The marketing campaign for Shucked, a new and, rare these days, wholly original Broadway musical (as in, not based on existing IP), has emphasized two points: 0ne, that it is, to quote the green and maize posters somehow ubiquitous around New York, “a new musical comedy”. And two, that it is about corn. The playbill and posters feature a single radiant ear with twinkling kernels; promo photos have the cast grasping full-grown stalks in a faux field. You’d know little else on ads alone – the cheeky campaign has kept details deliberately vague, opting instead for fake quotes (“‘I saw it 300 times before it even opened!’ – George Santos”). Is it actually about corn? Is it country? Is it funny?
The strategy is working – Shucked has some of the strongest intrigue and word-of-mouth buzz on Broadway – and the answers are: yes, not really and kind of, depending heavily on your taste for, surprise surprise, corniness (and dad jokes). The show, with a book by Robert Horn (the Tony-winning writer of Tootsie) with music & lyrics by Nashville veterans Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, is a campy, swift-joking nod to past Broadway favorites – The Book of Mormon, Oklahoma and particularly The Music Man – with a playfully hokey twist. (Horn originally based the production that eventually became Shucked on the variety show Hee Haw, which ran from 1969 to 1991 and mixed eye-rolling skits with country music.) The first number, introduced by two narrators in on the bit (Ashley D Kelley and Grey Henson, so relaxed in their pairing as to appear improvisational), has the cast maneuver gleaming plastic corn ears as they extoll the virtues of the crop as well as some facts (“it’s the same goin’ in, comin’ out”), as if trolling. Yes, this musical is actually about corn.
