Theatre / Shucked

A Farm-to-Fable Musical

We were corn-bred, we were corn-fed
Out here, we really feel like we were chosen
We love corn flakes, we love corn cakes
Don't know where we would be without that golden corn!

"Corn", the opening song.

Shucked is an original musical that opened on Broadway in 2023.

Maizy and Beau are getting married in isolated Cob County, which is walled in on all sides by corn. Life in Cob County revolves around corn, so when the corn suddenly wilts and turns blue, the wedding is put on hold to deal with this pressing crisis.

Despite the objections of Beau, Maizy travels to far off Tampa where she meets Con Man Gordy Jackson. Gordy needs to make some money fast before some debts of his come due. Seeing her bracelet made from local Cob County rocks, he gets it evaluated and finds that it is made of a valuable mineral that apparently is just lying around Cob County. He woos Maizy and claims to have a cure for the corn's problems, if she'll just take him there...

The musical is partly derived from work done on a Hee Haw musical, and has a similar jokey, corny feeling, but the only elements that remain are some of the songs and the character of Lulu.

The Broadway run was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning one (Alex Newell as Lulu, for Best Featured Actor in a Musical).

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Tropes grown in Shucked include:

• Anti-Love Song: "Independently Owned" is all about how Lulu doesn't need a man.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension:
  • Between Maizy and Beau. Each of them feel like the other doesn't trust them, they're both stubborn and willful, neither of them knows how to back down, and they've wanted to be together all along.
    Maizy: We're not "arguing", I'm right and you're just sayin' things.
  • Between Lulu and Gordy. She hates that he's a Con Man who is conning her best friend, but she's also very attracted to him. He knows she's on to him but thinks he can use her to get closer to Maizy and (hopefully) clear out the blue rocks.
    Lulu: I bet you can whisk an egg with that tongue.
    Gordy: No, but I can definitely fertilize one.
    Lulu: (aroused) I like the way I don't like the way you talk to me.
• Book Ends: The play begins and ends with Beau and Maizy's wedding. Both times, Peanut asks for a Bible, and almost everyone on stage pulls one out of a pocket to offer to him.
• Break Up Song: "Somebody Will" is Beau's song about how if Maizy doesn't want him, then somebody else will.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Peanut answers a lot of questions in ways that were generally not expected.
  I just passed a huge squirrel... which is odd because I don't remember eating one.
• Connected All Along: Storyteller 1 is the grandchild of Gordy & Lulu, and Storyteller 2 is the grandchild of Maizy & Beau. This makes the duo third cousins to each other.
• Dramatic Irony: The audience knows that Gordy both can and should leave the rocks alone and head back to Tampa, because the crime boss is dead and the rocks are worthless. Gordy, however, doesn't know due to bad cell phone reception.
• Easily-Overheard Conversation: It seems like everybody but Maizy overheard Gordy talking on his phones, making them all suspicious of him.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Maizy stops by to talk to Beau, who proceeds to pull up his shirt, flex, and thrust his pelvis. All she can do is stare.
• The Eleven O'Clock Number: "Corn Mix" wraps up the main storyline, as Gordy gets so drunk he confesses that he's just there for the blue rocks.
• Friendship Song: "Friends" is all about Maizy and Lulu patching up their friendship after their fight about Gordy.
• Funny Phone Misunderstanding: Gordy gets two calls, one from the muscle telling him the crime boss has died and he's off the hook, and one from the jewelers telling him they were mistaken about the blue rocks and the ones in Cob County are worthless. Due to poor cell signal, he misunderstands both, thinking that the crime boss is coming after him and the rocks are still valuable.
• The Gentleman or the Scoundrel: Maizy is torn between Beau, a reliable farmer that she grew up with, and Gordy, a Con Man who's just using her to try to pay off his debts.
• "I Am Becoming" Song: "Woman of the World" is about Maizy realizing that she has become more than just a small-town girl from Cob County.
• Interactive Narrator: Downplayed. The Storytellers jump in as multiple bit characters in the story, and Storyteller 2 jumps into the ensemble of "Best Man Wins" (because it's his favorite) but never interact with the characters as themselves (Likely because, since they're the grandchildren of the main couples, that would involve time travel).
• Love Epiphany: During "I Do", Maizy goes to Beau for help writing her wedding vows for marrying Gordy, while Gordy goes to Lulu for help writing his own vows. They both realize that the person they're talking to is who they really want to be with.
• Mob Debt: Gordy, a Con Man who isn't as good at being bad as the rest of his family, owes a debt to a crime boss, which encourages him to woo and lie to Maizy about being able fix her corn so he can follow her back to Cob County and take the rocks there, which he was told were made of a valuable rare mineral. Subverted when the crime boss dies near the end of Act 1 and the mineral turns out to be worthless, but due to a Funny Phone Misunderstanding, Gordy thinks the mob is still closing in, which makes him stay and push up his plans. However, this gives him just enough time to fall in love with Maizy's cousin Lulu and find the family he's always been missing in Cobb County, deciding to stay there. As a bonus, his con actually does fix the corn, if entirely by accident.
• Punny Name: Maizy, from "maize", the native word for corn. Lampshaded; Grandpa talks about what she was named for, gesturing toward some corn stalks, before saying she was named for her grandmother.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Gordy tells the townsfolk to gather up all the blue rocks so he can carry them away, because they're what's causing the corn to wither. He wants to run away with the rocks, but it turns out that he was actually right - the rocks are blocking the water.
• Sassy Black Woman: Lulu, at least as portrayed by Alex Newell. She's a large black woman who owns her sexuality and can seem like the Only Sane Woman.
• Setting Introduction Song: "Corn", the first song, tells us all about Cob County and how much they love corn.
• Shirtless Scene: Beau tries to tempt Maizy back by pulling up his shirt, flexing, and using pelvic thrusts to move some barrels around. While she certainly seems to enjoy the view, it isn't until they talk and Speak in Unison that she kisses him.
• Show Stopper: "Independently Owned", Lulu's big number late in the first act, needs a pause afterwards for the audience to stop applauding.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Maizy's wardrobe changes as she's returning from Tampa during "Woman of the World". She pulls off her denim skirt to show that she's wearing a brightly-colored one underneath, and from then on, she's typically dressed in bright colors instead of the worn and patched denim worn by most of the Cob County residents.
• Small Town Boredom: Averted. Maizy doesn't want to leave because she's bored, she wants to go out and find someone who can help with their corn.
• Speak in Unison: Beau and Maizy know each other so well that they do this during their argument, down to waiting the same amount of time before continuing it.
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: Lampshaded at the end of "Independently Owned", with Lulu singing about being "independently owned, and modulated" just before the song goes up in key.
• Villainous Lament: "Bad" features Gordy singing about how bad he is at being bad, and how he needs to get better at it.
• Whole-Plot Reference: A smooth-talking conman shows up in a rural community in order to extract wealth from the locals, but finds himself falling for the one woman who sees through him, and is eventually accepted by the community despite his con being revealed. Are we talking about Shucked? Or The Music Man?

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