Reviewed by James Karas
The first and last time I heard the word corn in a song was in South Pacific when Mary Martin sang I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy and gleefully intoned “I am as corny as Kansas in August.” It has been a long coffee break but Shucked, the musical now playing at the Princess of Wales Theatre more than makes up for the lapse of time. In fact, it is all corn, corny, corn pone and well, OK there is no popcorn. Shucked is a fable about a town in Corn County that relies on corn for everything until it stops growing.
It is a love story and a wonderful tale about a community meeting hardship and working itself out of it. The plot is replete with jokes that I will reprise to the best of my memory in bold letters.
If a paper airplane does not fly, it becomes stationery.
We are in a mythical town where people live happily, speak with a southern accent, grow corn and the town beauty Maizy (Danielle Made) and the hunk Beau (Nick Bailey) are planning to get married. But we have a crisis. The corn no longer grows. We start the musical with the song “Corn” sung by Story Tellers 1 and 2 (Maya Lagerstam and Joe Moeller) and the ensemble. Put the wedding on hold. We have complications and more than two hours to kill before we get to that.
If the world was nice, mosquitoes would be sucking fat instead of blood.
(Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
The brave Maizy goes to Tampa, the big city, in search of a solution and she meets another hunk, Gordy (Quinn Vanantwrp). He is a podiatrist who presents himself as a corn doctor and has some unsavory traits but she overlooks them. Gordy comes to the Corn County to solve the corn crisis and check out Lulu (a hilarious Miki Abraham) who has Time and Money and a few other things to offer. He is interested in all of them and does not feel beholden to lovely Maizy to whom he proposed marriage. OK, he is a conman.
If you put sugar on bullshit, it does not become a brownie. Now you tell me!
We have wise Grandpa (Elijah Caldwell), Peanut (Mike Nappi) and Tank (Kyle Sherman) who round off the denizens of the town together with the ensemble. They make up a wonderful community that deliver the “wonderful” jokes that belong to Corn County with panache.
It’s like telling someone to go to hell and the hoping he has a safe trip.
The plot takes us through the gamut of complications accompanied by easy-to-take tunes like “Travellin’ Song”, to “Woman of the World” to “Maybe Love” to “Corn” more than once. They are lovely songs that are sung more than competently without making huge demands on the singers. There are a few flourishes but its largely Corny and reminiscent of the 1970’s TV show Hee Haw.
The horse was 20 to 1 to win. Yeah, but the other horses came in at 12:30.
The scenic design by Scott Pask looks like the skeleton of a huge barn with lots of barrels (full of whiskey) rolled around. The costumes by Tilly Grimes are Texas cornpone
Politicians are like diapers; they have to be changed frequently and for the same reason.
The musical is by Robert Horn (book), Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally (music and Lyrics) and the wonder is that they created something unlike most musicals that come from Broadway. Veteran Director Jack O’Brien handles the details of the production with Choreographer Sarah O’Gleby taking care of the dances.
I may not have my virginity but I still have the box it came in.
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