Theater Review: SHUCKED (National Tour)

A SHUCKING DELIGHT

The Broadway tour of Shucked by Robert Horn will be cracking up audiences in Chicago’s CIBC Theatre through January 19th before it continues on its national tour. If you look too closely this corny little musical starts to wilt with an aimless protagonist and too many ballads for a lighthearted comedy, but if you just relax into the experience, it’s sweet as, well, corn.

Quinn VanAntwerp and Miki Abraham

Jake Odmark and Mike Nappi

Shucked takes place in the fictional rural town of Cob County, which is surrounded by a thick wall of corn that sustains the town’s livelihood. Suddenly, the corn begins to die, and it’s up to farmgirl Maizy to venture out to a big city — Tampa — to get help.

Mike Nappi

Miki Abraham and Ryan Fitzgerald

The show’s greatest strength is its extremely punny comedy, particularly when Peanut, played by the hilarious Mike Nappi, starts up with his “I think” running gag that uses the rule of threes to keep us laughing and hungry for more. Peanut is just one of the supporting characters who really makes this show shine. Lulu, played by powerhouse performer Miki Abraham, commands attention in every scene she’s in with her charisma. Storyteller 1, played by Maya Lagerstam, and Storyteller 2, played by Tyler Joseph Ellis, carry us through the tale with charm, expert comic timing, and the agility to put on and shed a variety of characters throughout the show. I particularly enjoyed a masterfully executed phone call bit when Storyteller 1 and 2 played multiple characters simultaneously on the phone with Corn Doctor and podiatrist Gordy, played by Quinn VanAntwerp.

Maya Lagerstam and Tyler Joseph Ellis

Quinn VanAntwerp

The music by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally is funny, charming, and largely unmemorable apart from the showstopper “Independently Owned” in which Miki Abraham sings the house down. “Best Man Wins” is also strong, but perhaps less for the musical prowess and more because in this song we finally see the creative potential of the show’s lighting design by Japhy Weideman—I wish we could see the lighting used this creatively throughout the show. The reprise of a song called, shockingly, “Corn,” includes a clever nod to Harold Hill in The Music Man that will delight theater aficionados.

Jake Odmark and Danielle Wade

Jake Odmark

Despite the fun music and belly laughs carrying me through, I can’t help but be a little disappointed by this show’s protagonist, Maizy. Danielle Wade sings Maizy excellently with a delightfully goofy sense of humor, but Mr. Horn’s book doesn’t give her much to work with. Maizy is a tired trope of the naïve country girl seeking wisdom in the big city. She knows neither who she is nor what she wants, and her limp character arc doesn’t really help her answer those questions.

Danielle Wade and Miki Abraham

Danielle Wade and Erick Pinnick

As someone from a farming family, I was both very excited to see this musical, and a little skeptical to see how these city slickers would write about a small agricultural town. Mostly, I think they did a good job. This clearly isn’t meant to be an educational show, and I think the setting was just a vehicle for the humor they executed so well. Speaking of vehicles, at one point a character removes a catalytic converter from another character’s vehicle, which prevents the vehicle from starting. As many of us Chicago car owners know, if someone steals your catalytic converter, it doesn’t prevent your car from starting. It just makes it really loud. Yeah, the show is that kind of silly.

The Cast

The Cast

Thus, to really enjoy the ride throughout, a suspension of disbelief is mandatory. The notion that a girl from a farming town (even a very naïve one) would seek expertise for an agricultural problem from someone living in a big city rather than another farming town or a land-grant university is laughable. If this show was for country folk, perhaps that would be the point, but I don’t think that joke lands with the New York or Broadway in Chicago crowds.

The Cast

The Cast

Clearly technical accuracy is not what Shucked is going for, but that’s fine. If you’re like me, you’ll just have to let those things go and enjoy it for the hilarious romp in the hay that it is. Directed by Jack O’Brien, Shucked is at its best when it’s embracing puns and innuendo and letting the supporting cast shine. Yet like its crop-based metaphors, it might have benefited from more careful tending to its dramatic foundation. Overall, I’d definitely recommend it if you need a laugh. You’ll come away smiling, so make sure there’s no corn stuck in your teeth.