Maizy and Beau, two residents of the rural Midwestern community of Cobb County, are forced to postpone their wedding when the corn crop is blighted. Maizy, on the advice of her cousin Lulu, the local whiskey distiller, leaves town to try to find a way to save their corn. Maizy travels to Tampa, Florida, where she meets Gordy Jackson, a con-man who claims he can help, but secretly thinks Cobb County might have riches he can take to settle his debts. When the two return, Gordy comes into conflict with both Beau and Lulu, which leads to some interesting situations. (Synopsis adapted from Wikipedia.)
What I didn't expect was how gosh darn funny the show was going to be. I only knew stuff from the songs, and there's a nice mix of humor there. However, the lines are the funniest part. Especially all the stuff Peanut says and how he delivers it. I was laughing constantly. Lulu had some great one-liners too. So many puns throughout the show, as well. If you're a pun fanatic, you will LOVE it! The characters seemed to enjoy making fun of themselves and each other. What my son didn't expect was to cry from the first song, which is about corn. I get it though. It was more the overwhelming excitement of seeing everything on stage. (I cry during the opening number of Legally Blonde every time I see it.)
We had two understudies for this show. One was for Maizy, who is usually played by Caroline Innerbichler. However, we saw Traci Elaine Lee in the role and she gave it her own spin. While Caroline comes off as more twangy on the cast recording (which is how she is supposed to sound and it is cute), Traci's vocals were smooth and still worked really well for the role. (Listen to her singing "Woman of the World.") Storyteller 1 was played by Yasmeen Sulieman (usually played by Ashley D. Kelley) and she was adorable and so much fun. She worked really well with Grey Henson, who played Storyteller 2. (We were thrilled that he was performing because he played Damian in the original Broadway cast of Mean Girls.) And of course, we were so excited to see Alex Newell as Lulu. I can't even imagine anyone else in that role. They were perfection! Everyone in the cast was wonderful. Kevin Cahoon definitely stood out as Peanut, especially with his accent and hilarious line delivery. The actor who played Gordy (John Behlmann) was on Riverdale, but I had to look him up and it still took me a while to remember him.
I already like the songs a lot from listening to them, but now they make even more sense along with the story. All the songs are really good. Some favorites are "Woman of the World," "Somebody Will," "I Do," and "Independently Owned." It will be fun to listen to all of them again and be able to visualize everything that is going on. I am not going to spoil anything for you though. If Shucked comes on tour, I highly recommend it for a ton of laughs. Even if you don't like country music, it's so worth watching. (My husband isn't into the music but I think he'll find the show really funny if he actually sees it.) If you're able to see it on Broadway, definitely do so!
We got to meet a couple actors after the show. Kevin Cahoon (Peanut) and Grey Henson (Storyteller 2). They both were so nice! While we were hanging out around the city after the show, we ran into Grey and he recognized us from the stage door. He even chatted with us! Day? Made! Unfortunately, Alex didn't stage door, but we were glad we got to see them perform. It's not as common for actors to stage door between shows since they have so little time, so we're thankful for who we got to meet. (Also that we went last week, since they're holding off on stage-dooring this week due to a spike in COVID. Yikes.) Here's a funny video of Grey and Kevin having a little chat, but only one is actually in character.
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| Kevin Cahoon |
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| Grey Henson |
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