Broadway touring production of the musical comedy delivers the laughs again and again.

This one is just pure fun, a musical comedy that dishes up a laugh every 10 seconds or so without worrying too much about how. Puns galore, P&P humor (poop and penis) and folksy-dorky assessments of everything from cliché sayings to small-town romance.

It’s all served with a lively score by country hit-makers Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally and high-speed, hoe-down style choreography by Sarah O’Gleby.

It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a touring Broadway musical this much. It’s just fun, very silly, fast-paced and performed by a robust cast that’s been with the show for the past year. That familiarity shows, not just in the smoothness of the performance but with a good many bits that help create characters that, while caricatures, come across as real by dint of just how weird they all are.

The paper-thin plot is almost beside the point: Think of it as The Music Man with corn — lots of corn — and a conman who’s more interested in the potential mineral wealth of the town than he is with curing a corn blight that’s hit the community hard.

At the center of the action is Maizy (get it?), played by a vivacious and big-voiced Danielle Wade. She’s a young farmer all too eager to look for help outside the town despite her fiancé Beau (Jake Odmark) protesting that “no one” ever leaves their town — the oddly named Cob County. This causes a rift, and she leaves with the engagement on the rocks.

Listen to the OnStage Colorado Podcast interview with Colorado actor Ryan Fitzgerald, ensemble member with Shucked.

For reasons I wasn’t quite sure about, Maizy picks Tampa as the city to find help in, and there she meets a guy fleecing the locals by posing as a podiatrist (the “corn doctor” that catches Maizy’s eye). This is Gordy (an excellent Quinn VanAntwerp), the fast-talking, sharply dressed conman who quickly picks up on a potential opportunity when he eyes a bracelet Maizy’s wearing made with purple rocks from Cob County.

When she brings him back home with her, her split with Beau is exacerbated by her starting to fall for Gordy. Meanwhile, her BFF Lulu (a scene-stealing Miki Abraham) smells a rat but then falls for him as well.

It’s that kind of show, moved along with the help of two Storytellers, played with max enthusiasm by Tyler Joseph Ellis and Maya Lagerstam.

Storytellers Maya Lagerstam and Tyler Joseph Ellis keep the action moving in ‘Shucked.’ | Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Supporting cast

Shucked is a relatively small-cast musical, which gives all of the characters a chance to shine. Alongside the strong group of leads, there’s Peanut — Beau’s hayseed, doofus-philosopher brother. Mike Nappi has a fun time with the role, which finds him weighing in regularly when people ask him what he thinks. He invariably starts with a few non-sequiturs, like “I think that diapers and politicians should be replaced often for the same reason,” then moves onto an actual answer.

The Grandpa character is another one that delivers a few gems here and there. Watching Erick Pinnick portray him describing his feelings when he first met his wife is a hilarious bit – then we find out she died “doing what she loved — making toast in the bathtub.”

With the rapid-fire jokes, it’s hard to pick the best but here are a few to illustrate the style of the humor:

-Lulu: “Family is telling someone to go to hell and then hoping that they get there safely” and “If life was fair, mosquitoes would suck fat instead of blood.”

-Maizy to Beau: “We’re not “arguing” — I’m right and you’re just sayin’ things.”

-Beau: “Head over heels just means ‘standing.’”

-Lulu: What do you think your (deceased) mother would say if she heard that? Maizy: “Get me outta this box!”

Brothers Beau (Jake Odmark) and Peanut (Mike Nappi) in ‘Shucked.’ | Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Despite its less-than-favorable take on country folk, Shucked maintains that no matter how you look, talk or earn a living, people are people — and most of them are pretty stupid in one way or another. The script skewers everyone equally while still promoting a message of community that’s touching — and the source of much of the humor. Shucked may not have many profound things to say, but as a way to escape and laugh your butt off for two hours or so, it’s tough to beat.

[the_ad_group id=”1200″]