Review: SHUCKED, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Dying crops, a community in distress, scandals, affairs, Shucked was hailed as the pinnacle of musical comedy when it premiered in 2022. With a book by Robert Horn (writer of Tootsie and the stage adaptation of Disney’s Hercules, to mention a few credits), plus music and lyrics by country songwriters Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, Jack O’Brien’s production lands in Regent’s Park for its UK premiere after a handful of wins and a Grammy nod too.

The show might be an easy giggle, ready to charm with puns galore and a corny score, but it's shuckingly mid. Every inch is tropey and formulaic, with quips that are either the low-hanging cob or the most extravagant sexual innuendo, missing the sophistication of well-calibred humour altogether. It has plenty of moments of brilliance and the company is overwhelmingly excellent, but the material isn’t as dazzling.

The plot sees Maizy putting her wedding on pause to try to find a way to save her town. Her fiancé, a proud country boy named Beau, larger than life and affably arrogant, is against her leaving Cob County. When she meets Gordy, a co(r)n man, in the exotic city of Tampa, Florida, he bamboozles her and they go back to the countryside together. The Cob County natives mostly don’t like the intrusion, a diatribe ensues, love blossoms, happily ever after. Fin.

The collection of characters is endearing, but the Storytellers (Steven Webb and Monique Ashe-Palmer) steal the scene. They carry the story, intervening to include context or moving the events along, elevating the company's dad jokes, middle-school banter, priapic innuendos, tongue-in-cheek asides, and whatever other genre of fun you can think of. Webb and Ashe-Palmer get the long end of the stick and get to deliver the most nuanced strand of irony, toying with satirical stereotypes and presenting nuggets of comic gold. Put into the frame of reference, however, it’s difficult to say to what degree the show mocks itself, where the self-deprecation ends and the short-sightedness begins. It turns out you can have too much of a good thing.

With the text being composed of an unbroken chain of punny antics and no serious base line in sight, the lack of tonal shift makes it hard for the satire to be sustained successfully. Having so much comedy without any dialling back or quality control gives a flat result; the pace becomes exhausting. The fact that we have a comedic relief (Peanut) exemplifies it: while genuinely amusing, it piles on. Only halfway through the second act we get some nuance, maybe to finally back up the notion that this is a fable (yes, “farm to fable” is in there) - though we’re unsure what the moral is by the time the saccharine ending comes.

While we’ve been quite critical, the production isn’t bad. The ensemble are an energetic bunch, featuring truly impressive vocal performances. Webb (previous Mormon, now hilarious social media star too) is an incredible character actor while Georgina Onuorah brings the metaphorical roof down as Lulu. Ben Joyce does the same, with an extraordinary rendition of “OK” while Keith Ramsay relentlessly speaks in euphemistic gags with delicious aplomb. Scott Pask’s wonky barn hides a bounty of detail and becomes a visual allegory for the whole thing while Sarah O’Gleby’s choreography particularly shines during the choral pieces.

All in all, it’s a pleasant, extremely low-stakes, early-summer night out. The pigeons scurrying across the stage add to the whimsy while the redneck wisdom and blue collar maxims will probably delight many. Even the formula might work in their favour and make it a quirky, familiar pleasure. There’s a vague evangelical leitmotif that might raise some eyebrows, but it’s ultimately feel-good, unpretentious, harmless theatre.

Shucked runs at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre until 14 June.