Sometimes you just need to laugh. And laugh…and laugh. No matter how silly and, well, “corny” the humor. Even at puns, lots of puns – outrageously bawdy ones, at that. It was only a few years ago that SHUCKED: A New Musical Comedy created a gee-whiz stir on Broadway for being so unprecedentedly silly yet sweet, lewd but not offensive, and always absolutely hilarious! The musical received nine Tony nominations in 2023 and won an award for Best Actor.
While the corn crops were dying in mildly Christian Cobb County, the musical’s underlying message of literally breaking down walls and embracing one’s fellow man with neighborly kindness and compassion was taking root in our souls. If you dare to get “shucked” out of your pretensions and preconceptions, while being bowled over by a shockfest of crazy one-liners, rush on down to Broward Center’s final Broadway in Fort Lauderdale’s winning show of the season, playing now through June 22.
By the time the moral of this fable (and the farce is presented as a modern day fable) smacks you in head, you’ve fallen in love with all those cornpone characters, no matter how impulsive and misguided they may be (and aren’t we all?). You might even acknowledge there’s something to be said for old-time values, brashness in the face of defeat and, especially, second chances. Then there’s the classic: Don’t judge a book by its cover.
That one came to personal light when I asked my theater partner – a good friend with roots in the Baptist South – if she’d ever watched the TV comedy, Hee Haw. She said she and her husband loved the show, but was quite shocked to hear that my husband and I, whom I guess she considered “sophisticated New Yorkers,” were fans as well. But I’ve always had a soft spot for country. Line dance is my favorite aerobic exercise and my latest guilty pleasure is tuning in to the 60th Academy of Country Music Awards on Prime.
I only mention this, and Hee Haw (which I hadn’t thought about in years), because I’d read that Shucked’s Tony-award-winning book writer, Robert Horn, pays homage to that original, country comedy show in this musical. I recognized some similarities in style and presentation but I’d say, if anything, Shucked is more like an extended Hee Haw episode on steroids!
In the theater program’s “Making a ‘Farm-To-Fable’” feature by Ruthie Fierberg, Horn reflects: “I’m married to a Southern man whose family is Southern Baptist and very conservative. And I’m with Jews from Brooklyn – it’s a very different thing. But we break bread and love each other and don’t try to change each other… We just look at what we have in common. And it started to be important to me to write about that.”
Happily, Horn knows the best way to get people’s attention is through humor. Broward Center’s audience certainly laughed in unison, and I’d bet they spanned every political spectrum. Nowadays, it almost feels like theater is our last bastion of freedom of expression and equality for all. This week, Cole Escola was big news at the Tony Awards for being the first non-binary actor to win Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for their role in “Oh, Mary!” But did you know that in 2023 Shucked cast member Alex Newell was actually the first openly non-binary actor to win a Tony – as Best Featured Actor in a Musical? If the entire LGBTQ+ theater community suddenly decided to go on strike, just about every theater in the country would shut down. If their work were banned or censored, theater as we know it would simply cease to exist.
Nuff said from my soapbox. While I’m glad Horn went out on a limb to preach a way forward to our hopelessly divided nation, he was brilliant in “showing not telling” us how to get there in such an entertaining way. Choosing to collaborate with Grammy-winning Nashville superstars Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally was similarly inspired. The gifted team of composers/lyricists came up with the perfect combo of country sounds and Broadway-style showtunes.
We get right down to country music business when the overhead P.A. announces (in a gravelly drawl) that they’re “now sending music from the Shucked orchestra to start your morning from barn to fable.” And Act I’s Overture comes in loud and clear from the orchestra pit’s five-member band made up of keys, guitars, percussion and bass – expertly led by conductor/keyboardist Nick Williams. All stage action takes place beneath a tilted and broken-up wooden barnlike structure with many missing planks. (I have some ideas, but as the primary set piece was literally left open, I’ll leave it open as well – for y’all to ponder Scott Pask’s scenic design decisions.)
Clumps of mostly dried-up corn stalks, the rear of an old car (minus its swiped catalytic converter), a few wooden logs, chairs, barrels, an iridescent Tampa sign and, in Act II, large glittery rocks, are all that’s offered for props. But that’s plenty enough to set the mood, allow space for some intense dance numbers, and keep our attention on the lead characters – most of whom are dressed for farm life by Tilly Grimes’ costume design, Mia Neal’s wigs, backed by lighting design by Japhy Weideman and sound design by John Shivers.
In a way, to remind us this story is really a modern-day “fable” (i.e. a fantasy with a moral lesson), we immediately meet our two “Storytellers” who explain and comment on the action. Given our comedy-oriented playwright, they also always crack a bunch of jokes in this true laugh-a-minute (if not more) production. The Storytellers’ frenzied, hat-and-character-switching phone call segment is a breathtaking master class in split-second comic timing.
Maya Lagerstam as Storyteller 1 and Tyler Joseph Ellis as Storyteller 2 also join the ensemble’s intoductory number, “Corn,” which reveals more than you ever wanted to know about this farming community’s primary crop. But they do it so beautifully, tucked away in their safe little world behind a literal wall of high corn stalks. You’ll hear more about that in the next song, “Walls.”
There’s romance among the corn, too, as we soon meet pretty, young and perky Maizy (Danielle Wade) and her handsome but conservative forever-beau Beau (Jake Odmark) about to exchange their wedding vows with Beau’s brother, Peanut (Mike Nappi), officiating. In any other world, our earlier exposure to Peanut the punster would have had him committed – not performing legal services. His outrageous stupid actions could have gotten people killed, or maybe did, despite always making us laugh and even, at times, revealing hidden wisdom.
Still, wasn’t he obviously touched in the head, if not a danger to himself and others? Nevertheless, in Cobb County, he’s treated with respect – a friend and confidant of his more “normal” brother, and everyone in the community. Which comes as a shock at first, but as the story evolves, we begin to accept (and revel in his pun-machine verbiage). I’ve come to think Peanut was intentionally placed as a “differently abled” inclusion lesson for us all.
Maizy’s cousin Lulu (Miki Abraham) is another distinct character, but one we nowadays have come to accept and even admire. An original feminist, she runs the town’s whiskey distillary and celebrates her marriage-free existence in the knockout musical number “Independently Owned.” Abraham was a former cast member of Broadway’s Shucked and we can see why – her powerful vocals are sit-up-and-take-notice impressive in any song she’s in. As Lulu, she also exhibits a bit of the devil, and gets into her first-ever fight with best friend/cousin Maizy over a man of all things. And one we don’t think is worth either of these women. They do later make up in the charming melodic duet, “Friends.” Along the way you also meet rather dull-witted Tank (Kyle Sherman) and Maizy’s funny but wise romantic advisor Grandpa (Erick Pinnick).
Maizy instantly stops her wedding when it’s announced all of their corn crops are suddenly wilting away and finds she’s the only one brave enough to leave town in search of answers. To quote our valiant (and clueless) heroine: “We can’t let fear destroy what we love the most.” She’s off and supported by her breakout anthem, “Woman of the World.” To which thrown-over Beau responds in grand-masculine-style self-consolation: if Maizy won’t love him, “Somebody Will.” Both outstanding musical numbers.
We all chuckle to discover Maizy’s “big city” is our own neighboring Tampa where most everyone’s old and dogs lead people and children are on leashes. It’s also where Maizy meets the conman “corn doctor” who’s only pretending to be a podiatrist, but she thinks is an MD who specializes in healing corn crops. When the town meets Maizy’s “savior” Gordy (Quinn Vanantwerp), an attractive swindler who owes mobsters a small fortune and fears for his life, we hear “he’s from Tampa, where you go if you can’t afford Orlando or Atlanta” and I wonder if the North American Tour company created a special Florida edition of the musical.
and independent woman Lulu (Miki Abraham).
