Jim Harrington

Overall, the cast is fabulous — nary a weak link in the bunch — with each of the actors thriving in the trademark chaos, fun wordplay and abundant miscommunication that this play has been serving up ever since it debuted on Broadway back in 2005.

What’s the funniest musical that you can think of? ‘Spamalot’? ‘Hairspray’? ‘Mean Girls’? All worthy contenders, for sure. Yet, I laughed harder — and certainly more often — during opening night of ‘Shucked’ at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco than I did while watching any of those other entirely worthy productions. There are 498,735 jokes (give or take) in this 2022 musical, which received nine nominations — including for Best Musical — at the 76th Tony Awards. And roughly 498,736 of jokes work (do the math and you’ll see what I did there) in ‘Shucked,’ which is making its West Coast debut at the Curran.

Overall, “A Beautiful Noise” is not — to borrow from the “Sweet Caroline” fan chant — “so good, so good, so good,” but rather “so meh.” It fails to pass the one test that all jukebox bio musicals must face — which, of course, is whether it can rise above being something just for die-hard fans.