Broadway's Lost Boys Set Designer Creates Soaring Marvel

When your actors need to play flying vampires on Broadway, you can't just build a flat stage and call it a day.

Dane Laffrey embraced that challenge with open arms. The Tony-winning scenic designer just opened The Lost Boys at Broadway's Palace Theatre, and audiences are gasping at what he's created.

The musical, based on the 1980s vampire movie, demanded something extraordinary. Laffrey needed to design a seedy arcade, a crumbling boardwalk, a sunken mosh pit, a towering railroad trestle, and an underground vampire lair complete with a working elevator.

And he needed all of it to fit in one theater space and transform seamlessly throughout the show.

The Palace Theatre is one of Broadway's biggest houses, giving Laffrey room to think vertically. His designs don't just sit on stage—they soar upward and sink downward, creating multiple performance levels for the acrobatic cast.

The set pieces move like a giant Rubik's Cube, sliding into place at precisely the right moments. Sometimes they give actors towering platforms for action sequences. Other times they clear away completely so performers can take flight.

Laffrey brings decades of experience to this challenge. His previous work includes the 360-degree Caribbean setting for Once on This Island's 2017 revival and the futuristic South Korea of Maybe Happy Ending in 2024.

Why This Inspires

Theater magic happens when creative teams refuse to accept limitations. Laffrey didn't see flying vampires as an impossible obstacle—he saw them as an invitation to reimagine what a stage could do.

His work proves that the best solutions come from embracing constraints rather than fighting them. The three-dimensional thinking required for aerial performances pushed him to create something more dynamic than a traditional set could ever be.

Theater artists like Laffrey remind us that "impossible" often just means "not done yet." When faced with a wild creative demand, they find a way to make it real.

Every night at the Palace Theatre, that Rubik's Cube of platforms and levels clicks into place on cue. The audience holds its breath, the vampires fly, and the set transforms again into something new.

Broadway continues proving that human creativity and technical skill can bring any vision to life.