Shucked

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Playing until 14th June 2025

Book tickets

Photo credit: Pamela Raith

When a catastrophe befalls Cob County, isolated from the outside world by a wall of corn, hysteria spreads through town and Maizy (Sophie McShera) plucks up the courage to venture outside of everything she knows to find a solution that’ll save their corn.

At the heart of this musical lies a community of cornhuskers that care and look after each other, and a young girl who yearns to proof herself from the people that don’t think she could. Robert Horn’s book lays everything bare in the sun, it is a fable, outright telling the audience that the fellas of Cob County know about the world outside, they just want no part of it!

To a degree, the central character of Shucked is corn, as corn-fusing at that sounds. Everything is centred around it, the town that reveres it, the thing that Maizy is trying to save and everything that transpires because of it. On her search, she encounters Gordy (Matthew Seadon-Young), a con man advertising himself as a ‘corn doctor’ (for feet), but mistakes him to be a doctor for corn (the vegetable, is it a vegetable? somebody please let me know).

Horn has incorporated countless number of corny jokes into it, endless innuendos and direct dirty jokes throughout the entirety of the show, and perhaps the singular production with the most and funniest one liner that I have seen in a very long time, if not ever. This is the epitome of a musical that has completely embraced its silliness and absurdity, dialled this overdrive and fantastically pulled in the audience into sheer ridiculousness of the story and stimulating howls of uncontrollable laughter along the way.

The script is accompanied by some wonderful country, or should I say corn-try music by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally. Like the script, it is full of wit. Though some of the songs are not funny on its own, they become shining gems when viewed with the delightful performance and choreography designed by Sarah O’Gleby. “Independently Owned” sung by Georgina Onuorah and “Some will” by Ben Joyce, Maizy’s cousin and fiancé, respectively in particular deserve standing ovations by themselves, showcasing perhaps the most earth-shattering vocal performances in the entire show. Onuorah in addition, has some of the best lines in the entire musical, stealing the spotlight in every scene.

Perhaps because of how witty the spoken dialogue is, some of the more ‘serious’ songs like “Walls” and “Woman of the World” lose some of their vibrancy and get a little lost within this script. Unfortunately, this is also one of the things that undermine much of Maisy’s impact in this production.

Saving the best for last, the two storytellers (Monique Ashe-Palmer, Steven Webb) that take the audience through the various plots are perhaps the funniest parts in the entire show, an endless reservoir of corny jokes, songs and larger than life movements, almost like the personification of the corn themselves as they bear witness to everything happening in Cob County. Words alone could not describe the sheer delight Ashe-Palmer and Webb bring to the stage, triggering excitement every time they open their mouth.

Scott Pask’s set design portrays a two storied barn house, in a field of corn. Given the premise of the show and the environment in which the story takes place in, there is perhaps no other set better suited to Shucked. In addition, the barn is right at home at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and there are few sets that are so flexible that it could be as effective indoor as it is outdoor.

The audience will be welcomed with a bountiful harvest of corny craze as they enter this fantastically maize maze, exiting with a sense of empowerment, an urge for adventure and so uplifting, you'll be happier than a tornado in a trailer park.

Creatives

Book: Robert Horn

Music and Lyrics: Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally

Director: Jack O’Brien

Musical Director: Katy Richardson

Costume Designer: Tilly Grimes

Set Designer: Scott Pask

Choreographer: Sarah O’Gleby

Lighting Designer: Japhy Weideman