Mirvish's 'Shucked,' a thoroughly American country musical with a Canadian star at its centre, is the show we need right now

“Relieved” because “Shucked,” the Broadway musical that’s opened up shop at Mirvish’s Princess of Wales Theatre, really shouldn’t work in Canada of all places, let alone in a city like Toronto.

I mean, c’mon: a corn-themed American country musical whose official “stalks-person” is Reba McEntire? A show set smack dab in the centre of middle America and designed to cater to audiences from around that same region? (Its upcoming tour stops include Johnson City, Tenn., and Midland, Mich., with populations of 74,000 and 43,000, respectively.) 

Really, Mirvish? 

But in a world where up is now down, down is now up and a musical about singing cats is about to tread the boards on Broadway once again, I was somehow sold.

“Shucked” is not just good. It’s surprisingly great — a delectable popcorn fiesta slathered with butter and drizzled with some sweet, sweet caramel. 

The joy of Robert Horn’s show lies in its modesty and simplicity. It doesn’t attempt to reinvent the musical genre. Its corny, if predictable, romantic story is one that’s been told time and time again, a variation on that formula perfected by Hallmark and Harlequin, all wrapped up in a tuneful and varied collection of country songs by the Grammy-winning duo Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally.

But “Shucked” is one of those works that achieves what it sets out to do, and then some. 

At the centre of Horn’s fable — or “farm to fable,” as described by the musical’s two narrators (played by Maya Lagerstam and Joe Moeller) — are the inhabitants of Cobb County, a community of down-to-earth, corn-loving farmers. 

But when the town’s corn crops start to die off, bride-to-be Maizy (Canadian theatre star Danielle Wade) calls off her wedding to her beau Beau (Nick Bailey) and insists on making the long trek to Tampa, Fla., in search of a corn doctor.

In the big city, she finds Gordy (Quinn VanAntwerp), a smooth-talking man who claims he can save Cobb County’s crops. Maizy then proceeds to fall head over heels for him. (Would it really be a southern romance story is she didn’t?) 

Gordy, however, is no corn man but a con man. And when he follows Maizy back to Cobb County, he tries to bamboozle her fellow townsfolk into thinking that he’s their saviour. But really, he’s only buying himself time because he wants to get his hands on what he believes are the town’s precious rocks, which he plans to sell to pay off his mounting debts.

If this plot summary sounds a bit like the premise of “The Music Man” — but with cobs of corn instead of 76 trombones — and Gordy reminds you of the musical’s sleaziest con artist, Harold Hill, know that Horn is already thinking several steps ahead of you. The first act finale of “Shucked,” in fact, is a direct riff on the tongue-twisting patter song “Ya Got Trouble.”

“The corn’s in trouble, so let’s troubleshoot / Like any other problem, the problem’s at the root / And the roots ain’t rootin’ cause the soil ain’t soakin’ / And the soil ain’t soakin’ cause the rocks are suckin’,” raps Vanantwerp’s Gordy in that ingenious number.

I, too, didn’t think I’d use the word “ingenious” to describe any part of a musical about corn. But here’s the thing about “Shucked”: the show may be simple, but don’t mistake its simple nature for unintelligence, because this musical is anything but.

The same can also be said about how Horn has written his cast of characters. Smartly and rightfully, he doesn’t make the Cobb County residents the butt of the musical’s jokes. It’s quite the opposite, really, as they’re the source of much of the show’s humour. 

The corny comedy, stuffed with double entendres, is reminiscent of the humour in the Canadian sitcom series “Letterkenny,” which also focuses on the adventures of small-town residents. 

In “Shucked,” the jokes fly at the audience at a mile a minute. Not everything lands. (One gag in particular, about a character on meth, lands with a thud and should be cut completely.) But Horn’s humour is much like a bag of popcorn: Sure, some kernels may fail to pop, but more than enough do to make for a satisfying experience. 

Jack O’Brien’s production is superb across the board. That isn’t always a guarantee with an O’Brien-helmed musical. In his previous shows like “Hairspray,” “The Sound of Music” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” I’ve typically found his work to be bloated, with overblown production designs and lumbering scenic transitions. 

But none of that is apparent in this staging. Here, the action takes place on a single set, designed by Scott Pask and meant to resemble a ramshackle barn. Props and other smaller scenic elements roll on and off the stage efficiently, while Sarah O’Gleby’s high-energy, rough-and-tumble choreography makes smart use of various found objects, like cylindrical barrels and planks of wood. 

As Maizy, Wade is wondrous. While the part is certainly a departure from some of the more classical roles she may be most associated with (including Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” and Marian Paroo in “The Music Man”), her husky, mellow voice works well for this musical’s country score. 

Miki Abraham, as Maizy’s fiercely independent cousin Lulu, is a confident presence on stage, even if they somewhat struggle toward the upper end of their range in the challenging solo “Independently Owned,” the very antithesis of a torch song in which Lulu belts out about not needing a man for flatteries when she’s “got a corn cob and some batteries.”

But the standout of the company, without a doubt, is Bailey, who subverts the tropes of the hillbilly farmer and offers a barn-burning vocal performance in his two solo numbers. 

On balance, this is one of the strongest touring companies to grace a Mirvish stage in recent years. And so too is “Shucked” as a whole. You could even say that the show is simply ear-resistable.