Shucked: The Corny Show That Could
The Story of an Amaize-ing New Musical
Shucked, the corn-tastic musical of the season tells the “farm to fable” story of the town, Cobb County who live happy and amazing lives. When their community’s pride and joy are in trouble, they realize they may need to cross corners and get assistance. The reality is not much is currently known about this musical. It has a book by Tony Award winner Robert Horn of Tootsie fame, and a score by songwriting team, Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally. In this piece, I will start at the show’s amaize-ing roots in Dallas Texas, and how it cobbed its way to Broadway. So grab some popcorn, and get ready for the cornucopia of puns and this Broadway story.
Love at First Kernel
While Shucked is a wholly original musical, it started by the name of Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical. If that name sounded familiar, yes I am talking about the 1969 tv show of the same name, Hee Haw. That production was performed at Dallas Theatre Company in 2015. The show was written by Horn, and even had Clark and McAnally along to write the songs. After the tryout in Dallas, the writers saw some editing had to be done, so the writers took the gleefully corny humor they had in Hee-Haw and decided to go forward with the piece this time as an original musical called Shucked. Shucked began its run at the Pioneer Memorial Theatre in Salt Lake City. This gave the cast and creative team a chance to try out this new show without the pressures of bringing it right to Broadway. The show was an instant hit in Utah with audiences cackling and hollering at this heartwarming story about corn. So with a hit on their hands, what was next for this show, well shucks, we will just have to see.
Woman of the World
With two out-of-town tryouts in Dallas and Salt Lake City, the show was ready for Broadway. Now, it was also coming to Broadway with no big-name stars except for Alex Newell who made a splash on Broadway and TV shows like Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, and of course, Glee. The cast also featured Broadway veterans, Grey Henson, a Tony nominee from Mean Girls, Kevin Cahoon, and John Behlmann who audiences may remember from Horn’s musical, Tootsie. The show started as a small kernel, but quickly creatively showed itself through creative marketing techniques as a true corntender in this Broadway season. From releasing new songs to building interests, the show was also very clever in inviting three Broadway TikTok influencers to a rehearsal run-through of the entire show. These influencers were won over by the shows’ amaize-ing heart, toe-tapping tunes, and husksterical jokes. By inviting the influencers, the show finally got some early buzz going into its first preview. The musical also made marketing videos with two of the show’s storytellers played by Grey Henson and Ashley D. Kelly. Their funny banter together gave audiences a taste of the pun-filled fun they were in store for. In advance of the first preview, the press team also set up popcorn trucks, and cornhole boards for people to interact with. By making the marketing hands-on, the team at Shucked suddenly created an interest in the show that was not to be ignored.
It’s Shucktime
A First Preview of a Broadway show is always exciting, yet this musical even managed to create a meme-worthy spectacle by having, TikToker Bryan the Business Analyst dress up as corn. It also helped that TikToker, Katharine Quinn was on the show’s team as well which helped gain some insider footage and excitement for the show. Also, it is worth mentioning that Director, Jack O’Brien hilariously wore a corn costume in Times Square to drum up excitement. After the first preview, which included a mid-show standing ovation for Alex Newell, the musical is almost selling out upcoming performances and is becoming the little show that could. From its humble beginnings in Dallas to the pre-Broadway run in Utah, Shucked is proving that sometimes a little bit of corn can go a long way.
