What were they thinking?!?

One of the hats I wear is that of children's choir director at our church. Every year, in the spring, we put on a musical. This was my least favorite part of the position when I first started ten years ago, but it has become one of my favorites. Except for today. I'm trying to cast the musical so I can give parts out at rehearsal. This is always a slightly tricky business...balancing who would be best for a part without anyone feeling slighted. (It's not an audition choir, our main emphasis is enjoying making music together while internalizing some really great words and concepts.) This year, this dreaded task is even worse. I have 6 sixth graders, all of whom are dedicated, talented and enthusiastic, and really just three parts with any substance. So my question remains, "What were they thinking?" I have used other musicals by this same team which have had a goodly number of parts, both small and large. Sometimes I've even had to combine roles (oh happy day!) because there were too many parts to go around. But not this year. Now I ask you, if you are in the business of writing children's musicals, wouldn't it make sense to write for more rather than fewer children? Or at least make all the speaking parts equitably distributed? We're not talking scripts for Broadway, for Heaven's sake.