Shucked Broadway review: Cute new musical has a corny sense of humor
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The past decade brought a lot of reckonings with the disparity between the homogenized nature of the classic American cultural canon and the diverse reality of American society. It became clear that new stories were needed to bridge that gap. Years after Hamilton reimagined the Founding Fathers as nonwhite actors fluent in hip-hop, the comedy musical Shucked tells a different kind of American fairy tale.
Shucked is set in Cobb County, an imaginary slice of American heartland populated with the multiracial descendants of pilgrims who fled the strict Puritans and somehow managed to find a plot of farmland uninhabited by Native Americans (thus cleansing the story of uncomfortable truths about America's past). Our present-day hero is Maizy (Caroline Innerbichler), who is all set to marry childhood sweetheart Beau (Andrew Durand) when something inexplicably goes wrong: The corn, the cash crop from which Cobb County residents make pretty much everything, starts rotting away.
Like Disney's Moana, Maizy (as in "maize," you get it) is the only resident of her closed-off community willing to embark on a journey to the outside world in search of a solution. In a paean to Trump-era politics, Maizy implores her friends and family to "build a window, not a wall" to the rest of the country, but they still believe that they can solve their problems themselves.
Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman Caroline Innerbichler, Kevin Cahoon, and Andrew Durand in 'Shucked'
Maizy finds herself in the big city — not New York City or Los Angeles, but Tampa, Fla. Starstruck by the day-glo colors and Hawaiian shirts, Maizy naively falls under the spell of con man Gordy (John Behlmann), who thinks Cobb County holds the solution to the debt he owes to criminal gangsters. Like a sun-bleached version of Harold Hill from The Music Man, Gordy convinces some of Maizy's neighbors that he can solve their corn problem — but Beau, still reeling from the delay of his marriage plans, is unconvinced.
Even if some of those plot beats sound familiar, Shucked's main selling point is its corn-fed humor. The book, by Robert Horn (Tootsie), is peppered with puns and malapropisms. One of the two narrators overseeing Maizy's story is constantly saying stuff like "As the lazy dentist said: Brace yourself." Kevin Cahoon channels Tim Blake Nelson as Beau's hilarious brother Peanut, and his lines always zig when you think they're gonna zag. In response to Beau's despair over being unable to predict what Maisie wants, Peanut sagely observes, "Well, if I had a crystal ball… I sure would walk different." These formulations get a little repetitive once you get the hang of them, but the unexpected bursts of absurdity can also keep you on your toes.
Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman Alex Newell as Lulu in 'Shucked'
Where Hamilton reframed American history through hip-hop, Shucked songwriters Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally bring a country-rock flavor to this musical. The standout by far is "Independently Owned," a showstopper by Maisie's best friend Lulu (Alex Newell) that turns the American dream of small business entrepreneurship into an anthem of Black female independence. All the actors in this cast are charming and attractive, but Newell really outshines them with her star power.
It's too soon to tell if Shucked has staying power as a Broadway musical, but its refreshing embrace of diversity and unapologetically corny sincerity can definitely put a smile on your face. Grade: B
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