SHUCKED - SHORT TURN AROUND - NEED MONEY BY FRI 107.46 M, 96.28- SU EVE

LAST SHOW OF THIS SEASON, TURNING IN AT LEAST 15 SEATS OR MORE BACK FOR THE EVE, AND AT LEAST 15 SEATS BACK FOR THE MAT. FINAL PAYMENT IS DUE THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 18

Shielded from the outside world by a tall wall of prosperous corn, the people of Cobb County have everything they need. They have zero interest in interacting with anyone beyond their golden ears of corn. But when an unknown source threatens that livelihood, the townspeople begrudgingly accept they may have to reach out for help.
Out of this quandary emerges Maizy, the story’s unlikely heroine who travels to the big, awe-inspiring city of Tampa, Florida, in search of a corn doctor, who she finds in a podiatrist/ineffectual con-man named Gordy Jackson.
“Shucked” is described as a fable from the outset, driven by two storytellers who frequently break the fourth wall and engage with the audience. But while the story is a fable, Horn didn’t want the moral to come down on the audience like a hammer.
“I think people don’t want to be lectured about humanity,” he said. “They want to see stories about humanity.”
So instead, through a script that rapidly delivers puns and folksy non sequiturs, and through traditional theater music that has a country music twist, “Shucked” explores a number of themes, including the clash of values between a small town and big city, the importance of keeping an open mind, and working through division to achieve unity.


John Behlmann is pictured during a rehearsal for “Shucked,” which ran at the Pioneer Memorial Theatre in Salt Lake City through Nov. 12. “Shucked” will open on Broadway in the spring. | Emilio Madrid
“The story is simple, but in a sneaky way,” actor John Behlmann, who plays Gordy, said. “If you want your dog to eat the medicine, you’ve got to put it into peanut butter. Very few people want to go to a show that feels like homework. And I think this show really goes down easy and people will get a lot out of it.”
Horn doesn’t like comparing one work to another, but if he had to provide theatergoers with a frame of reference, he would say “Shucked”— which he describes as “unabashedly corny and yet very progressive at the same time” — falls somewhere on the spectrum between “The Book of Mormon” and “Oklahoma!”
“I really wanted to use this sort of classic American humor to explore an American problem, which is division,” he said. “When you look back at a certain time in history, the art will always tell you what was going on at that moment in history. Even if it’s art that lasts for centuries, it will always tell you what’s going on at that moment. And so I think where we are culturally, just in the zeitgeist right now, we wanted the story to reflect that. But we also wanted it to be timeless. And we wanted it to be funny.
“If we can’t laugh, then we have no hope.”

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