Plot
A narrator introduces the audience to shadowy Denton TV executive Farley Flavors, who has lived his life "fast" but still feels incomplete without a certain woman - who belongs to someone else. As Flavors watches, his television studio - which now encompasses the entire town of Denton - is steadily filled with the former residents of Denton, who gleefully assume their new roles as studio audience members of a 24 hour live television broadcast ("Overture"). The sole holdout in the celebration is Brad Majors (Cliff De Young), who, despite the insistence of his wife Janet (Jessica Harper), that things will be OK, is ambivalent about the town's transformation. Once the audience is seated, they are greeted by a welcoming committee, who inform the audience-- and viewers on television-- of Denton's supposed virtues ("Denton, U.S.A.").
Brad and Janet are chosen as contestants on "Marriage Maze", a supposed game show whose only purpose seems to be committing people to "Dentonvale", Denton's resident insane asylum. Janet is given the opportunity to have Brad committed by the show's host, a supposedly blind Austrian named Bert Schnick (Barry Humphries), who promises her that the experience will improve their marriage. Janet and Brad lament the state of their relationship, with Janet ultimately deciding to have Brad sent to Dentonvale ("Bitchin' in the Kitchen").
Upon arriving at Dentonvale, Brad and Janet are greeted by the staff: Nurse Ansalong (Nell Campbell), Rest Home Ricky (Rik Mayall), and Dentonvale's supervisors, the apparently incestuous siblings Dr. Cosmo and Nation McKinley (Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn). Despite Brad's objections, Cosmo has him drugged, bound, gagged, and placed in a padded cell known as the "Terminal Ward". Before Janet can sign the papers permitting the McKinleys to treat Brad, Ansalong tells her to wait a day, to give her time to make up her mind. Meanwhile, Janet's parents, Harry (Manning Redwood) and Emily (Darlene Johnson), are brought onto Marriage Maze and promised a prize if they offer a psychological assessment of Brad. Deciding that he's regressing into childhood, the Weisses are awarded a vacation home on another of DTV's programs. Janet goes to meet them there and laments Brad's lack of assertiveness, wishing he could see that she still loves him instead of giving into the doldrums of marriage ("In My Own Way"). Harry chastises Janet for marrying Brad, an orphan whose parents died in a car crash, rather than other boys from more stable home backgrounds. Janet tells her father that the boy he'd wanted her to marry turned out to be gay, prompting Harry to proclaim the virtues of traditional American masculinity (Thank God I'm a Man).
Meanwhile, the McKinleys are informed that financing for their show has been taken over by Flavors' own personal company, a fast food enterprise which Farley hopes to use to finance a pop psychology movement, using a new TV program, "Faith Factory", as the platform and the McKinleys as his mouthpieces. The reluctant McKinleys are quickly taken in by a persuasive videotaped pitch, and on Farley's orders, they recruit Janet to be the face of Farley's "Sanity For Today" movement, as he believes she is the perfect example of the girl next door ("Farley's Song"). Janet moves into Dentonvale with the McKinleys and Bert Shnick, with the promise that her new life as an exciting model will make her desirable to Brad again ("Lullaby"). Meanwhile, Judge Wright and Betty Hapschatt (Charles Gray and Ruby Wax), two DTV hosts sympathetic to Brad, look into the histories of Farley and the McKinleys, suspecting that there is a sinister motive behind "Faith Factory".
The next day, after Nation catches a fully sighted Bert spying on Janet in the shower, Cosmo strokes Janet's ego and designs a sexy new outfit for her, transforming her into "Miss Mental Health" ("Little Black Dress"). DTV manufactures Janet into an overnight sensation, and the newfound fame goes to Janet's head, causing her to forget about repairing her marriage with Brad ("Me of Me"). Janet, her parents, and Bert go to visit Brad at Dentonvale, where the Weisses question whether the McKinleys can really help him. The Dentonvale Staff assure everyone of their competency, "curing" Bert's blindness to demonstrate their abilities ("Shock Treatment"). Janet and her parents are completely sucked in, but Janet's ego becomes difficult for the McKinleys to control. To keep her manageable, they drug her, resulting in a dream sequence in which she patrols Denton looking for sex while Brad begs her for love ("Looking for Trade").
As the premier of "Faith Factory" nears, Bert, the Dentonvale Staff, and the Weisses prepare for their new TV roles; meanwhile, Betty hacks into DTV's computer and learns that the McKinleys are in fact character actors and that "Dentonvale" isn't a real hospital ("Look What I Did to My Id"). "Faith Factory" goes on the air, opening with a live musical performance by Janet's groupies, a punk band called Oscar Drill and the Bits ("Breaking Out"). Using the performance as a cover, Judge Wright and Betty break Brad out of Dentonvale, telling him that they've learned Farley is his biological brother, who was split from him during the adoption process and grew up poor; now Farley wants to destroy Brad's life out of jealousy, and is planning to seduce Janet on national TV as the last part of his plan.
Brad, Wright, and Betty break through the wall of the "Faith Factory" set, and Brad confronts Farley about his plan ("Duel Duet"). Farley demands Brad be remanded to the hospital, but Janet, snapped out of her ego-trip, informs him that she never signed the consent forms. Angry, Farley has Brad, Janet, Wright, and Betty arrested, and hastily names DTV host Macy Struthers (Wendy Raeback) as the new "Miss Mental Health". His psychology program ready to go, Farley invites the studio audience to join in, to which they readily agree-- they are all summarily handed straight jackets, which they happily don. Betty uses a hairpin to pick the lock on her, Brad, Janet and the Judge's holding cell, and the foursome resolves to leave Denton behind. With the help of Oscar Drill and the Bits, they hotwire a car that was meant to be a prize on "Faith Factory" and drive away, as Farley and the Dentonvale staff celebrate having just committed the entire town of Denton to the terminal ward ("Anyhow Anyhow"/"Denton, U.S.A. (Reprise)").
Read more about this topic: Shock Treatment
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