See ‘When Love Takes Over’ Thursday through Saturday in Vail

VAIL — It’s spring, and in the spring, young people’s fancies turn to love, or something like it.

“When Love Takes Over,” Vail Mountain School’s latest production, features the pursuit of love in the 1980s, which means you get bonus points for breaking out your Day-Glo, acid washed jeans and leg warmers. You get even more bonus points if you wear them to the show, which would mortify your kids, but most kids end up talking to either counselors or each other, and our job is to give them something to talk about.

The 90-minute revue features 16 1980s hits, include “Africa” by Toto, “Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, the B-52’s “Love Shack” and “Take on Me” by Aha.

“It was the kids’ idea,” said Greg Jones, Vail Mountain School’s theater director. “I want this to look like an ’80s concert.”

Jones wrote the segues, moving the show along crisply.

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“In a revue, you just have to get from one song to another. It’s about the singing, dancing and acting,” Jones said.

Like most great works, the show has a plot that holds it together, weaving through the music and dance.

THREE DAYS

The story is about three days in the lives of middle and high school students in the ’80s as they learn about different aspects of love: True love, unrequited love, puppy love, family love … there are lots of kinds of love — sort of like the Eskimos and snowflakes.

Anyway, the kids discover that love is not always about a fairy tale happy ending, but the emotional journey.

In other words, love’s not a destination, it’s a trip.

Among the characters are five girls named Heather, an alpha male athlete named Jake, an awkward eighth-grade couple and a German foreign exchange student arbitrarily dropped in the middle of it all. They are supervised by their teacher, Ms. Monsoon, and guidance counselor, Mr. Wagon. His first name is Charles, but of course everyone calls him Chuck.

It’s a cast of 40 and it features the opportunity to do some of their most ambitious work, Jones said.

VMS has several dancers among its student body, kids who participate in some high-level ballet schools, including the Vail Youth Ballet Company. They have five of the members dancing in the show.

“They leave school and go there, and they don’t necessarily get the recognition that they should,” Jones said. “This is an opportunity for them to share their talent with the community.”

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