Perk Up Your Ears To The Heart And Humor Of SHUCKED
Filled with plenty of puns, lots of laughs, and an abundance of suggestive double entendre, shucked is a cute romantic comedy and a musical valentine to the Midwest. The award-winning show is a bit hokey but filled with heart and warmth. Solid performances, anchored by Danielle Wade as the perky, high-energy Maizy, and instantly likeable characters, you’ll likely find yourself cheering for the villain before the show is over, ensure this farm-raised, family-friendly show leaves your spirits as “high as an elephant’s eye.”
Cob County is a small, midwestern farm town shielded from the outside world by a fortress-like wall of corn. Sustained by hard work and fertile fields, its citizens have rarely felt the urge to part the stalks and leave their comfortable surroundings or to invite outsiders in. Self-sufficient and happy in their isolation, they don’t even worry about the storms and floods that have left large piles of rocks under their porches and scattered in their fields. That is until, on the day when sweethearts Maizy and Beau are to be married, the corn starts wilting and dying. Concerned by the sudden failure of the all-important crop and what that means to the community’s survival, Maizy decides she must venture beyond the stalks and seek help. She ends up in Tampa and meets a scam artist posing as a podiatrist with a “guaranteed cure for corns” (and a desperate need to evade his considerable gambling debts) who agrees to accompany her home and save the town’s fading crops.
Sweet tempered and good natured, shucked is filled with humorous innuendo, corny laughs, true love, and appealing country pop tunes. Wade is near perfect as the winsome, adventurous Maizy, with just the right mix of naivete, can-do spirit, and gorgeously twangy vocals. Miki Abraham is potently snarky and sharp tongued as Maizy’s more experienced whisky distilling entrepreneur cousin Lulu. Jake Odmark, as the handsome industrious farmer Beau, and Quinn VanAntwerp, as the duplicitous schemer Gordy, are natural comedic foils as the leading men in the story, while Mike Nappi, as Beau’s brother Peanut, adds a touch of bumbling humor. But honestly, it’s Maizy and Lulu the audience cares about the most and the two performers exude genuine affection and chemistry as ride or die best friends. While none of the songs are instantly memorable ear worms, they are uniformly pleasant pop- and country-infused melodies that entertain while carrying the audience through the key story points and emotional levels of the show. “Corn,” “Woman of the World,” and “Independently Owned” are standouts in the first act. The second act is uniformly catchy, with the sequence of “I Do” and “Friends” complementing the story arc while revealing each character’s true feelings.
The musical is narrated by present day characters Storyteller 1, Maya Lagerstam, and Storyteller 2, Tyler Joseph Ellis, who’s responsible for many of the show’s cheesiest one-liners and chuckle/groan-inducing dad jokes. They provide continuity for a story about a boy and girl who grow up together, fall in love, get engaged, and seem destined for happily ever after – until the girl goes out to find a cure for the failing corn crop and returns with a devilish new fiancée. Misunderstanding and romance get jumbled up in the quest for that happy ending, but somehow the right couples end up together, ensuring the audience leaves with a song in their heart and smile on their face.
The Tony-award winning shucked, making its St. Louis debut at the Fabulous Fox Theatre, is a lot of fun with a generous serving of humor that’s quite bawdy and occasionally a touch crude. Still, the fast-moving, good-natured musical is engaging and generally suitable for the whole family; most of the adult humor happens too quickly and cleverly for younger kids to understand the reference, and tweens and teens will definitely laugh out loud at the silly matchups and random bodily function jokes. If you like comedy, romance, and a story that celebrates the Midwest with a nod and a wink, you’ll want to be sure and catch this thoroughly entertaining musical before it leaves town.
