Corny 'farm to fable' musical heading to Tucson

Life in Cob County — with one b — centers around corn.

It’s the residents’ commerce and livelihood. It’s their very identity and everything in their lives, including the wedding of town sweethearts Beau and Maizy, is dependent on corn.

So when folks start noticing the corn dying on the eve of the couple’s I Do day, they put the brakes on the nuptials until they can get to the bottom of it.

Maizy, intent to save her wedding and the town, springs into action, telling Beau she’s venturing to get help outside of the cornstalk barrier that hides Cob County from the outside world.

In faraway Tampa, she meets Gordy, a “corn doctor.”

He’s actually a podiatrist and a desperate conman who owes the mob money. But after seeing Maizy’s jeweled bracelet, he figures he’ll let her think what she may of his occupation and follows her and the bracelet to Cob County.

Most of the townsfolk, including Beau, his brother and Maizy’s cousin, see through Gordy, but can’t convince Maizy, who falls for Gordy’s con that the jewels are causing the corn to die. His solution: he’ll take the jewels far from Cob, and the corn will flourish once again.

We won’t give away any more plot twists and summersaults of Robert Horn’s musical comedy “Shucked,” which Broadway In Tucson is bringing to Centennial Hall Tuesday-Sunday, Aug. 5-10.

But the musical, which ran 335 shows over 10 months on Broadway, earned nine Tony Award nominations, including best book, best musical and best original score for the award-winning Nashville songwriting duo of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally and a Tony for Alex Eugene Newell for best performance by an actor in a feature role, musical.

It also got some critical love, with Variety calling the “farm to fable” musical “silly, sweet and salty escapism,” while the New York Times said it was a “glut of gleeful puns and ‘cornography’,” but it’s “mostly empty calories you’ll find in this sweet, down-market cornucopia.”

Horn said “Shucked” has been a hit with audiences from its first preview in April 2023 at Nederlander Theater, Manhattan, the parent company of Broadway In Tucson.

“We really didn’t know; we knew it was going to either sink or swim,” he said last week after returning from three months in London, where the show made its European debut. “That first performance ... was thunderous. I had never heard laughter like that, and Shane, Brandy, and I and the whole team were sitting together, and we just looked at each other and said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s going to work’. The audience took the ride from the beginning.”

The spring 2023 opening was more than a decade in the making, and it started with a suggestion in 2012 from the Grand Ole Opry that Horn, whose résumé includes writing the book for “Tootsie” the musical, write a musical based on the southern-fried variety show “Hee Haw,” which aired from 1969-1992 on CBS. Although he’s a big fan of variety shows, he felt that “Hee Haw” had not aged well.

A few years later, Horn started to see how divided the country was becoming. In 2018, he started flirting with a story idea about racially diverse characters living in harmony, tied to a singular purpose, raising corn.

At the core, Horn said, was a “message of tolerance and acceptance” that he witnessed in his personal life.

“My in-laws are all Southern Baptist Republicans from the South, and I’m a liberal Jew from New York and our families love each other,” he said. “We don’t talk about what we don’t have in common. We spend time together and talk about what we love about each other and accept each other.”

That introspection was key to the underlying story of “Shucked,” he said, but “I don’t believe in hitting people over the head with a message.”

He believes the most enduring life lessons are taught through laughter.

“I write comedy. I don’t believe we’re gonna change anybody’s minds. What I do believe is that we can open their hearts, and that’s what ‘Shucked’ is about,” said  Horn, who filled the play with priceless one-liners:

“I think people in China must wonder what to call their good plates.”

“Brother, remember when we were kids, building sand castles with grandma — until grandpa told us to put her back in the urn.”

“What would your mother say if she were alive right now? ‘Get me out of this box.’

“I never understood why they are called chicken tenders until I let one caress my face.”

“It’s about when you open your heart to someone who’s different than you, you can grow, and corn is a euphemism for that,” he said. “It’s subtle. We don’t hit you over the head with it. It is a hardcore comedy with incredible music and incredible cast, but the message underneath is tolerance and love and acceptance of people who don’t think like you.”

Horn said his contacts at the Opry suggested a few Nashville songwriters to compose the score. After meeting with dozens of writers, Horn sat down with Clark and McAnally, who had collaborated on several songs on Kasey Musgraves’ debut album “Same Trailer Different Park,” including “Follow Your Arrow” and “Biscuits,” as well as on “Mama’s Broken Heart” for Miranda Lambert.

“I walked into the room and I felt I just fell in love with them,” said Horn, who, as a gay man, was thrilled to be working with “out queer” country artists. “I thought that that was fantastic, that they were who they were; they were so authentic in a (country music) world where it was very hard to be authentic.”

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This was the first time either Clark or McAnally had written for theater, Horn said.

“There was just such a simpatico between Brandy and Shane and myself and because so much of it was funny, you could sort of organically feel where you needed to slow down and have that pathos,” he said of working with the pair. “When you have a comedy that has this many laughs in it, that’s just a barrage of comedy. You don’t want to exhaust the audience; you need to keep them invested in the characters in the story. If you don’t ... it doesn’t matter how funny it is. Doesn’t matter how good the music is. You’re not going to care. ...

“There was just finding this balance of funny, funny, funny, and then heart, and then, you know, drama and stop and you let the audience breathe, let the audience absorb and let the audience get invested, then bring it back to laughter again.”

“Shucked” was one of only a few original Broadway musicals to hit the stage in 2023 and one of two original works touring.

Horn said he, Clark and McAnally are working on another musical, this one set in Texas.

“Shucked” is Broadway In Tucson’s 2024-25 season finale.

“Les Miserables” opens its 20th anniversary season Sept. 9-14. For details, visit broadwayintucson.com.

If you want more corn in your life ...

Head out to Apple Annie’s Orchard in Willcox, which boasts having the “best sweet corn in Southern Arizona.”

We can’t confirm or deny their claim, but we can attest to their roasted corn, available all day on Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 1.

Here’s our saliva-inducing take, confirmed by Apple Annie’s Director of Fun Mandy Kirkendall:

They take that fresh-from-the-field sweet corn, still in its husk, and slow roast it until the kernels are tooth-tender. They pull the husk down over a small portion of the stem that’s covered with tinfoil, creating a nifty handle, before they slick it up with butter.

You can take it old school with the butter, or you can dress it up with any of the nearly two dozen seasonings that include jalapeño cheese, loaded baked potato, Parmesan cheese, BBQ, pickle, Cajun, beer, lemon pepper, sea salt, mayo and tajin.

You could even go super sweet and, frankly, super weird and opt for the birthday cake seasoning. Talk about an incentive to get your kiddos to eat their vegetables.

There are no tricks when it comes to eating roasted corn, especially in public. You take one bite and the juice from the kernels will squirt over your hands, and you’ll have butter stains and little bits of corn on your chin and cheeks and likely whatever shirt you have on.

“If you’re going to eat corn in front of anyone, even at home, it’s quite a spectacle,” says Kirkendall, who grew up on Apple Annie’s and has worked 17 years for her parents, the farm’s founders John and Ann Holcomb.

In case you’re thinking you might find an out by requesting they shell your perfectly wonderful roasted ear of corn, think again. Roasted corn is served one way: On the cob, Kirkendall said.

Just think of it this way: No one is going to say a word about the way you eat corn on the cob, whether it’s piano scales down the length of the cob then move onto a new row; or around the world, eating around the entire cob in small sections.

You can order fresh-picked sweet corn during business hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, but you can only get roasted corn Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Sept. 1 at the farm, 6405 W. Williams Road in Willcox; it’s about a 90-minute drive east of Tucson.

You also can check out Apple Annie’s other fresh-picked offerings, including apples, peaches, cherries, summer squash, peppers, cucumbers, beans and tomatoes. For a list and more information, visit appleannies.com.

If you want to hear more country music ...

Check out these country shows heading our way.

• Lee Brice (“Hard 2 Love,” “Love Like Crazy,” “Drinking Class”) is playing Desert Diamond Casino‘s Diamond Entertainment Center, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road, on Friday, Aug. 1. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $65-$85 through ddcaz.com.
• Glenn Awong and his Hawaiian reggae-country band Maoli bring their “Last Sip of Summer Tour” to Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., on Aug. 7. Tickets are $38-$136 through ticketmaster.com.
• Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives return to Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St., on Aug. 7. Tickets are $44-$76 through foxtucson.com.
• Longtime Tucson pop-blues-rock singer/songwriter Jacob Acosta introduces his country side with his band Golden Hearts. They play Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., on Aug. 8; $15 in advance, $18 day of show through hotelcongress.com.
• Local Love Presents is hosting Dry Heat Country Fest at Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St., on Aug. 22 with a lineup of local and regional country acts: Brian Beckman, The County Line, The Alex Taylor Band and Kurt Legnon. Tickets are $6-$14.95 through rialtotheatre.com.
• Brad Paisley brings his “Truck Still Works Tour” to the AVA at Casino del Sol, 5655 W. Valencia Road, on Aug. 23 for his first Tucson show in three years. Tickets are $51.40-$257.40 through casinodelsol.com.