In the months leading up to my recent New York trip, not really knowing much about Shucked beyond its delightful advertising campaign, I tracked down as many songs, and did as much research on the show, as I could. Until I was in my seat and the show began, it still felt like a gamble. I was thrilled to discover that Shucked is better than I could have hoped. It’s a real winner for me.
Shucked is a musical comedy, book by Robert Horn and music and lyrics by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, about a secluded town surrounded by corn. The townspeople are perfectly happy with their seclusion until the corn mysteriously stops growing and their way of life is threatened. Maizy, a young, self-proclaimed “Woman of the World”, makes a plan to leave town to find a solution, and maybe make a new friend along the way.
What Works?
The best part of Shucked is the comedy. The show is full of laugh-out-loud jokes. Really corny dad jokes, but they fit in the show perfectly. What helps a lot is the comedic timing of actor Grey Henson, who recently starred in Mean Girls as the sassy, gay narrator. In Shucked, he essentially reprises his role from Mean Girls as Shucked’s sassy, gay narrator. It’s almost cheating, but it works SO WELL. He could play that same role in different shows for the rest of his career, and I’d certainly go.
The well-balanced ensemble cast is studded with great performances, most notably Alex Newell’s performance as Lulu. One of her songs ended in a standing ovation. Grey Henson’s co-narrator Ashely D. Kelley was delightful, and I was also won over by Caroline Innerbichler as Maizy and Andrew Durand as her love interest Beau. We ran in to Andrew Durand on 8th avenue the day after the show and totally fan-girled out.
I was happy to hear all of the Clark/McAnally songs I had been listening to, which mostly sound like slow, singer-songwriter songs. The rest of the score was much more of an upbeat, traditional Broadway score and helped move the story along.
It’s a feel-good show for all ages. By the end, I was crying little tears of joy (ok, fine, actual running-down-my-cheek tears, don’t judge me, lol!) from the front row. One of the cast members gave me a high five.
Merch!
I bought a hat and a t-shirt. They were sold out of the super-cute mug. While in line for the show, we were given an “I Got Shucked” button.
Fun Fact:
The original version of Shucked was a musical called Moonshine: A Hee Haw Musical, which included the now-Shucked song “We Love Jesus, But We Drink a Little”.
At the time of this writing, Shucked is in previews at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City with an opening night of April 4th.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Henson