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Telegraph
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Shucked: This could be the next Book of Mormon
What is Shucked about? It's about two hours 25 minutes including the interval. And if you don't relish gags like that, folks, you may not want to devote two hours 25 minutes to this off-beat, Tony-nominated American musical comedy, which is so replete with corny one-liners and crosstalk it could leave you in sore need of a lie-down as you clutch your sides, groaning. But if your taste that way inclines, you're in for a treat. The show's title, and bite-sized scenario, indicate the lie of the land: this quirky fable, presided over by two tongue-in-cheek narrators, is set in Cob County, a small town cut off from the world by its bountiful, all-purpose corn 'wall'. When the corn mysteriously wilts, the heroine, 'Maizy' (obvs) – poised to marry her beau (called, naturally, Beau) – ventures forth to find help from a, duh, corn doctor – an under-achieving con-man called Gordy. He decides to get his mitts on the town's mysterious rocks, presumed valuable, and is prepared to fake devotion to the very green Maizy to obtain his ends. Hokum 'as high as an elephant's eye' to quote Oklahoma! – and having listened to a few so-so numbers from the 2023/2024 Broadway cast recording, I ambled rather than sprinted to its UK premiere, again directed by Jack O'Brien and the opening offer from Regent Park's new AD Drew McOnie. What no words on the page can do full justice to, though, is the way it all comes together beautifully, and zestily, on the stage, testament to an exhaustive development process. The original inspiration was an old, much-loved US TV series called Hee Haw, which combined sketches with country music. The composing duo here – Brandy Clark and Shane McAnnally – are in their element with that genre, and Scott Pask's great slanting barn of a set references the TV show's design. Robert Horn's book chases laughs but its undercutting wit sharpens the experience rather than hollowing it out. Resembling breathing spaces, some songs may be corny in sentiment but also impart homespun truths. What's Shucked about, in all seriousness? It's about couples, and coping – the way our kernel of self-worth is easily blighted and needs nurturing. This 'message', if you will, is organically conveyed in the lead performances, which combine silliness with sobering notes of sincerity. Sophie McShera is doltish and dreamy but also a free-spirit worth rooting for as Maizy, and like her, Ben Joyce's son of the soil Beau has a gorgeous number that lets rip with yearning. There's terrific support from a lung-busting Georgina Onuorah as Maizy's no-nonsense cousin Lulu and Matthew Seadon-Young as Gordy, the grasping interloper, while Monique Ashe-Palmer and Steven Webb have just the right twinkle of knowingness (and knowingness about their knowingness) as the narrating story-tellers. Keith Ramsay as a scene-stealing wag called Peanut risks triggering allergies with his constant wisecracks ('I was just playing Frisbee with my goat – he's a lot heavier than I thought') but he neatly embodies the (mainly) innocuous pleasure of a barmy show which, after a hopefully balmy summer, may yet head, like some latter-day, family-friendly Book of Mormon, to the West End.
The Guardian
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Shucked review – terrific songs add zest to undercooked corn country musical
Aw, shucks. There's plenty to love about this US import, a country musical with a zany corn obsession and a message about breaking down barriers that suits this open air theatre. But just how much corn-fed wordplay can you stomach? You'll soon find out. There's a maze of maize jokes, some kernels of truth amid the cornball sentiment, a husk of a plot about a corn doctor mistakenly assumed to treat ears not feet and a few painful gags about cornholes. The actors essentially double as standups, delivering one-liners that are often very funny and occasionally enhance character and story but are mostly fired at random as if punslinger Tim Vine had been cloned and let loose. We're in Cob County where Maizy (I'm afraid so) is about to wed Beau. When the small town's valuable corn crop fails, she journeys to Tampa, Florida, for answers and meets conman Gordy who has two dubious claims – one on her heart and one that he can save the beleaguered town. A handsome design includes costumes by Tilly Grimes (dungarees, neckerchiefs, denim), golden lighting by Japhy Weideman and a stage bookended by cornfield thickets and circled by glowing purple rocks. Scott Pask's set features a huge barn, its rafters broken and exposed to the elements, the whole building slanting as if about to be uprooted by The Wizard of Oz's tornado. But it's Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally's songs that often blow you away: hoedowns, lonesome ballads, stagecoach rhythms, loud and proud show tunes, with a five-piece band heavy on the guitars and giving a percussive boost to the humour. Sarah O'Gleby's choreography slowly builds up steam, with performers eventually walking on whiskey barrels and mixing hand claps with foot slaps. Georgina Onuorah thoroughly takes possession of Independently Owned, an anthem of self-determination – no mean feat as it is so closely linked with Alex Newell who won a Tony award in the same role as whiskey-making Lulu. When Ben Joyce (Beau) sings a solo called OK you half want him to do a full country set himself while Sophie McShera makes a yearning case for a world of windows not walls in Maizy's solo. Matthew Seadon-Young has fun with a jazzy number about Gordy's bid to be badder. Under Katy Richardson's musical direction, many shades and themes of country music are present yet the lyrics sometimes lack the genre's reputation for storytelling. The show is moved along by two storytellers, a little like the Mean Girls musical, with Monique Ashe-Palmer and Steven Webb sharing a nice rapport. With a book by Robert Horn, it's presented as a fable, not as you may first think about climate catastrophe but about loving neighbours and welcoming strangers, respecting home yet not being afraid to roam. But when even the thinly drawn characters express alarm at the words they're saying, it's hard to invest in the relationships. Comedies tend to have one wise-cracking role like the goofy Peanut (Keith Ramsay), but here everyone shares the compulsion to deliver bon mots, lollipop stick jokes and small-town homespun humour. It's ultimately exhausting and not only flattens character but reduces dialogue to the same pattern of setup, pause and punchline (many of which you see coming), slowing down Jack O'Brien's rambling production. Would it help if you were familiar with Hee Haw, the country music variety TV show to which it pays homage? Perhaps. But across town, Mischief Theatre are unleashing their own barrage of groansome gags in The Comedy About Spies, a dizzily ridiculous farce which ambushes audiences on many levels, including making you sympathetic towards the unlikeliest characters. Shucked really wants you to laugh and care but to do that would require separating the wheat from the chaff. At Regent's Park Open Air theatre, London, until 14 June
