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Check into ‘Hollywood Hotel’

You'll recognize Carmine Ragusa, Shirley Feeney, Laverne DeFazio, all part of the Vail Mountain School spring production, Hollywood Hotel. The musical runs Thursday through Saturday at VMS.
Vail Mountain School |

If You Go ...

What: “Hollywood Hotel,” Vail Mountain School’s spring production.

When: 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 10, through Saturday, March 12.

Where: Vail Mountain School, 3000 Booth Falls Road, Vail.

Cost: $15

More information: Buy tickets at http://www.vms.edu/tickets or at the door.

VAIL — Vail Mountain School’s spring production will take you to Fantasy Island for a visit with some of your favorite television characters.

“Hollywood Hotel” runs today through Saturday in Vail Mountain School’s Peter Abuisi Theater.

The show, written by Greg Jones, director of the Vail Mountain School theater department, weaves together television characters from the 1960s through the 1980s and puts them on Fantasy Island, complete with a pair of brothers playing Mr. Roarke and Tatoo.



Because necessity is still the mother of invention, and because Jones had 42 kids, he created 46 parts.

“Every kid has some air time,” Jones said.

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A creative throwback

Because these are kids, they didn’t grow up with those shows and have never heard of most these characters. Research ensued.

“Because they are too young to know any of these shows, so they had to go to YouTube and watch them all,” Jones said. “That was part of their assignment for their class.”

The kids deliver the lines sincerely, and the crowd gets how funny it is, even if the kids don’t always.

The show centers on a bizarre love triangle involving Marsha and Jan Brady and Alex P. Keaton, the Michael J. Fox character from “Family Ties.” Then there’s Laverne and Shirley, Morticia … the list is long and illustrious.

There are funny moments and mashups and some poignant stuff. At the heart of it, Jan is struggling with what it’s like to be a middle child in middle school.

You’ll recognize characters from “The Brady Bunch, “Family Ties,” “Laverne & Shirley,” “The Addams Family,” “Facts of Life,” “Gilligan’s Island,” “Happy Days” and “The Golden Girls.”

As you recall, Mr. Roarke and Tattoo were in the business of granting their guests’ wishes, but usually not as the guests expected.

Everyone checks into the Hollywood Hotel, which is accessible only by plane on Fantasy Island.

Morticia, matriarch of the Addams family, struggles with what it means to be a good mother. Teenagers, being teenagers, plod awkwardly in search of true love.

The show did not start as a musical but evolved into one.

For example, Jan Brady attempts to woo Alex P. Keaton with a Taylor Swift song. Then there are the six young men singing “More Than a Woman,” by the Bee Gees, and a Billy Joel oldie.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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