‘Shucked’ at the Curran harvests a bumper crop of guilty, giggly pleasures

Some pundits have likened ‘Shucked,’ the ditzy pun-packed musical goof-a-rama now playing at the Curran Theatre to “Hee Haw,” a syndicated TV celebration of hayseed humor and country music that ran from 1969 to 1993.

But while the musical’s hoe-down sounds, by seasoned Nashville hands Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, do tip a Stetson to that notably sexist showcase for Minnie Pearl and Daisy Dukes, “Shucked” is more attitudinally akin to “Hee Haw”’s big city cousin, “Laugh In.”

“Hee Haw” was, in fact, conceived as a clean-scrubbed flyover alternative to Rowan and Martin’s hipper coastal comedy with its sex-positive, women’s rights conscious, liberal ethos. “Shucked” keeps the copycat’s corn but seasons it salty and butters it lubriciously to suit the tastes of urbane theatergoers. It’s a case of inbreeding Sydney Sweeney would approve of.

Reaping a small plot
 The show’s storyline, largely a scaffold for jokes, begins with a failed harvest in Cobb County, a rural midwestern region defined by its monoculture (Crops other than corn, like folks other than straight and white, are of little interest in these parts).

Ingenue Maizy (Danielle Wade) gets up her gumption and heads out into the wider world, searching for a way to save the fallow farms. Her lunky almost-fiancé Beau (Jake Odmark)–surely short for himbo, is left behind to ponder why she’s so uppity and independent.

Landing in cosmopolitan Tampa, wide-eyed with wonder, Maizy stumbles upon Gordy (Quinn VanAntwerp), a podiatrist-cum-con man more than happy to go along with her misperception that he’s a “corn doctor.”
Opportunistic romance ensues, and the pair head back to the hinterlands where Maizy remains smitten, but Gordy begins hitting on her feisty whiskey distilling cousin, Lulu (Miki Abraham).

A star is corn
Taking on the supporting role that won Alex Newell a Tony on Broadway, Abraham has high heels to fill, and they step up with charisma to spare. Sassy and statuesque, Abraham makes “Independently Owned,” Lulu’s barn-burning solo, her own.

With vocals that slide from bluesy grit to gospel exaltation–Growl-ellujah!–over the course of just a few bars, Abraham makes this paean to individuality and self-reliance the show’s high point and her own career-making calling card. Viva, Patti LuCornpone!

Less auspiciously, book writer Robert Horn, a gay man who co-created television’s “Designing Women” and has written for Dame Edna, has placed this undeniable 11 o’clock number at about 8:45 p.m., two thirds through the show’s first act. While the rest of the largely midtempo score is pleasantly engaging, there’s no other song that comes close to this one for punch and melodic hooks. It’s a misplaced tentpole that leaves “Shucked” structurally saggy.

Dishing up showbiz
Still, even as the plot turns shambolic in the second act (Some Barney-colored rocks are declared gemstones, then junk, then agri-magical; Lulu is shoehorned into a romance completely unbefitting her character; a convoluted meta-twist adds fancy-pants complexity for no good reason), toe-tapping tunes and rat-a-tat Dad jokes keep the proceedings apop from start to finish.

No visual or verbal byproduct that can be squeezed out of corn is goes unused. We get cornholing with cobs; singing stalkers; a kickline of niblets; even egregious kernels of digestive system wisdom.

Extra helpings of wordplay are provided by Peanut (Mike Nappi), a gratuitous rube character whose sole purpose is to pile-on more groanworthy gags (By evening’s end, I’d developed a bit of a Peanut allergy).

Sarah O’Gleby’s zippy choreography and director Jack O’Brien’s clever blocking give the show a sense of perpetual momentum that gets flop jokes off-stage instantly but leaves laughter lingering throughout the evening.

There’s fine vocal work throughout from VanAntwerp, who delivers complex patter songs like they’re a walk in the park; Wade, who projects beautifully even when her tone is whispery or conversational; and Tyler Joseph Ellis and Maya Langerstam, playing a pair of narrators who keep up the show’s unflagging good cheer and whose gift for crisp diction assures that their every punchline lands. The whole cast makes corn a side dish for hot, juicy ham.

‘Shucked,’ through Oct. 5. $62-$182. Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St.
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