Why Shoshana Bean almost said no to Broadway's The Lost Boys

It’s about six minutes past our scheduled time to talk, and Shoshana Bean still isn’t in the video call. I don’t mind waiting because the show she’s in, The Lost Boys, directed by Tony Award-winning director Michael Arden, is in rehearsals a few days before previews begin. “I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting, baby,” she says hurriedly but warmly. “I decided to throw a pizza party for the cast, and I was waiting for the delivery driver outside, but he wasn’t there. It was a mess.”

I assured her it was no issue whatsoever, and I let her catch her breath before asking my questions. The Tony-nominated actress is wearing a white sweater and glasses as she props her phone up on the table she’s sitting at in her dressing room of the Palace Theatre, the Broadway home for the upcoming musical based on the 1987 comedy-horror cult classic of the same name. The story centers around a mother named Lucy (played by Bean) and her two teenage sons who move to a new town and encounter a group of teenage vampires. In addition to Arden’s direction, the book was written by David Hornsby and Chris Hoch, with music by the pop-rock band The Rescues — a score Bean couldn’t contain her excitement about.

Bean was reluctant about playing a mom again after she’d just played one in the Alicia Keys jukebox musical Hell’s Kitchen, for which she’d received a Tony nomination. “I get scared sometimes that women of a certain age are diminished or dismissed into only being a certain type of role,” Bean tells Out. “My fear is that, as I age up, I'm going to age out of meaty, exciting, dangerous roles.”

Shoshana Bean attends the 77th Annual Tony Awards in New York City, where she was nominated for her role in 'Hell\u2019s Kitchen' Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

She was approached to play Lucy after Caissie Levy dropped out in November due to familial commitments. “They sent the material over and really, truly, on paper, it just didn't feel like the next right move for me,” Bean explains. “I didn't want to be a mom again. I just put an album out, and I wanted to tour it and focus on my music, but in digging into the material, and looking at the givens beyond the immediate perception… I’m so glad I said yes.”

It took her a bit to warm up to the idea, but Bean started looking at all the pros of doing this show: the three lead producers on the project are all actors (Patrick Wilson, James Carpinello, and Marcus Chait), which she says makes for a different experience. She’s also known Arden for over 20 years and looked forward to having a chance to work with him. And after hearing the music and seeing some of the actors perform, it became the easiest yes for her.

Bean is no stranger to playing a complex character on stage. She’s taken on the role of Jenna in Waitress, a pregnant diner employee who explores an exciting fling with her doctor. In Hell's Kitchen, she played Jersey, the mother of a young teen named Ali (the semi-autobiographical version of Alicia Keys). And now in The Lost Boys, she's taken on Lucy, a divorced mom of two teenage boys. There are similarities between all three of these characters, however, Bean says her current role has been the toughest character to connect with.

“I've had the hardest time finding where she and I intersect and overlap, which my goal is totally figuring out who they are, seeing how different we are, and then finding the ways that we intersect,” she says. “Lucy, like most of my women thought life was going to go a very different way than it did, and is now like most of the women that I've played, dealing with the hand she was dealt. She’s navigating how to play those cards and how to make the absolute best of that for her children and for herself, if she can, if there's any scraps left over.”

One way that her current role diverges from the women she’s played in the past is that she gets to investigate playing a character trying to do everything for her kids and making all sorts of sacrifices — while at the same time, trying to find moments of joy for herself. “One of the songs I’ve been gifted goes, ‘Can I be wild and messy and free and still be a fucking good mom?’” The song explores her desire to figure out how her sons can be her world and find the piece of her life that is just for her.

While Bean may not have children of her own, she sees her own desires in wanting to balance being a Broadway star, singing other people’s music (which she loves) and a recording artist, singing her own songs. The powerhouse vocalist recently released her fourth studio album, Only Smoke, back in November and recently performed a duet of her song “Let Me Believe” with P!nk on The Kelly Clarkson Show at the beginning of the month.

For now, Bean will be taking those vocal acrobatics to Broadway and sharing Lucy with the world in this new musical. “I want people to know that if they think this is just a vampire musical, it’s not,” she says as we wrap up our call and she gets ready to get back into rehearsals. “It’s about brotherhood and family, and — fuck, the music is just so good! It’s just unlike anything you’ve ever seen.”

Take a first look at The Lost Boys in the photos ahead. And catch the musical, now in previews, at the Palace Theatre on Broadway. Learn more at lostboysmucial.com.

LJ Benet and Maria Wirries in The Lost BoysMatthew Murphy

LJ Benet and Maria Wirries in The Lost BoysMatthew Murphy

Dean Maupin, LJ Benet, Brian Flores, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Sean Grandillo in The Lost BoysMatthew Murphy

Dean Maupin, LJ Benet, Brian Flores, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Sean Grandillo in The Lost BoysMatthew Murphy