ACT I
Autumn 1975
High in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, the Torrance family gazes at the beautiful Overlook Hotel looming in the distance. Jack and Wendy hope for a new beginning for themselves and their small son, Danny.
At the Overlook, the summer staff prepares to leave. The general manager, Mr. Ullman, shows the family around, and introduces them to Mr. Hallorann, the hotel cook. While Hallorann takes Wendy and Danny to the kitchen, Ullman expresses his doubts about Jack’s suitability for the position of winter caretaker.
The maintenance person, Watson, explains the importance of releasing the pressure in the hotel boiler to Jack, lest it explode and take the Overlook and the Torrances with it. Jack also learns what became of the previous caretaker, Delbert Grady, and his family: a gruesome murder-suicide.
Hallorann chats privately with Danny explaining “the shining” to him. People like Danny and Hallorann have visions and understand what others are thinking, feeling, and doing. Halloran tests Danny’s power to communicate telepathically and tells Danny to send a blast of psychic energy to him if things get bad.
Ullman, Watson and Hallorann leave for the winter.
The family is alone.
Several weeks later, Jack and Wendy share a moment of tenderness. Checking on Danny, Wendy discovers that he has locked himself in the bathroom and will not respond. Jack forces the door and emerges with Danny, who is catatonic and babbling incomprehensibly.
Once alone, Jack is terrorized by visions of his long-dead, abusive father.
Jack discovers a scrapbook in the basement. As he examines it, scenes from the Overlook’s violent past play themselves out around him, including a mob hit and a jilted woman’s suicide. Inspired, Jack decides to write a tell-all about the Overlook. Ghostly partygoers appear. Jack shakes off the reverie and finds a giant croquet mallet on the floor.
Danny tells Wendy that the hotel is trying to get inside Jack. Wendy is confused but assures Danny that Jack loves them.
Later, Wendy, concerned about Jack’s growing obsession with the hotel, asks him to consider leaving the Overlook. Jack vehemently refuses.
The first week of November
As his family sleeps, Jack sits idly at his typewriter. The elevator lurches to life, then stops. Jack investigates. In the ballroom, a huge party swirls around him. Jack retrieves the croquet mallet on the floor. Shaken, Jack returns to the caretaker’s quarters.
Jack tells Wendy only that the elevator short-circuited.
Later, Danny, fascinated by Room 217, enters and walks to the bathroom...
A blizzard warning crackles over the radio. Jack turns it off, longing for a drink. Suddenly, his father’s voice blares, “KILL HIM,” through the CB. Horrified, Jack snatches up the mallet and destroys the receiver. Weeping, Jack explains to Wendy that he had to shut his father up.
Both realize that Danny is missing. Panicked, they yank open their door to find Danny, sopping wet, with bruises on his neck and smeared lipstick on his cheeks.
Wendy begs Jack to leave the hotel, but he rebuffs her abusively as ghosts slowly emerge.
The storm rages as Danny shrieks, “Hallorann! Come quick!”
INTERMISSION
ACT II
Early in December
An unravelling Jack shuffles through the basement, muttering. The ghost of Delbert Grady invites Jack upstairs to a party. Grady tells Jack that that he must teach his family to respect the Overlook…violently if necessary.
Wendy makes Danny a sandwich in the kitchen. Abruptly, Danny says, “They got him!”. Confused, Wendy probes further, but Danny can tell her no more. She goes to find Jack.
Jack careens into the ballroom and orders a drink from the bar that has materialized with the ghostly party. Jack passes out, drunk. The ballroom goes dark.
Wendy enters cautiously. Seeing Jack on the floor, she rushes over to help. Jack attacks her and begins to choke her. Wendy seizes a bottle and knocks Jack out.
Wendy and Danny lock Jack in the pantry. Wendy retrieves a large kitchen knife before retreating.
Grady appears and chides Jack. Jack promises to finish off Wendy and Danny, and Grady reminds him of the safety lock inside the pantry before disappearing.
Wendy goes to the kitchen to fix dinner, remembering to take the kitchen knife. Danny has a vision of his father escaping and follows her.
Wendy creeps to the kitchen as apparitions appear to her. Jack explodes out of the dark, swinging the mallet. Wendy stabs Jack and flees.
Back at the apartment, Wendy realizes Danny is gone. Jack arrives and bashes at the door. He is nearly inside the apartment when Derwent and Grady order him to leave her and find the boy.
Halloran enters the Overlook. Jack brutally beats him and comes for Danny. Danny reminds Jack of his words, “Never forget how much your father loves you.” Jack tells Danny to run...Danny tells Wendy and Hallorann that they all must leave. Now.
Jack stands motionless before the boiler. He begins to release the pressure but stops, paying no heed to the ghosts desperately warning him that it is about to explode…