Event

Shady Manor--The Musical

As a benefit for the University Mound Ladies Home,
Shady Manor is musical about a nursing home that is on the verge of collapse. Shady Manor uses twenty-two songs to reveal the inner voices of the characters and to explain their motivations. The songs substitute as "dialogue" for certain residents who would otherwise be silent due to their isolation and infirmities. The story line is about a nursing home run by an ambitious and corrupt administrator trying to make Shady Manor show a profit so he can get promoted by his corporate higher-ups. To make a profit he cuts corners on supplies and under-staffs, causing misery for the residents. We focus through Betty Lane, State Police, who has gone undercover as a newly hired nurse's aide to ferret out evidence of fraud and corruption. The audience follows along with Betty as she meets the staff and residents and is oriented to the jobs she is expected to perform. Using a "new hire" is a vehicle for having dialogue with the staff about their feelings towards the residents and the work. We also see tensions between individuals receiving government benefits and those paying privately as they vie for Shady Manor's limited resources. In short, this is a story about a nursing home on a trajectory that leads inexorably to tragedy.