Broadway News: “Shucked” has landed on Broadway. The original musical comedy, set in the fictional southern Cobb County, opened at the Nederlander Theatre on April 4. The story follows a couple — and the characters they meet along the way — who puts their wedding on hold to save the small town as corn crops begin to die.
3 comments:
Shucked is a show I’m very excited to see. I know people have had opinions on the show. But I think it’s really interesting. Not only it’s an original musical, and it came from Utah but also the fact that it has country music. The fact that this article talks about country music on Broadway think it’s really interesting. Because I’m not the biggest fan of country music but I do think there’s a storytelling aspect to it. Country music is probably, the most storytelling music genre besides showtunes. And I think combining them is a really smart thing to do. One thing they talked about in this article is “to meet people go and thinking one thing and they come out thinking something else” people might think that since this musical is a country, western that it’s gonna be you know whatever the stereotypical thing is, and I think that’s really important especially to have original musical on stage with this message. I personally am very excited to see the show this summer.
While I know nothing about the musical Shucked, I am glad country music is coming to broadway. However, I critique the idea that country music seems like such an unusual pairing for Broadway. 9 to 5 was a country musical. Since 1978 country music has been on Broadway. Many would argue that country music has been on Broadway since 1943 with Oklahoma! Or since Annie Get Your Gun but I would argue those are classic broadway musicals with a country setting. I looked up pictures from Shucked and my major critique is that everyone seems to be portrayed like hillbillies, or worse, which my father taught me is one of the worst things you can say about southerners unless you are talking about your own extended family. Not all southerners are missing teeth or have patches on their clothes. Even in poor southern towns a southern mother would never let you go out unless you were well dressed. I’m glad to hear southern music is returning to broadway but the depiction of southerners sounds like it is only increasing stereotypes.
I’m excited to see how Shucked does as a musical because I’ve been following along with its creation from paper to stage. I do think Broadway has a large range of eurocentric and American music and while Country isn’t the most prominent I do think it’s a little silly how much the article focuses on the perils of bringing one of the most American genres of music to America’s theatre hotspot Broadway. Like Bright Star, Best Little Whorehouse, Big River, and dozens of others have country music or folk type beats in them and while Shucked might be a huge country music musical I think the article’s rise-from-the-ashes set up is a little goofy. In the end though I think the musical will be funny and heartwarming because at the end of the day it is just a musical about community and coming together as the article states itself.
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