More ‘Airplane’ Than ‘Mormon,’ ‘Shucked’ May Make You Wish You’d Ducked

If you’re considering buying tickets to Broadway’s newest musical comedy, “Shucked” — and I recommend that you do — I’d suggest you first purchase a helmet, especially if you’re planning to sit in the orchestra section. Otherwise, you’ll risk getting hit right in the kisser by one of the jokes that fly from the stage like speedballs, only with much greater frequency than any pitcher could maneuver.Some early buzz on “Shucked,” a show with an entirely original story centered on people with conservative values that mixes gentle parody with unabashedly bawdy humor, was that it might be this season’s answer to the long-running hit “The Book of Mormon.” I’d invoke a different medium: Robert Horn’s libretto for the new musical, set mostly in a small town whose survival is threatened when its corn crop starts dying, reminded me of films such as the original “Airplane” and “Caddyshack,” initially underappreciated screwball comedies of a less self-conscious era in which writers and directors weren’t hobbled by fear that a few one-liners might fail to land or, heaven forbid, be judged in bad taste. The director here is no less an authority than Jack O’Brien, whose credits over more than half a century include, in addition to Shakespeare and Stoppard, raucous musical comedies such as “Hairspray,” “The Full Monty,” and “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” For “Shucked,” Mr. O’Brien has assembled a cast of relative unknowns whose gifts prove ideally suited to the show’s motley crew of mostly loveable characters. Even the jokes that don’t soar — and a bunch seem deliberately, well, corny — are served with such knowing relish that they’re fun to laugh at.Broadway newcomer Ashley D. Kelley and “Mean Girls” alumnus Grey Henson play a pair of storytellers who guide us on our journey, and double in choice bit parts ranging from gangsters to jewelers straight out of a Borscht Belt routine. While narrating, Mr. Henson gets to flaunt his standup skills further. “Like the receptionist at the dementia clinic said: ‘Who does he think he is?’” he breezily quips at one point. Caroline Innerbichler makes another fetching Broadway debut as the heroine, Maizy, whose determination to save her small town leads her to defy the warnings of friends and family and travel to a forbidding big city: Tampa, depicted in Scott Pask’s fanciful scenic design and Tilly Grimes’s costumes as a sort of Vegas for less adventurous tourists and retirees, with gray-wigged ensemble members clad in garish fluorescent hues.Maizy leaves behind a fiancé named Beau, played by a charmingly earnest Andrew Durand, and her cousin and best friend, Lulu, whom Alex Newell imbues with a boisterous presence and a booming voice, not to mention killer comic timing. “Men lie all the time,” Lulu warns Maizy. “Hell, one tried to convince me you could suck out a kidney stone.” She adds, “Momma used to say marriage is like a tornado. It starts off with a whole lot of banging and pounding and ends up with someone losing a house.” Kevin Cahoon proves just as deft as Beau’s brother, a sort of goofball savant named Peanut who, whenever asked for his opinion, responds with a mini-monologue. For instance: “I think … I think when a movie says ‘based on a true story,’ it happened, but with uglier people. I think if you have time to jump in front of a bullet for someone, they have time to move.”Yet the niftiest surprise in “Shucked” — no kidding — may be the score. The music and lyrics were co-written by Nashville veterans and frequent collaborators Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, who have collectively written and produced songs for a slew of respected hitmakers, from Kasey Musgraves to Reba McEntire. Country music has a stronger narrative tradition than rock, and continues to place a higher premium on songcraft than contemporary pop does, but it wasn’t a given that a pair of Broadway newbies, however accomplished in another arena, could deliver the range of melodically and theatrically compelling songs on tap here, from the instant she-done-me-wrong classic “Somebody Will” to Lulu’s fiercely catchy showstopper “Independently Owned” to buoyant production numbers such as “We Love Jesus” and “The Best Man Wins.”Certainly, in a season that’s recently welcomed impressive revivals of musical theater favorites such as “Sweeney Todd” and “Parade,” “Shucked” isn’t the meatiest option available. For those seeking a lighter form of diversion, though, the corn here is undeniably fresh, sweet, and juicy.

More ‘Airplane’ Than ‘Mormon,’ ‘Shucked’ May Make You Wish You’d Ducked

More ‘Airplane’ Than ‘Mormon,’ ‘Shucked’ May Make You Wish You’d Ducked

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