The story, penned by Julie Shanebrook and directed by Charlie Bowman and Janet Sarkos, travels along the lines of the movie "Slumdog Millionare" where we follow Wesftield High School senior Abigale Rhoades (played Lani Lipkind) as she is a contestant on the popular game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." Abigale’s motivation is to raise enough money, one million dollars to be exact, to save a cash-strapped Mindowaskan Park from being sold to a unscrupulous gated condominium developer, Clint Sauvage (pronounced "so-VODGE" although more often than not his name is relegated to "Sausage" as one of the show’s many gags). Unbeknownst to Abby and her supportive family, Sauvage (Joshua Wein) has made a deal with the producers of Millionaire to give them first look at the new properties should they make it so that Abby does not win the game.

Throughout the show, as the questions become more difficult to match the higher stakes, Abby defies the producers’ attempts to throw her off her game with threats and accusations of foul play by answering question after question correctly. Her secret? She has a steel trap memory and, as such, flashes back to life experiences when she was a younger girl (played by writer Shanebrook) to find the answer. In the end she foils Sauvage’s and his nefarious game show accomplices’ plans by winning the million dollars and saving the park.

The show featured some notable performances from Jonathan Fishman, playing the exuberant if agitated game show host, Mark Parmelee and Ralph Venturino as the scheming producers, Rich Elbert as the Mayor who breaks the bad news of the park’s destiny with the bull dozers, skeptical reporter played by Kip Brindle, with Sean Riley, Eric Lipkind, Bill Fallon, and Silvia Stark playing Abigale’s family, Thea McDevitt, Tony Cook, Lucy Biegler, and Jackie Samuels-Jaffe as her supportive friends, wedding dancers Cynthia and Anthony Katsingris, and Pat Coleman as a pool lifeguard with an impressive knowledge of Newtonian physics.

In keeping with tradition, "Believe" contains all the elements that have become the hallmark of the show. The "Hiya Muck/Hiya Myer" call was audible. The couples dance was woven into a wedding scene quite smoothly and of course no Washington School musical would be complete without the iconic men’s number…danced to Beyonce’s "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)."

Along the way to a gratifying finale, the audience was treated to flashbacks of Abby’s life as both a vehicle to answer the questions and to introduce different musical aspects of the production. The chorus, lead by Ellen Devin and Shannon Terry, was in full force treating us to numbers drawn from such varied sources as the musicals Wicked and Glee, to the Beatles, Abba, Chicago, and Katrina And The Waves. As always, the dance troup led by Colleen Meacock and Jill Spellman were visual delights and demonstrations of athletic prowess grooving and shaking to such numbers as "Another One Bites The Dust," "Fire Burning: Call 9-1-1," "Thriller," and "Round Round." Solo singing performances included Giulietta Albano’s spot on rendition of "Mambo Italiano." The traditional teachers number, featuring the faculty of Washington School and led by its principal, Dr. Andrew Perry, was its usual hit with the students in the crowd as they got down to "Rock Me Amadeus." The last number was an homage to the "Slumdog" film itself with the entire cast on stage doing the Jai Ho dance.

Behind the scenes, the unsung and hard-working stage crew, set designers, lighting, and make-up people under the management of George Sarkos provided a seamless and glitch-free production. And the "C(lark) Street Band" led from the orchestra pit by piano-playing "Professor" Mitch Slater provided a rock and roll edge as well as standard accompaniment with rousing renditions of Michael Jackson’s "Billy Jean" to open the show and Bruce Spingsteen’s "Sandy" and "10th Avenue Freeze Out" during intermission – featuring several recent alumni singing on stage. As a bonus, the musicians also jammed to a sax and electric guitar duet that shook the rafters during the number "Bad To The Bone."

In all, "Believe" offered just the right blend of a story that children could follow easily while keeping the adults in the audience suitably entertained. When one watches these performances, it is truly hard to believe that these are just parents in the school district who have day jobs far from the stage. That every year, these people of differing professions, backgrounds and experiences come together and volunteer large swaths of their free time to literally make a script come alive within a month, is remarkable.

The Washington School Show is really more than just a fundraiser. It is a way for adults to do something good for their children and impress upon them by example the joys of the arts and free expression, while forming bonds of friendship and mutual understanding that simply would never develop in the normal course of day-to-day suburban living. It is a unique Westfield phenomenon. And so we can hardly wait for next year!