Shucks: Corny musical harvests bad dad jokes, bushel of laughs

In Cob County, Roe vs. Wade is a debate over how to get across the river.

If a paper airplane doesn’t fly, it’s just stationary.

If you had time to take a bullet for someone, they had time to move.

And one of our favorites from the “Shucked’ opening night Tuesday: “You remember what Grandpa said on the day he died, don’t you? ‘You boys holdin’ onto that ladder?’ “

That last niblet of wisdom was among many delivered by Peanut (the incredibly funny and adorably naive Mike Nappi) as he tried to reunite brother Beau (Jake Odmark) with his fiancé and childhood sweetheart, Maizy (Danielle Wade).

Corny puns season Robert Horn’s farm to fable musical, which closes out Broadway In Tucson‘s 2024-25 season; it runs through Sunday at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. on the University of Arizona campus.

Horn’s musical comedy about a girl who leaves the haven of her cornfield in search of a “corn doctor” to save the isolated and very diverse town’s signature crop on the eve of her wedding day takes its lead from the 1970s countrified TV variety show “Hee Haw.”

Back then, we called the jokes cringe-worthy; in Horn’s hands, they’re more like an endless series of bad dad jokes with some not-so-subtle sexual innuendo mixed in. Warning to parents: Your kids won’t get half the jokes and the ones they will get they’ll likely have already heard courtesy their friends and social media.

But pull back the husk of Horn’s play, and you find sweet kernels of perfect hominy wrapped in a heartfelt and totally predictable and corny love story. It will make you cringe, then smile, then cringe again and possibly wet yourself from laughing so hard at one-liners like this:

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“Family is telling someone to go to hell and then hoping that they get there safely.”

“Politicians and diapers have one thing in common: They should both be changed regularly.”

“The last thing I want to do is hurt you. So we’ll get to that.”

“He was head over heels, which is just standing upright.”

“What would your mother say if she were alive right now?” “Get me out of this box!”

Celebrated Nashville songwriters Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally penned 17 pop-country songs including the hilarious opening number “Corn,” sung by the Storytellers (Maya Lagerstam No. 1, Tyler Joseph Ellis No. 2), who narrated the play throughout; and “Independently Owned,” the anthem Maizy’s cousin/best friend Lulu (Miki Abraham) belts out to assure anyone listening that she doesn’t need a man to define her.

“Shucked” is a newbie in the Broadway musical repertoire; it ran on Broadway from spring 2023 to January 2024 before hitting the road. Not many, if any, of Tuesday’s audience generously filling Centennial Hall had likely heard any of the songs, but judging from the laughter, many caught the nod to “Hee Haw” when Odmark and the cast sang Beau’s high-energy fight-back song “Best Man Wins.”

While Clark and McAnally’s songs sat comfortably in the modern pop-country space, the cast, who spoke with exaggerated Southern accents, mostly leaned into the accent-free pop elements. Wade and Abraham were the exception; Wade brought a wonderfully worn twang to the ballad “Maybe Love” while Abraham turned “Independently Owned” into a sassy roadhouse romp.

In past years, Broadway In Tucson has ended its season no later than early June, but due to scheduling, this was the only time the Tucson presenter could host “Shucked.” For tickets and more information, visit broadwayintucson.com.