Ali Louis Bourzgui is soaring on the Broadway stage.
After taking on Orpheus in “Hadestown” last summer, the actor is originating the role of David in “The Lost Boys,” a musical adaptation of the 1980s cult movie. Bourzgui stars as the vampire frontman of Cali-beach rock band the Lost Boys, portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the film.
“ I could tell that this was going to be something that brought the cinema world of L.A. over to New York, and blur the line between what makes a movie and what makes a theater piece,” says Bourzgui of the new musical, which features an extensive set design and special effects including aerial stunts. “The show knew what it wanted to be very early on, and everyone that’s working on the creative team is at the top of their game right now.”
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Bourzgui, who’s nominated for a Critics Circle award for outstanding featured performer, has been with the production from the beginning, participating in a developmental workshop for the musical last winter.
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“I’ve really been able to help build this thing from the ground up and figure out what this character is,” he says. “When I joined, the character of David was kind of similar to the movie, where there wasn’t that much of him, and we didn’t get to see that much of him, or even hear from him a lot. I got to help make him into a more three-dimensional person — even though he is a vampire,” he adds. “You care for him, even though he’s our villain.”
The spectacle of the Broadway show wasn’t yet tangible in those early readings. The scene where they ride motorcycles across the stage? “Our motorcycles were our music stands; we were shaking them back and forth,” says Bourzgui. “Instead of flying, we were literally just running around the stage. So it’s fun to see how those things have progressed with real theater magic.”
The production staging makes extensive use of aerial stunts as characters soar through the space above the stage; at one point, the band of vampires descend from the fly loft head-first toward the stage.
“My favorite part of any production is what I get to learn from it, or some challenge that I don’t know how to overcome,” he says. “For this one, I had a fear of heights, and I had to completely overcome that,” he adds. “Some of my highest notes I’m singing while I’m in the air.” While he was still starring in “Hadestown,” Bourzgui and the “Lost Boys” cast began training for the show’s aerial movement at a studio in Brooklyn.
But theatrics aside, it was the show’s music, rooted in rock and punk aesthetics, that resonated most strongly with him. David’s song “Have to Have You” reminded him of some of his favorite bands growing up, from Green Day to the Arctic Monkeys.
Bourzgui drew inspiration for his version of vampire David from iconic ’80s performances, from David Bowie in “Labyrinth” to Billy Idol, who was “ kind of giving sex god performances on stage,” says Bourzgui, showing off the vinyl copy of Idol’s album “Rebel Yell” that he cues up before each curtain call. “Taking a bunch of different performances that I find inspirational, and melding that into one person,” he adds.
While he wanted to avoid the character feeling like a Sutherland impression, he took note of the actor’s approach to the character in the original film.
“I watched the movie a lot and studied what I thought made the character the character,” says Bourzgui; a few days later, he’ll wear a replica Kiefer’s earring from the movie for the musical’s opening night. “[David] has time to kill. He’s patient because he’s immortal. Every moment is not that big of a deal to him, so there’s this boredom about him that is kind of passive-suave,” he continues. “And when something excites him, it really excites him. So he’ll go from this numbness to being really intense and not blinking and locked onto something, like a predator. And I thought that was so engaging. It makes you lean into him.”
Bourzgui compares their “The Lost Boys” to “Spring Awakening,” another coming-of-age teen-centric rock musical. “‘Spring Awakening’ was the show that got me obsessed with musical theater,” he says. “And I was always jealous that I couldn’t be part of that group of young people making something new and groundbreaking in theater.”
The 26-year-old actor grew up in the Berkshires in Massachusetts, surrounded by the area’s vast cultural offerings, including the Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theater Festival, and Shakespeare & Company. He started doing theater when he was 10, and was bolstered by the support of his teachers and parents.
“I just always knew from the moment I found it, that was my place,” he says of gravitating toward the stage. “Once I found it, I was like, this is it.” He went on to study musical theater in college, and after graduation in 2021 was cast in the national tour of “The Band’s Visit.” Soon after, he made his Broadway debut as the lead in the revival of rock musical “The Who’s Tommy.”
“ I practice a lot of gratitude every morning,” says Bourzgui. “I’m not blind to the fact that it’s pretty rare to have this at my age. And it didn’t come from nothing — it came from a lot of people taking a chance on me, and a real tapestry of people in my life who supported me and pushed me to be like, ‘you have to do this,’ when a lot of times I even doubted myself.”