Theatre review: Shucked

Shucked by the power

Shucked by the power of love

OK they don't actually do that one, but Robert Horn (book,) Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally's (music and lyrics) Shucked does provide some catchy tunes of its own once it gets going. Contrary to what I said last year, apparently this is actually the official first show in the Open Air Theatre's Drew McOnie era (given La Cage Aux Folles was much-trumpeted as Timothy Sheader's swansong I guess the whole 2024 season was an extended perineum period?) A piss-take of the stereotype of small American towns with no interest in the outside world, Cob County is literally cut off from everyone else by a dense circle of cornfields that surrounds it, but when the crop the entire town depends on starts to fail, plucky Maizy (Sophie McShera) goes against everyone's advice to find a solution outside: She finds a way out and seeks help in the big city (Tampa, FL.)

There, thanks to a misunderstanding about what kind of corn doctor a podiatrist is, she ends up bringing back Gordy (Matthew Seadon-Young,) a likeable con-man who sees a chance to escape his debts to a mobster, and possibly stock up on the local mineral ore he thinks is worth something.

Theoretically most of the story revolves around Maisy and Gordy accidentally becoming engaged, and confusedly trying to go ahead with the wedding despite the fact that she's still in love with her childhood sweetheart Beau (understudy Ross Harmon,) while he's been falling for Maizy's cousin Lulu (Georgina Onuorah.) But there's honestly little point in going into the plot too much - it's not so much just a hook to hang songs on, as it and the songs are just hooks to hang an unstoppable stream of puns, one-liners and innuendos on.

In fact it's all so relentlessly puerile it would be unwatchable if the jokes weren't such stupid genius, and Jack O'Brien's production knows just how to sell the silliness. Monique Ashe-Palmer and Steven Webb are the two storytellers who narrate the evening, coming across as a pair of smutty children's TV presenters with a chaotic energy and tendency to insert themselves into scenes they like the look of, and they set the tone for what I'd compare to panto in the best possible way: In that there's so many twisted, funny lines I thought I'd remember easily until they got knocked out of my head by the next one. (SPOILER ALERT in the next paragraph if you don't want to see punchlines.)

Of course the whole point of the show is to take the idea of "corny" jokes incredibly literally. Lulu provides a lot of the filthiest ones and Beau's brother Peanut (Keith Ramsey) the oddest, sometimes quite dark non-sequiturs: "I just passed the biggest squirrel I've ever seen! Which is strange because I don't remember eating it." "Opinions are like orgasms: I don't care if you have one." "He was head over heels. So he was just standing up." "I may not have my virginity but I've still got the box it came in." "Marriage is like a tornado. It starts with a whole lot of banging and pounding and ends with someone losing a house." "My eyebrows ain't my children but I'm about to raise them."

As for Clark and McAnally's songs, they start as pretty functional but improve as the show goes on - Onuorah gets the first act's standout moment with "Independently Owned," while the second has a few more showstoppers including the big ensemble number "We Love Jesus" and "I Do." So a couple of memorable numbers put the cherry on top of a show that's absolutely not trying to do anything too clever - but sometimes stupid fun is just what the (corn) doctor ordered.

Shucked by Robert Horn, Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally is booking until the 14th of June at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Pamela Raith.