How it’s New York: Shucked tells a country mouse/city mouse stories. New Yorkers love those.
How it’s Irish: It’s an immigrant story. Country singer Shane McAnally, one of the show’s creators, has an Irish name.
How much you enjoy the new musical Shucked, with music and lyrics by country music’s Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, and book by Robert Horn, will depend almost entirely on your enjoyment of goofy puns and silliness.
There are some powerful performances too. When I went, the audience was having a ball. The show is having a nice long run, which suggests that a kind of escapism where a small town can be somehow diverse and warm— something that seems unlikely in 2023 — has a built-in audience.
I don’t think I’m really part of that audience, but I can see the show’s appeal. It’s a sweet fairy tale, with some fun songs.
Very simply, in Cob County, an isolated place where corn is the MAIN staple of pretty much everything, the corn is dying.
What happens when things go wrong? The hero’s journey! In this case Maizy (get it? played with Barbie-like optimism by Caroline Innerbichler) goes to the Outside World for help. The Outside World, in this case, is Tampa. (You know the jokes about Florida Man: is this really a good idea?)
Her finace Beau (get it? played as a sweet Ken-doll by Andrew Durand) and cousin Lulu (a powerfully singing Alex Newell) try in vain to dissuade her.
In the Out, she meets grifter Gordy (John Behlmann) and brings him home. Of course, Behlmann, like The Rainmaker, like The Music Man, doesn’t really have any power to make corn grow. He wants jewels that he believes lie beneath the corn.
In short– you’ve seen this plot before. A happy ending is not in doubt. Try not to think to hard about it. I couldn’t help it and found myself wondering, where are the kids? Old people? Schools?
NO. Don’t go down that road. Unlike The Rainmaker and The Music Man, there is not a deep message of humanity and love to find. There’s a moral of sorts, to do with diversity and acceptance. Its kind of weak tea.
Director Jack O’Brien tells the story straightforwardly, with simple pictures, and Sarah O’Gleby’s choreography, which includes dancing corn, raises your spirits.
And dang, the puns are silly (they live in “hominy,” get it?), and Newell, who distills whiskey, is a barn-raising singer. (Sorry. It’s catching.) Her song “Independently Owned,” about how a man can stand by her– no disrespect to Tammy Wynette– feels like Old Broadway.
Sometimes that’s enough.
