Laura and Lucy
Broken Pieces is based on the real-life experience of composer Laura Lineback and her mother, Lucy. When Lucy began showing signs of dementia in 2023, Laura found herself navigating the impossible position of becoming her mother’s caregiver. As an only child, with her father gone and no partner to lean on, she managed the emotional, financial and logistical realities of her mother’s decline by herself.
Over the next few years Lucy refused to acknowledge reality. She resisted medical care, refused to stop driving, and denied the severity of her memory loss even as it became dangerous. The musical explores the heartbreak, conflict, guilt and dark humor that come when a daughter is forced to become both protector and adversary to the person who raised her.
Now in 2026, Lucy lives in a memory care facility near Laura, where she is safe and supported.
Even as Alzheimer’s progresses, Lucy still returns to the piano and plays.
