SHUCKED
Through. Nov 10
TPAC’s Jackson Hall
2 hours and 15 minutes, with an intermission
Recommended for ages 10+ for adult themes, language
TICKETS
Yes, this musical is actually about corn. And there’s enough zesty one-liners and delicious dad jokes to fill a grain silo in Shucked, which runs at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center through Sunday, Nov. 10.
“Your grandma died doin’ what she loved … makin’ toast in the bathtub.”
This small-town versus big-city “farm to fable” keeps the jokes popping in a seamingly endless succession of happy little bursts, buttered and salted by an endearing cast with impeccable comedic timing.
“Like the lazy dentist said: Brace yourself.”
Shucked was originally conceived as an adaptation of the long-running TV variety show Hee Haw. With a book by Robert Horn (Tootsie), the Tony Award winner nods to past Broadway favorites — The Book of Mormon, Oklahoma and particularly The Music Man — with a playfully hokey twist and yeah, a little message to take home and ponder. Can we as Americans learn to accept folks who come from different places and have different ideas? As the show suggests, aren’t we all kernels on the same cob after all?
“Family is telling someone to go to hell, then worrying they get there safely.”
Nashville ties
Fellow Nashvillians Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally’s co-compositions do well to hold the story together and anchor the characters in some kind of emotional reality. The country-fried score, supported by Jason Howland’s expressive orchestrations, add twangy depth to each character and beautifully bridge Broadway and Nashville with lots of fun string instruments like acoustic guitar, banjo and mandolin.
What’s the show about?
Shucked centers on the fictional Cobb County, where friendships run deep and corn fields grow plentiful. Until the once thriving crops stop flourishing, the female lead, Maizy (Danielle Wade, Mean Girls & The Wizard of Oz), ventures to the big city of Tampa, Florida, to find someone to help. But, before she heads out, Beau (Jake Odmark, Spider-Man, Kinky Boots), Maizy’s childhood friend, fiancee, and equally sheltered Cobb County resident, urges her to stay so both can find a solution.
Undeterred and ready to see what the big world has to offer, she runs into the flashy, pastel-clad, smarmy Gordy (Quinn Vanantwerp, Shucked original Broadway cast, Jersey Boys), a fake podiatrist who calls himself the “corn doctor,” and who Maizy mistakes for a specialist who can treat the damaged vegetation. After Maizy shows Gordy a bracelet made of stones gifted by her grandfather, Gordy believes it to be valuable and possibly abundant in Cobb County. He tricks country-bumpkin Maizy into thinking he’s fallen for her and is interested in restoring the corn. Upon their return, Beau is heartbroken, as an untrustworthy city slicker has won Maizy over, and tries to convey his indifference in the emotionally charged song “OK.”
While other characters, like Lulu (Miki Abraham, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Once On This Island), Maizy’s cousin and best friend, can see through Gordy’s facade and disingenuous interest in Maizy, she confronts him and attempts to mask her infatuation. The standout performance was Lulu’s goose-bump-inducing song, “Independently Owned,” which received a deserved standing ovation.
Hijinks ensue, inflected by the fourth-wall-breaking narrators (Maya Lagerstam, The Gospel According to Heather, Tyler Joseph Ellis, Passion), who inject much-needed self-awareness into the whole affair and move the narrative along.
Corny in the best way
Overall, Shucked is a rare musical comedy that offers a harvest of tuneful treats while keeping up an impressively consistent stream of puns, slow-burn wordplays and PG-13 jokes. Much like eating corn, Shucked can be a little messy, (as the plot sometimes plays second fiddle to the show’s wacky sense of humor). But also much like eating corn, Shucked is kind of amazing.
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