Sweitzer's musical carries a strong message in favor of the work that the hospice movement does. As the hospice worker in the play explains when a student says that a hospice worker is someone who helps people who are dying: "actually, we help people who are still alive." It is a significant difference, and that difference and the respect for life that it reflects is the driving emotion behind this show. The message isn't delivered subtly and there are excursions that seem to serve only to stretch the play beyond its central story (the two songs for the parents of the boy's friends could well be jettisoned). Just what age the children are supposed to be is completely confusing, as the boy is starring in the school play of Jack and the Beanstalk while his closest friendship is with a girl who is trying out for cheer leader despite having a body that doesn't fit her contemporaries' ideal of sexy baton twirler. These two extra-curricular activities seem years apart in the normal progress of childhood.

Migliaccio brings her strengths of voice and personality to the part, creating a caring character with a blend of ditsy and imp that is appealing. Her songs are highlights, of course. Laster provides energy and punch as the drama teacher with the loudest plaid trousers seen off a golf course in decades. Page has the greatest challenge and she tackles it well. Her character starts the play already bedridden with a terminal illness and she deteriorates over the course of the evening, yet she needs to sing and manage some nice warm moments with her son. It is a good thing Sweitzer had a pro for the role. He could have used one for the corresponding role of the father, as well. As it is, Tim Griffin can't make much of the wooden character he has to play. The student performers aren't all from the Hill School. Indeed, only two of the eleven non-professionals are current Hill School students. One of them is William Smart, thirteen and talented, who pulls off the part of the son with an enthusiastic and sometimes touching performance .Then there's Griffin Bosserman-Sweitzer whose performance of a needy, nerdy kid is superb. Also impressive in an almost tiny role is a freshman from the Shenandoah Conservatory whose droll rendition of the oaf playing the giant in the school play is a delight.

The pit orchestra of two pianos, bass, cello and percussion plays uncommonly effective arrangements in support of the cast's rendition of the eighteen songs in the piece. Musical director Lisa Reagan also handles lead piano and supporting vocal duties. Jennifer Warren Baker has provided impressive charts, especially in the use of the cello to underscore dialogue as well as giving a sense of heft to the accompaniment to the vocals. There seemed to be a touch of woodwinds as well, although there's no credit for it and the band is draped so they are not visible to the audience.