrations along with Ethan Popp. Kudos to Adam Fisher whose sound design allows this to be one of the rare rock scores where the lyrics are intelligible throughout. 

Michael Arden’s impressive direction makes full use of Dane Laffrey’s massive set, incorporating the full depth and height of the Palace stage. Two-story houses, creepy lairs, beachside boardwalks, treacherous train trestles fly in, out, up and down as do the demonic rockers thanks to the aerial design by Gwyneth Larsen and Billy Mulholland and aerial choreography by Lauren Yatango-Grant and Christopher Cree-Grant. Arden also stages several ingenious fantasy sequences with chorus members dressed as movie stereotypes of vampires and superheroes (the amusing costumes are by Ryan Park) zooming in and out of the background. There’s also an exciting, realistic motorcycle race. Arden is a magician, pulling impressive rabbit after rabbit out of his directorial hat, along with special effects designer Markus Maurette.

LJ Benet makes an impressive Broadway debut as Michael, investing this distraught kid with a desperation for affection and a father figure, even one with fangs. In addition to those already mentioned, Maria Wirries impresses as Michael’s love interest, Paul Alexander Nolan finds the humor in the mother’s stuffy boss, and Miguel Gil and Jennifer Duka are charming, goofy sidekicks hunting for vampires. Lost Boys is worth a bite.

The Lost Boys succeeds because it’s not slavishly devoted to its source material. On the other hand, Beaches attempts to recapture the weepy melodrama and show-biz pizzazz of the 1988 film starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, but fails to raise above pale imitation. The limited run feels like a marketing ploy in order for future tours to be able to say this mediocre property was, in fact, on Broadway.

Kelli Barrett and Jessica Vosk in
Beaches.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

The lazy book by Iris Rainer Dart (based on her novel) and Thom Thomas features easy gags based on children cursing, rich people being snobby, bohemian actors perpetually getting stoned and the ladies room being empty in a gay bar. What a laugh riot. Not. The sad parts are just as by-the-numbers: best friends quarrel over a man and divergent lifestyles, one gets cancer, and who will end up adopting her sad little girl? The songs by rock legend Mike Stoller (half of Leiber and Stoller) with lyrics by Dart are serviceable but rely too heavily on earlier, similar show and movie tunes. The staging by Lonny Price and Matt Cowart thankfully moves the proceedings along smoothly.  

Jessica Volk, a Broadway veteran with many replacement credits, finally originates a leading role with the Midler part. She displays impressive singing chops and comic timing, but she still comes across as a stand-in for the Divine Miss M. Only in one or two numbers does she approach Midler’s unique brand of campy fabulousness. Kelli Barrett is attractive and vocally gifted in the Hershey role of the less flashy friend who winds up tragically dying young, but leaves little deep impression. 

Samantha Schwartz and Zeya Grace are cute as hell and perform proficiently as the kid versions of the heroines featured in flashbacks, but it became gradually more difficult to understand their dialogue and lyrics with each of their too frequent appearances. The small cast doubles and triples in a variety of roles and only Zurin Villanueva stands out with panache as a talent-free summer stock actress and a compassionate hospice worker. Unfortunately, Beaches is at low tide.

Kelli O'Hara, Mark Consuelos, and 
Rose Byrne in Fallen Angels.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Roundabout Theatre Company is also offering a blast from the past dealing with feuding female besties and the results are delightfully different than Beaches. Noel Coward’s 1925 frothy comedy Fallen Angels has not been seen on Broadway for 60 years, perhaps because this slight bauble lacks the strong structure of Coward’s more popular works like Present Laughter, Private Lives, Blithe Spirit and Hay Fever. The frivolous plot concerns London wives and neighbors Julia and Jane, both slightly bored with their conventional husbands. They each receive messages that a mutual former lover, a dashing Frenchman, is coming to town while their spouses are away on a golfing weekend. Torn between passion and fidelity, Julia and Jane panic and plot, fearing they will not be able to control themselves when confronted with their previous amour.

Director Scott Ellis eliminates the intermissions of this three-act farce and inserts loads of slapstick and pratfalls, delivering a silly, intoxicating cocktail that will go right to your funny bone instead of your head. Kelli O’Hara and Rose Byrne display an unexpected side of their considerable talents, falling over furniture, getting progressively drunker during a brilliantly staged dinner, and finally frantically covering up their suspicious behavior to their early-arriving hubbies (Aasif Mandvi and Christopher Fitzgerald, delightfully befuddled). Mark Consuelos of daytime TV fame is irresistibly magnetic as the old flame and Tracee Chimo is joviality itself as an overly cheerful maid. The set by David Rockwell and costumes by Jeff Mahshie are art deco dreams in this deletable Coward confection.

   

Jennifer Tilly and Daphne Rubin-Vega
in The Adding Machine.
Credit: Monique Carboni

The New Group opens its new permanent home at St. Clements Church with a polar-opposite production from the same era as Coward’s. Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine opened on Broadway in 1923, running only two months. (A musical adaptation played off-Broadway in 2008.) But the Expressionist fantasy influenced Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill with its broad non-representation style and psychological depth. Mr. Zero is an everyman schlub trapped in a suffocating job and marriage who murders his boss after being replaced by the titular piece of office machinery. His woes don’t stop with ta visit to the electric chair, but continue in the hereafter as his bourgeois values force him to reject eternal bliss in favor of endless drudgery beyond the grave.  

Scott Elliott’s riveting new production emphasizes the irony and humor in Rice’s dark vision of a soul-crushing society. He creates several imaginative pieces of staging employing a four-person cast to play dozens of roles. Well, only one actor plays more than one part. Daphne Rubin-Vega crosses gender lines to play Mr. Zero, effectively capturing his frustrations and smallness of soul. Jennifer Tilly is riotously funny as his magpie wife and Sarita Choudhury passionately expresses the broken heart of his lovesick office mate. Michael Cyril Creighton brilliantly enacts “Everybody Else” from an ominous narrator (an addition by playwright Thomas Bradshaw) to Zero’s oblivious boss to a room full of chattering dinner guests, each with his or her own quirks.

In a program note, Bradshaw explains the revisions he has made to Rice’s original: “I’ve attempted to provide clarity for a modern audience while working to maintain the original’s style, tone and time period.” His contribution seems to be mainly speeches for the narrator in order to deliver context, but these are largely unnecessary. Rice was showing us what he meant. Bradshaw does not need to tell us. Otherwise, this Machine adds up to a searing indictment of a world which puts profits above people. It’s just as relevant today as it was 100 years ago.

 

The Lost Boys: Opened April 26 for an open run. Palace Theater, 160 W. 47th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 45 mins. including intermission. broadwaydirect.com.

Beaches: April 22—Sept. 6. Majestic Theater, 245 W. 44th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 30 mins. including intermission. telecharge.com.

Fallen Angels: April 19—June 7. Roundabout Theater Company at the Todd Haimes Theater, 227 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. roundabouttheater.org.

The Adding Machine: April 14—May 17. The New Group at Theater at St. Clements Church, 423 W. 46th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 15 mins. including intermission. thenewgroup.org.