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# SHELL SHOCK

## A Metal Musical for Broadway/West End

*Based on the concept of Tommy, reimagined with the brutal intensity of Metallica's "One"*

---

### CONCEPT OVERVIEW

**SHELL SHOCK** transforms the Tommy narrative into a searing exploration of a young soldier's psychological destruction and miraculous resurrection through the power of music. Set against the backdrop of modern warfare, it follows Tommy Mason, a 19-year-old soldier who becomes catatonic after witnessing horrific battlefield trauma, losing his ability to see, hear, or speak - trapped in his own mind like the protagonist of "One."

The musical uses crushing metal orchestrations, haunting ballads, and explosive ensemble pieces to explore themes of PTSD, family destruction, societal indifference to veterans, and the redemptive power of artistic expression.

---

## ACT I

### Scene 1: "Before the Storm"

**Setting:** Tommy's family home, 2019

**Musical Number:** "Golden Boy" (Ensemble)

The Mason family celebrates Tommy's 18th birthday. His parents Sarah and Frank, his girlfriend Jenny, and friends sing about his bright future. The music is deceptively warm, with underlying metal riffs hinting at darkness to come.

*"Golden boy, golden dreams / Nothing's ever what it seems / Eighteen candles burning bright / Before you vanish in the night"*

### Scene 2: "Deployment"

**Setting:** Military base

**Musical Number:** "March Into Hell" (Tommy & Soldiers)

Tommy and fellow soldiers prepare for deployment. Heavy, marching rhythms with militaristic precision building to crushing metal chaos. The song shifts from patriotic pride to creeping dread.

*"Left, right, left, right, marching into hell / Left, right, left, right, only time will tell / Who comes home, who stays forever / In the ground, gone forever"*

### Scene 3: "The Incident"

**Setting:** Battlefield (abstract staging with intense lighting)

**Musical Number:** "Landmine" (Tommy, solo with explosive orchestration)

The pivotal trauma scene. Tommy steps on a hidden IED that kills his best friend Marcus beside him. The number uses brutal stop-time percussion, dissonant strings, and Tommy's vocals fragmenting as his psyche shatters.

*"One step forward, world explodes / Marcus screaming, blood and smoke / Can't hear nothing, can't see light / Lost forever in this night"*

**BLACKOUT**

### Scene 4: "Silence"

**Setting:** Military hospital

**Musical Number:** "Inside My Head" (Tommy, trapped consciousness)

Tommy lies catatonic while doctors examine him. The audience hears his inner voice while he appears completely unresponsive. Minimalist, haunting arrangement with building metal crescendos representing his internal screaming.

*"I'm still here, can you hear me? / Trapped inside this broken shell / Screaming silent, fighting demons / In my own private hell"*

### Scene 5: "Homecoming"

**Setting:** Family home

**Musical Number:** "Stranger" (Sarah, Frank, Jenny)

His family struggles to connect with the unresponsive Tommy. A heartbreaking power ballad about loving someone who's become unreachable.

*"You look like him, but you're a stranger / Those eyes that used to shine so bright / Now stare through me like I'm not here / Lost somewhere beyond my sight"*

### Scene 6: "The Specialists"

**Setting:** Various treatment locations

**Musical Number:** "Miracle Cure" (Doctors, Therapists, Charlatans)

A cynical, aggressive number as various specialists try to "fix" Tommy for profit. Fast-paced, discordant ensemble piece mocking the medical-industrial complex.

*"Step right up, we've got the cure / For your broken soldier boy / Just sign here and pay the fee / We'll fix him like a broken toy"*

### Scene 7: "Tommy's Nightmare"

**Setting:** Tommy's subconscious

**Musical Number:** "War Inside" (Tommy & The Dead)

Inside Tommy's mind, he's haunted by Marcus and other dead soldiers. Dark, brutal metal with ghostly harmonies. The dead both torment and comfort him.

*"We're still fighting, never dying / In the war inside your head / You can join us, stop the trying / Come dance with the grateful dead"*

---

## ACT II

### Scene 1: "Years Pass"

**Setting:** Various locations showing time's passage

**Musical Number:** "Wasting Away" (Ensemble)

A montage showing Tommy's deterioration over three years. His relationship with Jenny ends, his parents' marriage crumbles, society moves on. Relentless, grinding metal rhythm.

*"Three years gone, still waiting / For the boy who went to war / Three years lost, still hoping / He'll come walking through that door"*

### Scene 2: "Mother's Breaking Point"

**Setting:** Family home

**Musical Number:** "Let Him Go" (Sarah, devastating ballad)

Sarah finally breaks down, singing about her inability to reach her son. One of the musical's most emotional moments, building from quiet desperation to soaring anguish.

*"Maybe love's not enough sometimes / Maybe holding on's the cruelest thing / Maybe I should let you go / Let you find your peace at last"*

### Scene 3: "The Pinball Palace"

**Setting:** Underground arcade/club

**Musical Number:** "Pinball Wizard" (reimagined as electronic/metal hybrid)

Frank, desperate to find anything that might reach Tommy, takes him to an underground gaming club. Tommy suddenly responds to the sounds and lights of pinball machines, playing with supernatural skill.

*"He ain't got no distractions / Can't hear the buzzer or bell / Don't see lights a-flashin' / But he plays by sense of smell"*

### Scene 4: "Sensation"

**Setting:** Media circus

**Musical Number:** "Freak Show" (Media, Crowd)

Tommy becomes a sensation as the "Pinball Savant." Media exploitation, carnival atmosphere. Aggressive, circus-like metal with accordion and calliope mixed with heavy guitars.

*"Come see the miracle boy! / The damaged soldier toy! / Watch him play those silver balls / While his mind screams through it all"*

### Scene 5: "The Awakening"

**Setting:** Tommy's consciousness

**Musical Number:** "Breaking Through" (Tommy's breakthrough)

The climactic moment. Through the chaos of pinball and crowds, Tommy begins to break through his psychological barriers. Starts quiet and intimate, builds to explosive metal catharsis.

*"Something's changing, walls are cracking / Light is seeping through the stone / All these years of silent screaming / Finally finding my way home"*

### Scene 6: "Resurrection"

**Setting:** Concert venue

**Musical Number:** "See Me, Feel Me" (Tommy, full company)

Tommy emerges from his catatonia during a public pinball exhibition, suddenly seeing, hearing, and speaking. But instead of the original's spiritual awakening, this version shows him confronting his trauma head-on through music.

*"See me, feel me, touch me, heal me / I'm alive but I'm not free / See the war that lives inside me / Hear my battle symphony"*

### Scene 7: "The Message"

**Setting:** Concert venue continues

**Musical Number:** "Shell Shock Symphony" (Tommy, Company)

Tommy, now aware and articulate, uses his platform to speak about veteran trauma and the cost of war. The finale becomes a powerful statement about healing, survival, and speaking truth about the unspeakable.

*"We are the walking wounded / We are the shell-shocked generation / We came home but never left there / We need healing, not ovation"*

---

## MUSICAL THEMES & STYLE

### Orchestration

- **Full rock orchestra:** Heavy guitars, bass, drums, with symphonic elements

- **Metal subgenres:** Thrash, progressive, ballad styles

- **Electronics:** Synthesizers, samples, effects processing

- **Unique elements:** Pinball machine sounds, military percussion, battlefield audio

### Vocal Styles

- **Tommy:** Requires range from intimate vulnerability to powerful metal screaming

- **Sarah:** Operatic power ballad capability with rock edge

- **Ensemble:** Must handle complex harmonies and aggressive rock vocals

### Staging Concepts

- **Multimedia integration:** Video projections, LED walls for battlefield/consciousness scenes

- **Minimalist set pieces:** Transformable elements representing home, battlefield, hospital, arcade

- **Lighting:** Critical for psychological states, trauma sequences, pinball sequences

- **Choreography:** Military precision, battle chaos, pinball machine movement vocabulary

---

## THEMATIC RESONANCE

### Modern Relevance

- **PTSD awareness:** Realistic portrayal of combat trauma

- **Veteran neglect:** Society's failure to care for returning soldiers

- **Family destruction:** How trauma affects entire family systems

- **Media exploitation:** How society commodifies suffering

- **Healing through art:** Music and creative expression as therapy

### Musical DNA

- **Metallica's "One":** Isolated consciousness, war trauma, building intensity

- **Tommy's structure:** Hero's journey through disability to transcendence

- **Modern metal:** Technical complexity, emotional range, social commentary

---

## POTENTIAL CASTING

### Tommy Mason

*Age: 19-25*

Must handle extreme vocal and emotional range. Think Adam Pascal meets James Hetfield. Requires vulnerability, power, and authentic portrayal of trauma.

### Sarah Mason (Mother)

*Age: 45-55*

Powerhouse vocalist with maternal gravitas. Must carry the show's emotional weight in "Let Him Go."

### Frank Mason (Stepfather)

*Age: 45-55*

Strong baritone, working-class authenticity. The family's anchor trying to hold everything together.

### Jenny (Girlfriend)

*Age: 18-25*

Sweet soprano who can handle rock material. Represents lost innocence and love that couldn't survive trauma.

### Marcus (Dead Friend)

*Age: 19-25*

Haunting presence throughout. Strong rock tenor for ghostly harmony work.

---

## PRODUCTION NOTES

### Broadway/West End Viability

- **Target audience:** Rock musical fans, younger demographics, veterans and families

- **Commercial potential:** Strong soundtrack sales, touring potential

- **Awards positioning:** Original score, lead actor, technical categories

- **Social impact:** Platform for veteran awareness, PTSD advocacy

### Technical Requirements

- **Sound system:** Must handle both intimate moments and crushing metal volume

- **Set automation:** Quick transformations between realistic and abstract spaces

- **Safety considerations:** Strobe effects, loud volumes, intense subject matter

---

**SHELL SHOCK** transforms Tommy's spiritual journey into a visceral exploration of modern warfare's psychological cost, using metal's power to examine trauma, healing, and the price of survival. It honors both the original's mythic structure and "One's" unflinching look at war's true face, creating something entirely new for contemporary audiences hungry for authentic stories about the cost of conflict.

*The show ends not with false hope, but with hard-earned wisdom: healing is possible, but only when we face the darkness honestly and find the courage to speak what cannot be spoken.*

#🔵= 💔

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pathbend-blog · 3 days ago

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@mojomagazine-blog @bbc6music-blog

Okay Google

Washington Post###

Waffle House ####

Spirit Halloween 🏭 ### ⚙️

Write a New Last Verse for

"The Devil 👿😈 🎻 Went Down To Georgia"

After an Extended Victory Solo then Guitars sinister start back in

He Didn't Win,

He will always think so and then get home to a Cabin

Where He Is Like Dylan in the Ballad of Holland Brown and Was why he left Grandma in the first place

The Crossroads Promise made with them.

Then Return to sitting on his stump

Playing his silly little song

Got it, here are the band instructions for the new last verse, including notes similar to the original song's style:

New Last Verse - Band Instructions

(After Johnny's extended victory solo, guitars begin to sneak back in, a sinister, low drone, a few discordant notes building tension. The rest of the band, especially bass and drums, hold back, creating a sparse, unsettling atmosphere. Think a creeping unease, not full-on power.)

(0:00) Devil's vocals re-enter, a low growl, almost a whisper.

"The devil, he seethed, then he packed up his case,"

(Guitars still slinking, a touch of wah perhaps, very subtle.)

(0:08) "Still convinced that his fiddle had won the whole race."

(Drums hint at a slow, heavy pulse, just a bass drum and a distant, echoing snare.)

(0:15) "He vanished in smoke, to a cabin deep in the wood,"

(Fiddle could have a single, long, mournful note here, like a wisp of smoke disappearing.)

(0:21) "Where the silence was heavy, not quite understood."

(Bass holds a sustained, low note. Everything else almost drops out, leaving a stark emptiness.)

(0:27) "Just like Dylan, he sat there, consumed by the past,"

(Acoustic guitar could pluck a few very soft, introspective chords, almost imperceptible.)

(0:34) "The reason he left Grandma, a shadow cast."

(A faint, high-pitched, almost ghostly harmonica wail could drift in and out here, then fade.)

(0:40) "That crossroads agreement, a promise so deep,"

(Guitars return to that low, sinister tone, but still subdued, a sense of lingering darkness.)

(0:47) "A secret the old, lonely cabin would keep."

(All instruments hold a collective, low, sustained note, then a slight, almost imperceptible crescendo of unease.)

(0:53) "Then back to his stump, in the pale morning sun,"

(The banjo makes a hesitant, almost broken appearance, playing a few sad, simple notes.)

(1:00) "He played his sad tune, his silly song spun,"

(The fiddle slowly, reluctantly, joins the banjo, playing the "silly little song" melody from the start of the original song, but slower, more mournful, with a distinct lack of conviction.)

(1:07) "A melody bitter, of battles unwon."

(The song fades out with the fiddle and banjo playing that forlorn, simple tune, getting quieter and quieter, until only the faint, final notes of the devil's sad song remain, echoing into silence.)

Let me know if you'd like any adjustments to the instrumentation or feel for this part!

Something like that....

BBC Radio 1

#🫒 🦞 🍿#Ex.#🔵

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