Leg warmers, side ponytails and stone-washed jeans will return to Powell High School this weekend.

Theatre students will present “Back to the 80s: The Totally Awesome Musical,” a play featuring music, fashion and cultural references from the decade.

“The ’80s were all about being loud and fun, which I think this musical captures beautifully,” said Garrett Musso, a PHS theatre student who plays the character Feargal.

The musical begins at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the PHS Auditorium.

Musso described it as an “all-too-relatable comedy” that follows the story of high school senior Corey Palmer (played by Cody Akin) as he tries to get the girl of his dreams: Tiffany Houston (played by Rachel Wurzel).

Popular ’80s songs in the musical include “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” “Centerfold” and more.

While the music is before their time, PHS teens have enjoyed learning the popular songs.

“What I’ve discovered is that they like ’80s music,” said Bob Hunt, the play’s director.

PHS students were born in the late 1990s and early 2000s — but some of the teens’ parents grew up in the 1980s.

Hunt had to sometimes explain the ’80s references and jokes to the teens.

For adults who attended high school in the 1980s, “the play kind of reminds me of ‘Grease’ for our era,” Hunt said.

In choosing the play, Hunt said he wanted to capitalize on some commonalities kids have with their parents, as both age groups appreciate ’80s music.

“I think people will enjoy the play because it is familiar music to most every generation,” Wurzel said. “I think it will be a night of tapping toes and laughter.”

Akin agreed that the musical is fun for all ages.

“We have something for every age group — the parents, the children, aunts, uncles, grandparents. It just works for everyone,” he said.

Students have enjoyed learning their parts for the play, which is the first musical for PHS since 2013.

“It’s just been a blast — the cast is a great group of people,” Wurzel said, adding it’s been fun to see them develop their characters. “I also really enjoyed the choreography and music of this play.”

John Miller is the vocal director for the musical and Maddi Van Epps is the play’s assistant director.

Liz Losoff, a former cheerleader for the Denver Broncos, is the choreographer.

Losoff did her student teaching in Powell, and Hunt said the PHS Theatre Club is lucky that she’s involved with the play.

“Liz also has experience teaching various forms of dance,” Hunt said. “Her involvement with the play was a major factor in my decision to do a show with so much dance.”

Miles Rumbolz, who plays the character Michael and has been involved with previous PHS theatre productions, said it’s really coming together and Losoff choreographed great dances. 

“Before we just did little jigs and stuff, and now we have full-out dances,” he said. “It’s a real riot.”

As they’ve learned the dance moves and lines, PHS theatre students also have enjoyed finding out more about the 1980s. Eliana Karhu, who plays Eileen, said kids then thought they were the future.

“At the time, all the technology that we think is lame or old-school was the coolest thing in the world to them,” she said.

Musso said he’s found “that all the same things that motivate us today motivated the kids back then, but in a different way.

“We call them Generation X for a reason and that reason is because they weren’t afraid to be their own person,” he said.

The musical “Back to the 80s” was written by Neil Gooding and was originally staged in Sydney, Australia in 2004. It has since become a popular show for school productions.

Tickets for the musical are $6 and $5 for students, sold at the PHS front office or at the door on Friday and Saturday nights.