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Mickey Jo
You know, I really do aspire to be taken seriously as legitimate professional theatre critic, but God help me, I am in love with a musical about Korn and I don't care who knows it. That's why I'm telling you about it on the on the Internet. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. Or hello to you if you are listening on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre. I'm a theatre critic here on social media and today I'm going to be letting you know all about the new musical comedy Shucked, currently playing at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London. Now, I had the good fortune of getting to see this show twice during its run on Broadway at the Nederlander theatre back in 2023. I absolutely fell in love with it there. I made a review talking about that production, but there have been a few changes for the London transfer, most notably that the production now is playing outdoors. Yes, Shucked is happening outside. Just moments before I started recording this review, there was almost biblical rain happening. It's eased off a little bit now, but thankfully last night's press performance remained dry. They do have a media night this evening that could get moist. In the meantime, though, I'm going to be letting you know exactly what Shucked is. If you are curious but a little bit confused, I'm going to be letting you know why I love this show so much, why it's comedy and its score are both so brilliant. I'm going to be talking to you about the performances and the characterizations, some of which I do think are, you know, pretty substantially different from the Broadway production and the original Broadway cast. And as always, I would love to hear what you think of it as well. Let us know in the comments section down below if you have seen the London production of Shucked already, what you thought of it, what your favorite moment was, who you thought gave a standout performance, or if, like me, you saw the show on Broadway, feel free to let us know your thoughts about the material as well. Perhaps you may also have seen the show on its recent and ongoing US Tour. Let us know what that's like. For now, though, here are my thoughts on Shucked, and if you enjoy them, make sure you're subscribed with the notifications turned on right here on YouTube or following me on podcast platforms. Let's talk about some corn. So for those of you who thus far have only heard about the show but not yet seen it, what exactly is Shucked? Well, Shucked is very loosely an adaptation of the long running US TV series Hee Haw. It has a very similar tone and sensibility, but if that's what this was about at its moment of inception, it's grown to something quite substantially independent from that. Shucked is a sweet, silly, heartwarming, deeply charming show about Korn. I will elaborate with a book by Robert Horne, which is hilarious and a fantastic, legitimately great country score by musicians Brandi Clark and Shane McNally. And it's all been directed by the legendary theatre director, Jack o' Brien. We'll talk a little bit more about the material and all of their contributions to this delightful show, but to give you a little bit of an overview as to the plot of this thing, we are introduced to characters from a fictional town called Cobb county, where nothing is more important to their lives or their local economy than corn. They grow a lot of corn. There is so much corn that it has formed an outer wall that circles around the town, keeping them in and keeping the outside world out. They have the ability to leave the town and they know about the outside world. They simply choose not to. They have no interest in it. They have everything that they need in their own small corn dependent town and that works for them until the corn, without explanation, begins to die, threatening their entire way of life. It's at this point that a young woman of the town named Maisie, whose wedding to her childhood sweetheart Bo was interrupted by the discovery of the dying corn, decides that someone needs to venture outside beyond the corn and go and try and find help and try and find a solution, you know, before everything is ruined. Unfortunately for Maisie, her friends, family and even her fiance don't necessarily have a huge amount of faith in her ability to go and find help and save the corn. Even more unfortunately for Maisie, through some understandable confusion, she ends up putting her faith in a con man named Gordie Jackson, who she brings back to the town in order to try and save the corn. What follows, there is a lot of romantic subplot. It all gets a little bit Music man as far as he's concerned. Tonally, it's all very silly and comedic with definite parallels to perhaps a less offensive version of a show like the Book of Mormon or honestly, and I was thinking about this after the performance last night, something like the Simpsons in terms of these, you know, kind of broad, cartoonish, but inevitably charming characters. As it happens, there is talk of a film adaptation of Shucked being put together, and I think that if this does ever materialize, that an animated version might be the thing that makes the most sense. But then I also said that about Wicked, so, you know, what do I know? And the show is both corn centric and utterly corny in and of itself. But there is also a certain amount of heart beneath all of that. And we tap into a story about community, about family, about relationships, about, you know, the person that you are meant to fall in love with and your inability to do anything to the contrary. And increasingly, as we move through the show, there is also a profound sense of togetherness and accepting others in spite of our differences. However, at the same time, it is also absolutely not that deep. And it is still just a funny show about corn. But rather than just tell you over and over again how funny it is, let's dig a little bit into why and the show's brilliant material. Now, what I think makes Shucked a little bit unique is that with a lot of these comedy shows, if we talk about an Avenue Q, if we talk about the Book of Mormon, the lyrics and even the songwriting of the songs, they are very much comedy songs in keeping with the script. And there is a little bit of, of, you know, a split identity in Shucked because the script is just relentlessly funny. It's full of these brilliant, like, if you want to call them dad jokes, if you want to call them puns, there is plenty of all of the above. You'll groan a little bit, but you'll mostly just fall apart laughing. The music, however, in spite of occasional moments of comedy, is just legitimately good country music and is often strikingly sincere, especially in the second act. We have a lot of songs about the true meaning of family and friendship and this lovely romantic quartet in which characters realize their true feelings for each other. Feelings that don't necessarily correspond to the wedding that is imminently about to happen. You know where all of this is going. And so I like to describe Shucked as a show that combines a knee slapping book with a thigh slapping score and to talk a little bit more about these jokes in the book from Robert Horn. And there are so, so many great gags in here and a variety of great gags. They are more often than not hilariously dumb, which is one of my favor qualities really in any script. I love something that is unashamedly silly in its comedy and there's a real charm to that. Having now returned to the show for what has been my fourth visit, I had forgotten just how much like grave and corpse based humor is in there as well. In a very light hearted way. Also a lot of what I can only describe as rectal jokes, however, or should I say. But they cut, I believe, from the London production, what I think might have been one of my favorite jokes from one of the two storyteller characters who narrate and introduce the musical. And that was the following. As the proctologist with the too short arms said, there's a problem here, but I can't quite put my finger on it. That's a great line, but it speaks to the wealth of brilliant jokes in the script that that got cut for this production. I do think that there were a couple of jokes added in to speak slightly more specifically to British audiences. Very few changes have been made to the material. We'll talk about a couple more. But there were a few I don't necessarily remember. There's a character called Peanut who, whenever he is asked his opinion by another character on stage, will sort of take a step forward and say, think. And he will then list off three random things that he thinks, all of which will be hysterically funny punch lines. You also have the storyteller characters who get great jokes interspersed throughout. An example of one of these, he says at one point, you don't tend to meet fellas called Lance these days, but in medieval times, people used to be called Lance a lot. And I am at least 70% sure that that's a new joke that they have added for the London production. But then I saw the Broadway production for the first time in press performance previews just before opening, I believe, and I'm given to understand that Robert Horn tinkers with a lot jokes and, you know, puts in new ones and takes out old ones. Those Peanut jokes are probably the highlight of the script. And we get to a point in the show as well, where you've taught the audience the formula of what's about to happen. So they're anticipating it as well. So they're ready to laugh, which is a really important thing, especially in musical comedy. There's some really just charmingly silly lines that do a lot to convey the personality of the characters, but also of the town and their quirky little community. Bo at one point says to Maisie when they're arguing about her venturing out to go and find help. He says, if you walk out that corn, rather than if you walk out that door. It's subtle, but it's great. It's not really positioned as a punchline. It's just in passing, but it's very funny. There are also a lot of brilliantly relatable lines in there as well. There's some great jokes about marriage. One character says, marriage is just two people coming together to solve problems that they didn't have before. There's another character who says, my mama always used to describe marriage as being like a tornado. It starts with a whole lot of shaking, and then somebody loses a house. There are also plenty of what I like to describe as makes a lot of sense jokes where something will be said and then you think about it and you're like, yeah, that is actually a very good point. And that just makes it all even funnier. One of the peanut jokes that I think is maybe my favorite line in the entire show is, I think if you have time to jump in front of a bullet for somebody, they have time to move. And there are a handful more examples of this, like a line that Bo says at one point when he says, maisie, I've known you since that day after the day I didn't know you. But finally, and though I am quick to label this show as silly and full of goofy, corny puns, there is also some deceptively clever wordplay. There's a really great line that I've come to appreciate where Lulu, the character of Lulu, an independent local businesswoman who makes whiskey out of what else? Corn, who is also Maisie's cousin and closest friend, who is immediately suspicious of Gordy, the con man who Maisie has unknowingly brought back with her. She has various sort of semi sexually loaded conversations with Gordie as the two of them sort of sniff around each other and begin to understand how the other one ticks. But it's during one of these flirtations that she calls him handsome and he replies, oh, you think I'm handsome? And she has the brilliant line where she says, I think you're sweet as dessert. But dessert is usually after something. That's clever word play. I love that. Dessert is usually after something. Think about it. Take your time. I love that line. I think it's great. Anyway, that's a little bit of an insight as to why I love this book so much. I think it's one of the best and funniest books of a musical that we've heard in a really long time. I would go as far as to call this the funniest musical comedy I think we may have seen since the Book of Mormon, actually. And for a win win. It's also considerably less controversial. But let's carry on and talk about that legitimately great country score that I told you about. Like, I said many numbers in the second act that are very sentimental, very affecting, lovely to listen to honestly, very like First Dance at a Wedding kind of material. But there's also a handful of what will be truly great enduring musical theatre songs in there as well, like Independently Owned, catapulted to musical theatre fandom fame by the astonishing show stopping performance that Alex Newell gave on Broadway, winning a Tony Award. We will talk about Alex's London counterpart in Georgina Honora a little bit later on, but it is a fantastic song no matter who is singing it. And this has one of those lines that I told you about that is still funny even though it's not a broad comedy song. When Lulu sings don't need a man for flattery, I've got a corn cob and some batteries. That's a great lyric. Come on now. The opening number is full of little nuggets of wit and cleverness like that as well. The closest thing to an out and out comedy song is probably the song Tamper, which is spoiler alert. Where Maisie goes to go and try and find help in fixing the corn and she sings about her perceptions. Tampa I have a little bit of a gripe here, and it's more to do with the sound design at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre than anything else. And it's a challenging venue. At least when you're outdoors, there's birds flying across the stage and you're trying to balance challenging sound levels that are just, you know, evaporating up into the open air. There's planes flying overhead and you're never going to get the most clear and pristine sound quality. And it's just a balance issue because the great lines here are sung by Maisie with backing vocals from the rest of the company. And on both occasions when I've now seen this production, Maisie's lyrics are overpowered by the ensemble backing, so we can't hear the cleverness of the lyrics and all of the brilliant rhymes. And when she sings, there's a reason for another stanza as she continues on the song in a fun, self reverential way. There's great lyrics about Tampa. I also don't know if Tampa jokes in general land quite as well with a British audience, because we tend to think of Florida just anecdotally as like the home of Disneyland and like sunny and beaches. And I think the exact nature of the population and kind of perceptions of somewhere like Tampa probably aren't as clear to us here. But if the songs aren't always overtly hilarious, there is still A remarkable amount of wit in them. There is a song that Bo sings called Somebody Will after trying to come to terms with the fact that he and Maisie are no longer going to be together. And the opening line of this is objectively very funny and would probably get a laugh if it didn't slow down. I maintain if this was delivered a little bit differently and if it was kept at pace, then people would laugh at it because, he sings, I was raised on the Bible in a hammer and a nail. When I wasn't raising corn, I was raising hell. But it just kind of rals in a way that suggests to us it's meant to be more sincere and sentimental, and so we don't really chuckle. There's another musical moment in the show that really pays tribute to the Music man that Gordie sings as he's trying to convince the townspeople of Cobb county to help him move the rocks away from the corn. He has no idea whether or not this is really stopping the corn from growing, but he thinks the rocks are incredibly valuable and he falsely believes that there is a mob boss trying to have him killed. Finally, let's talk about some of the changes that have been made to the score for the London production, or possibly some of these may have been implemented for the current US Tour. I haven't yet seen that, so I don't know when these changes were made, but certainly there are updates to the Broadway version of the score. There is a change to the end of the song Woman of the World. It's the bit that formerly used to go, oh, I'm a woman. I'm a woman of the world. I grew up in the country. I'm not just a country girl, whatever those lyrics may be. And instead, at that moment, we hear a reprise of the travel song that got Maisie out of Cobb county. And it's the same music that is going to get her back there again before finally ending Woman of the World in the same familiar way. There's also a different ending to Gordy's first song when he's singing why can't I be better at just being Bad? He has a big belty ending instead here, rather than the like doo da da da da da da da da du da. It now has him belting out like mom and dad. And it's a very impressive note. I don't know that I prefer one of these versions to the other. I have bigger issues about that, so. But we'll get to them when we talk about character. The song Holy shit, that Peanut Lulu And Bo sing when they believe they've discovered Gordy up to no good. A little later on in the show is in a completely different key. And I remember this being more different when I saw the first preview in London. I think it may have been reworked slightly backwards to something closer to what it was before, but I could also be completely incorrect about that. There are certainly differences in the way that that has now been arranged and it no longer heads into a reprise of the Tampa melody. But as promised, let's carry on and talk about the creative contributions to this show. No, I really enjoy Jack o' Brien's direction. I think there is such a friendliness to it. I think it is light on its feet, but also full of charm. I think it really uplifts the heart of the show, but not in a heavy handed sort of a way. The storyteller characters that are used as the framing device are so smart from a comedic perspective. From a structural perspective, they do really important exposition very seamlessly. And also there's a little bit of a meaning that comes out at the end that is like genuinely very affecting. And I could absolutely overanalyze this show. But indulge me for just a moment as I tell you about Scott Pask's set, which is largely very similar to the set that they used for the indoor Broadway production at the Nederlander Theater. There are slight differences in terms of the configuration. The whole thing has a little bit more of a semicircular thrust, so there's a little bit more depth to play with. There are occasional moments. The staging feels a little bit sparse, but it's a little less wide than it was at the Needleander. We have Khorne on either side, through which we enter an exit, as well as using multiple levels of this barn space. I love that when you really think about it. And because the characters, we come to find out like, you know, they are playing themselves. It's not that there are people portraying these characters, but you have the storytellers existing alongside them and eventually they acknowledge each other. So there's a little bit of an artifice to the whole thing. Essentially what they are doing, if you think about it, is they are putting on a show in a barn. And I think that that's very charming and now works even better outdoors. I mean, the corn of it all kind of speaks to the outdoor setting. There are many great shows at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre historically that have really utilized the outdoor vibes. The first show I ever saw there was into the woods back in 2010, 2011. There have also been other productions where, you know, it doesn't really speak to the setting as closely. I'm thinking about Lucy Moss's Legally Blonde as an example. But Shucked really does feel like it works in this environment. And you have the added bonus that not seeing the show because you couldn't get a ticket. Then you can walk past the theatre and you can hear the sounds of Shucked echoing across beautiful Regent's park in London. I've gotten a little bit away from my point, but what I wanted to say is that, yeah, the set is largely unchanged. They do have to add a line at the end of Act 1 where a curtain would normally come down. There are no curtains in open air theatre, unless they dropped one from above via helicopter. And I don't believe they yet have the budget necessarily for that. Although Open air Miss Saigon with an actual helicopter. When. I'm just saying. So they do a mini reprise of the end of act one moment musically, so that everyone can then scarper and flee from the stage. And there's a little bit of a funny line where Stevie Webb, as storyteller number two, says, oh, you don't have a curtain here. And then they're like a 5, 6, 7, 8. And then they all flee. We also have to talk about Sarah Ogleby's choreography. There are a couple of really terrific standout moments. I love the end of Woman of the World when Stevia is the storyteller, comes in doing these balletic Le pulling Maisie along on a little wagon as she's brandishing a crocodile, returning triumphantly from Florida. There's a little bit of a nod to a chorus line in the beginning as part of a lot of the show's cornography, when they're wielding these corn props, they have a little bench that they put out atop some barrels in the opening number. And they make essentially a corn kick line using these little corns. That's very funny. And the standout choreographic moment probably happens in the second act. It's a song called Best Man Wins. And members of the ensemble all rally around Bo as he decides that he is going to fight for Maisie and win her back from Gordie on the eve of their wedding. And they sing this encouraging, slightly dark, very macho song. And it involves a lot of choreographed barrels and jumping over these barrels and rolling over these barrels on long wooden beams and jumping up onto and off of the barrels. Very athletic, very involved. And this has always been an impressive number. I loved it. On Broadway, there is something about the beginning of the show happening in the evening light, and then the sun having set truly by the time we get to Best man wins. And that happening by darkness as they are conspiring and singing like it's time to let the moonshine shine a little light. Incidentally, I believe, and I've just heard this before, that while Shucked was being developed, at one point it was titled Hee Haw, at another point it was titled Moonshine. And both of those feature heavily in the lyrics of this particular number. In any case, the barrel stuff is really impressive, probably even more impressive on a slightly raked stage with a semicircular front as they are rolling these barrels down towards us in the audience. There's a real sense of thrill with that, but it's a very well staged number. Finally, I'm sure you're curious about the performances of the show's original London company. Now, Stevie Webb and Monique Ash Palmer play our Storytellers. Stevie Webb, who spent a decade in the Book of Mormon playing Elder McKinley. Monique is a former Six Queen. I enjoy the dynamic that they have. At moments. I felt as though Stevie, because he's bringing so much of his own own personality to the role, might have overpowered the duo just a little bit, but for the most part, I think they're really great together. I think Monique's is a more fundamentally American character that hasn't necessarily been as reworked for this production as Stevie has with Storyteller Number Two, that previously was played by Gray Henson and was more sort of Damien from Mean Girls Esque, another Gray Henson originated role. What Stevie is doing, doing with the characterization, with the physicality of it, with this thing he loves to do with his neck and with his own particularly original brand of humor, really, really works. There are a couple of moments where he's sort of too apologetic, I think, about the dialogue and about some of the punch lines, especially as we're getting to know the comedy style of the script, especially early on, I think you can have a couple of moments where you apologize for it, but being like, oh, was that good? And the slightly faux embarrassed quality about the joke that you've just delivered starts to feel little bit of a crutch. Now, speaking of other characters that feel substantially different from the Broadway version of the Show, I saw two different actresses portray Maisie on Broadway, and Sophie McSheera plays the character in a very different way, a way that I have warmed to. I wasn't initially sure how I felt about it because she's playing Maisie in a way that feels considerably younger and, you know, equally passionate about the corn and doing the right thing, but with a little less conviction. It seems she has a lot more naivete, which could be mistaken for ignorance. And there's something about the way that all of these characters are portrayed. And there's a line that says as much at one point during the show as well. And, you know, they are simple and they are folksy and they are charming, but they are not portrayed as stupid or ignorant. And I think that there is a kindness to the show that gets pierced a little bit if they were to be portrayed that way. And Maisie spends a lot of it trying to advocate for herself and coming to terms with the realization that people don't believe in her, that they think they're considerably more wise and worldly than she is, even after she has gone and seen the outside world and then returned. And so I think there is a very fine line to tread here that we just about managed to tightrope walk along in portraying Maisie's naivety without making her seem stupid, because she isn't stupid. She's perhaps a little bit foolish at times. Some of the dialogue certainly speaks to that, but stupid she isn't. I do wish that some of her vocal moments were performed just a little more confidently, purely because. Because she has a lot of big solo songs, more so than any other character in the show. And when we get to, I think it's like the third one, then the whole thing starts to feel like it's gained a little more weight than we would like. In general, levity is a quality that is friendly to a show like this. And, you know, considering that we have a starting time of 7:45pm for evening performances, considering that it does run for around two and a half hours, if the whole thing feels like it's beginning to drag a little bit, then that's not ideal. Ideal. Now, Ben Joyce plays Maisie's childhood sweetheart, Beau. Not only is this role sung sensationally, somebody will is probably the first showstopper that we encounter in the show, but he's also so charmingly portrayed. He is so endearing. We really root for him as a character. And he has some great moments of physical comedy as well. There's a moment where after he and Maisie have truly broken up, she returns to his farm, and he's out, you know, working on the corn, trying to fix the solution. And when Andrew Durant played the role on Broadway, this moment seemed less deliberately forced. But Ben as Beau, sort of Sees her coming and takes his shirt off and starts doing push ups on a barrel at like a 45 degree incline. And there does a bunch of claps in between and pretends that he didn't realize that she was walking over. That's hysterically funny. Gordie, meanwhile, ends up inadvertently becoming Maisie's other suitor. He is the con artist from Tampa that I told you about. He's portrayed in this production by the brilliant Matthew Seddon Young. Sung fantastically, all the jokes delivered brilliantly, so well characterized. His flirtations with Georgina Honora as Lulu and the chemistry betwixt them. If, you know Sophie and Ben have this real sweetness to their relationship, there is a palpable sizzle to what Georgina and Matthew managed to achieve on stage. Very, very well done. Gordie, however, is a character that increasingly I understand less and less and, you know, he has a cartoonish quality that fits in with the characters of Cobb county, even if the whole thing is that he doesn't fit in with their way of life because he's an outsider and he will never understand them. He's a little indifferent to this, you know, takes his time to really appreciate the sense of community there and feel more a part of it. But when we are first introduced to him after we see him publicly peeing against a tree at the side of the stage, which I assume is something novel that they just get to do for the Regent's park production, as he enters across one of the grassy banks, it's explained to us, and then he sings a song about this, that he is an unsuccessful con artist, that, you know, he. He comes from a family of grifters and he can never live up to their reput. And he is, you know, huge disappointment in a long line of crooks. These being some of the lyrics from the song, except for the fact that, you know, other than being pursued by gangsters because something has gone awry, we only really see him being very suave and very convincing and, you know, sort of a little put upon, a little resentful of the situation that he finds himself in. But he's really pretty good at it. We don't see him making mistakes. If he was more of a like Dave Hearn mischief theater sort of a character, then that might make more sense. But. But I don't know, it. It increasingly just doesn't really work for me that that is the way that he is initially portrayed where it might make more sense for him to be a character who is just innately great at being bad. It comes so naturally to him, but he wishes he could do something different. I'm thinking about the characters that Rapunzel meets in Tangled who all express to her the dreams that they have for themselves if they weren't doing this now, speaking of Lulu, let's portrayed in this production by the extraordinary and versatile Georgina Honora. I have seen her be brilliant on stage in so many different, including as Ado Ani in the dramatically re envisioned Daniel Fish production of Oklahoma in the West End a couple of years ago. And that's appropriate because there is a lot of Ado Annie that you see in Lulu. Although admittedly she is considerably less naive. She has a very knowing quality alongside a similar sort of bawdiness and confidence. Georgina owns every inch of that stage when she is on it. This aside from. From the tremendous performance of Independently Owned that she gives. She has the most incredible instrument as a vocalist and she knocks that song and the entire performance of this very satisfying character out of the park. Out of the literal park that we are in. She has such confidence, she has such sass. She has such a great delivery of so many of these lines. And you know, she's so sure of herself that it's a delight to see her squaring off against Gordie. And then it's even more charming to see her a little unsettled by her attract to him and you know, to see her questioning that and that bringing out a slightly different color in her. I love the moments when she milks a particular laugh or the end of her terrific solo song with a little bit of a knowing smile. And there are differences in Alex's Lulu and Georgina's Lulu. Hers feels a little darker in some ways. There's some moments when, you know, she's admonishing Maisie and it gets almost a little intense. Intense. And the romance and the flirtation of it all, I think has also been dialed up just a little as well. It's very Mae west in denim jeans. But I do believe I have saved the standout performance for last. Keith Ramsey is perfectly cast as Peanut. So staggeringly funny. It is such a brilliant performance. Every single one liner joke that happens. The way that Keith manages to maintain this ever so slightly gormless facial expression throughout the entire thing looking. Looking just slightly stunned, but while maintaining this, again, hugely endearing characterization. It's a fantastic performance. It deserves Olivier Award nominations come next year. It is so sweetly characterized. There is something of the Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper about it as well that feels very winning as a choice. It has similarities with what Kevin Cahoon did, but Keith seems I feel in many ways almost even more just like wide eyed and slightly out of it at all times that Rich really works. Ultimately, we are eating corn out of the palm of Peanut's hand. Which brings me to the end of my thoughts about Shucked. Hopefully that has helped convey to you why I love this little musical so, so much. It is running for a very limited time at Regent's Park Open Air Theater as part of their summer season. I'm excited about their upcoming shows. Expect reviews of those as well, so make sure that you're subscribed with notifications turned on so you don't miss my upcoming videos. But as always, I'm desperate to know what you thought as well. Who else has seen, Shocked or already at Regent's Park? Let me know what you think of it in the comments section. And in the meantime, thank you so much for listening to my review. I hope that everyone is staying safe and that you have a stagey day. For 10 more seconds, I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey Day. Subscribe.
Podcast Summary: MickeyJoTheatre Reviews "Shucked" at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, London
Episode Overview In the May 21, 2025 episode of MickeyJoTheatre, host Mickey-Jo delivers a comprehensive and enthusiastic review of the musical comedy "Shucked", currently staged at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London. With a 5-star rating, Mickey-Jo delves into every facet of the production, offering insights drawn from his Broadway experience and firsthand observations of the London transfer.
Introduction to "Shucked" Mickey-Jo begins by expressing his passion for theatre criticism while humorously admitting his affection for a musical centered around corn. He introduces "Shucked" as a heartwarming and comedic adaptation of the long-running US TV series Hee Haw, albeit evolving into an independent and charming narrative (00:00-02:30).
Plot and Setting The musical is set in the fictional Cobb County, a town entirely dependent on corn. The community thrives within a corn-encased barrier, isolating them from the outside world. The plot thickens when the corn mysteriously begins to die, threatening their livelihood. Enter Maisie, a determined young woman whose interrupted wedding propels her to seek help beyond the corn’s confines. Her journey introduces Gordie Jackson, a con man whose involvement adds layers of romance and comedy to the storyline (02:30-10:00).
Comedy and Script Mickey-Jo praises the show's relentlessly funny script, filled with dad jokes, puns, and clever wordplay. He highlights the balance between hilariously dumb gags and deceptively clever lines that enrich character development. Notable quotes include:
Mickey-Jo emphasizes that while the humor is broad and cartoonish, it never undermines the show's heartfelt themes of community and relationships.
Music and Score The musical boasts a legitimately great country score composed by Brandi Clark and Shane McNally, complemented by moments of sincere and sentimental music, especially in the second act. Mickey-Jo commends standout numbers such as:
London Production Enhancements Transitioning from Broadway, the London production introduces several notable changes:
Direction, Set Design, and Choreography Directed by the esteemed Jack O’Brien, the production exudes friendliness and charm. The set, designed by Scott Pask, remains largely faithful to Broadway with subtle modifications to fit the open-air venue. Choreography by Sarah Ogleby features:
Outstanding Performances Mickey-Jo offers detailed critiques of the London cast:
Conclusion and Final Thoughts Mickey-Jo wraps up his review by reaffirming his deep affection for "Shucked", celebrating it as one of the funniest and most charming musical comedies since "The Book of Mormon". He praises the show’s ability to blend silliness with heartfelt moments, making it a standout addition to Regent's Park's summer season. Mickey-Jo encourages listeners to experience the limited-run production and share their thoughts, embodying his interactive approach to theatre criticism.
Notable Quotes:
Final Recommendation With its stellar cast, clever humor, and enchanting music, "Shucked" at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre comes highly recommended. Mickey-Jo's detailed review not only underscores the production's strengths but also highlights its unique adaptation to an outdoor venue, ensuring it captivates both new audiences and longtime fans alike.
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