“Now, I know when some of you think ‘small towns,’ you think ‘gun-toting rusted-truck hayseeds who think liberal is how you pour your whiskey and fluid belongs in your gas tank,’” says one of the two nameless storytellers narrating the musical Shucked, playing through June 7 at the Smith Center. Then the storyteller raises her hands in a “hollup, lemme cook” gesture, and adds, “I want you to open your minds … and think even smaller.”
Aaaaaand we’re off. Shucked, one of the most enjoyable Broadway imports I’ve had the pleasure to see at the Smith, draws laughs and cheers with a regularity you could clock with a metronome. The coming-of-age story of Maizy (Danielle Wade), a good-hearted naïf who leaves her farmer fiancé Beau (Nick Bailey) to find help saving her town’s dying corn harvest—inadvertently enlisting the help of Gordy (Quinn Vanantwerp), the world’s worst con man—Shucked is light on drama but heavy on dad jokes. An elote sampler:
“He was attacked by clowns, so he went for the juggler.”
“These eyebrows may not be children, but I’m going to raise them.”
“A paper plane that doesn’t fly is just stationery.”
Don’t worry; this isn’t even close to all of them. With a book by Robert Horn and music from country singer-songwriters Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, Shucked moves along so briskly that you scarcely have time to digest one gag or savor one sweet pop-folk number before the show serves you another one. And sometimes it multitasks, as it does in one of the show’s best songs, “Independently Owned,” sung by Maizy’s whiskey-making cousin Lulu (Miki Abraham): “I'm independently owned and liberated and I think sleeping alone is underrated / Don't need a man for flatteries, got a corn cob and some batteries.”
The songbook also offers sweet corn. “Maybe Love” and “OK” are tremendously affecting ballads, and their impact lands more squarely thanks to the hilarious storytellers (Maya Lagerstam and Joe Moeller) spinning this “farm to fable,” who are only too happy to spoon-feed you the story and chase it with groaner puns. Shucked is a sunny, golden kernel of entertainment, at a moment when we desperately need one.
SHUCKED Through June 7, showtimes vary, $40-$182. Reynolds Hall, thesmithcenter.com.
