Shucked, with music and lyrics by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, and book by Robert Horn, heads into London following a run on Broadway.
The place is Cob County, a small town running on corn and its by-products, including a particularly potent whiskey. Maizy and Beau are on the point of marrying when the corn begins to die.
Right from the off, we know Shucked is going to be gloriously silly. The relentless barrage of bad jokes and double entendres rarely stop. In this high-energy show, there’s little room for the plot.
What saves a rather weak story variation on boy-meets-girl by way of a cardboard villain characterisation are the performances, featuring a whole cast of amazing voices and winning personalities.
Monique Ashe-Palmer and Steven Webb are the storytellers, keen to pitch in with supporting bits. Webb is campily hilarious and a natural quipper, but Ashe-Palmer won’t be and isn’t overshadowed.
Other standouts in the cast are Georgina Onuorah (Lulu) whose “Independently Owned” raises the roof (if the Open Air Theatre had one), Ben Joyce (Beau) who unleashes an impressive set of pipes in “Somebody Will”, and Keith Ramsay (Peanut) whose droll comedy timing brings the most laughs.
Matthew Seaton-Young (Gordy) and Sophie McShera (Maizy) have their moments to shine, but their characters feel respectively underwritten and sugar-sweet. By the second act, which features fewer songs and a definite sense of melodrama, their story arcs are too neatly resolved.
Shucked is beautifully designed by Scott Pask (set), Japhy Weideman (lighting), and John Shivers (sound), while Sarah O’Gleby‘s choreography and Jack O’Brien’s direction offer an energetic and uplifting experience.
It’s perhaps a little long and runs out of steam by the finish, but it has lots of little moments you need to see and hear for yourself.
What I’ll take away from Shucked are the laughs and the tongue-in-cheek ribbing of the Bible-toting country farmers in the American backwaters and the lights and fakery of the big cities.
It’s a piece that seeks to entertain, and if you can set aside the deliberately corny characterisations and equally corny quotes and not look for an involving story, this is well worth the trip to Regent’s Park.
I’m giving this 3.5 stars.
Shucked continues at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park until 14 Jun with tickets here.
Image credit: Pamela Raith