Album Review: SHUCKED The Musical Releases Its Corny Cast Album & It's A Toe Tapper

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby's CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week's album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from the Broadway musical SHUCKED. Yes, you read that right me Darlins, there is a musical on The Broadway called SHUCKED and it's about... you guessed it - CORN! Now, Bobby readers know full well that your rainbow boy has a taste for the corny side of entertainment. Let's face it, an art form where people present stories on stage and then stop to sing their emotional states is inherently corny... a bit. "So what is this SHUCKED, Bobby?" we hear you asking... Well -

Set in fictional Cobb County, whose original settlers (in the history of this particular world) were pilgrims that broke with their strict Puritan neighbors and migrated away to find farmland not already occupied by Native Americans. In present-day Cobb County lives the story's hero, Maizy (see the corn reference there?), played by the wonderful Caroline Innerbichler. Now, Maizy is about to "git hitched" to her childhood sweetheart Beau (Andrew Durand) until the community realizes that there's something up. Their corn, apparently the only source of commerce The Cobbits have, mysteriously starts rotting away. This is also more than just an economic problem since these people have walled themselves up completely behind a corny barrier as high as an elephant's eye, and so the threat of the outside world popping through the corn is real. It is down to Maizy to venture out and find a solution to Cobb County's dilemma before it is too late, all while dealing with her wedding plans and a community that wants no part of what's out there and wishes to remain children of the corn (giggle).

Now to the music - True to what you might think - the country & western is ON from the first note of the OVERTURE. With the "implied" title song CORN, two storytellers, Grey Henson & Ashley D. Kelley, who pop in and out to talk to the audience, do all of the above exposition about the history of Cob County - a town that produces and lives by the corn they grow. This number is a real barn raiser with fantastic vocal arrangements and harmonies and ... corn. The song moves us all the way up to Maizy & Beau's wedding getting interrupted and then leads into the gorgeous WALLS solo by Maizy (Innerbichler) who, in perfect Dogpatch dialect, sings of longing to find a window and not a wall. Knowing she must be the one to take on the world, Maizy & CO sing the spirited TRAVELIN' SONG and the story is off to the races. Needless to say, the Tony® Nominated script and score by Robert Horn (Book) and Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally (Score) follow Maizy in search of what will save her town, in and out of danceable uptempos and country-infused ballads, and, along the way, there are troubles and obstacles but everything turns out ok in the end... just not the way everyone expected. The HeeHaw-ness of it all is very much leaned into, with absurdly clueless characters and their views on the world, which is alternately hilarious and groan-worthy but well mitigated by the foot-stompin' music. The superb cast of voices includes the FAB-U-LOUS Alex Newel (He/Him) as Maizy's bestie Lulu, who has the rousing INDEPENDENTLY OWNED - Lulu's strong independent black woman anthem wailed in the way only Newell can. The songs are produced with wonderful sound and the people are top of their games performance-wise. Also, this one gets our usual points for giving listeners a real sense of story continuity in the abbreviated format of a cast album.

In all, dear Bobby-files, if, like this rainbow writer, you love that wonderful down-home cross-section of musicals that include things like BIG RIVER, THE ROBBER BRIDEGROOM, BRIGHT STAR, or, let's face it, OKLAHOMA, then you should definitely go get SHUCKED since Bobby gives this record...

4 Out Of 5 Rainbows - Put this one in your stream today: HERE

You Can See And Hear Everything About SHUCKED On The Webbysite: HERE

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