There is a strong temptation to start a review of “Shucked” with a pun. Preferably a bad pun. However, if you are like me and delight in terrible puns this is the show for you.
“Shucked” delivers on puns, groaners and double entendres. As a bonus the country music by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally is almost as much fun. Perhaps, most surprisingly, the book by Robert Horn is so without guile it seems wildly genuine. Because the comedy is bad-joke -driven the humor might seem simple. Not true. It’s demanding, and thankfully everyone in the splendid cast has the gift of great comic timing.
The opening act sets that silly but funny tone. An isolated town that is totally dependent on its corn finds the crop dying. Spunky and underappreciated Maizy, played with winning innocence by the powerhouse Danielle Wade, puts on hold her marriage to the charming but dull boyfriend, Beau and sets off to find a cure for the blight. Enter the scoundrel. He’s a phony corn doctor, Gordy, who has a bushel of debts to pay and sees the town’s problems as his pay day. Thus the corn chowder thickens.
No one in town believes in Gordy, least of all Beau and Maizy’s best friend – her cousin Lulu. Lulu is a strong woman, as Miki Abraham tells everyone in the show-stopping “Independently Owned” number. Wade has the best voice in the show, but Abraham is her near equal.
As Gordy, Quinn Vanantwerp does the impossible by channeling Robert Preston in “The Music Man” as he makes the schemer loveable. He even has a great patter song, “Corn” at the close of the first act. Jake Odmark is also good in the underwritten role of the self-centered Beau. It’s an achievement that he makes the character minimally sympathetic. The two terrific narrators played by Tyler Joseph Ellis and Maya Lagerstam are constant fun as they hold the work together.
The feel of the show is best epitomized by Mike Nappi’s portrayal of Peanut. Used primarily for comic relief, Nappi finds the wisdom in the character’s simpleness. For instance, who can deny the truth as he describes his feelings about films he’s seen based on true stories. “I think it really happened, just with uglier people,” he says. You have to be good to pull off that joke.
But, eventually bad jokes, simple characters and predictable plot points can grow weary. The two-act 2 ½ hour show would be much more memorable as a 90-100-minute show without an intermission. Despite what Mae West proclaimed, too much of a good thing is not wonderful.
“Shucked” is overall lighthearted. However it might be wise to offer a potential trigger warning. Talking about two grandparents who have passed away, they reveal grandpa’s last words, “Are you boys still holding the ladder?” Grandma fared better. She died doing what she loved – “making toast in the bathtub.”
That’s about all you really need to know about what to expect at “Shucked.” It continues at Proctors in Schenectady until Sunday. For tickets and schedule information go to atproctors.org
Bob Goepfert is theater reviewer for the Troy Record.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.
