“Shucked” took its sweet, corny time getting to Hartford. The rural comedy ran for a year on Broadway, closing in January 2024. The first national tour began in October 2024. A London production came and went in 2025. A movie version has been announced and finally The Bushnell welcomes the show Feb. 24 through March 1.
The tour brings a familiar face back to Connecticut. Maizy, the “Shucked” farm girl who embarks on an odyssey to the big city in order to save all the corn in her town from dying, is played by Danielle Wade, who wowed audiences at the Goodspeed Opera House as the enchanting Nellie Forbush in “South Pacific” and in the Judy Garland role of Jane Falbury in the world premiere of the stage version of the movie “Summer Stock.”
“When I saw the first preview of ‘Shucked’ I said ‘I’ve to play that part,’” Wade recalled, hastily adding that she loved what Caroline Innerbichler, who originated the role, did with it as well. “Maizy is such a beautiful character.” Wade feels that Maizy is firmly in her wheelhouse of “small town country girl” roles, women who are “sweet and strong, with beautiful naivete.”
The touring cast was given the freedom to reinvent their roles to suit their own talents. The main creative team from the Broadway run was involved in setting up the tour. There were even a few rewrites between Broadway and the road, including a new opening for the second act. “Jack O’Brien was so game for everything,” Wade said of the show’s director.
Danielle Wade stars as the adventurous Maizy in the first national tour of the Broadway musical comedy “Shucked” (Evan Zimmerman)
Wade has been a part of the tour since it began nearly a year and a half ago. There’s been some turnover in the cast in that time. “We lost about five people. There are two new principals. New people can change the dynamic,” she said, which keeps the show fresh.
Another thing that keeps “Shucked” lively, Wade said, is “Everyone who’s in the show is just weird — in a good way. It’s a crazy show.” At the same time, she insisted, “Shucked” has heart. “It’s such a beautiful family story.”
Staging a rural, farm-based comedy on Broadway was one thing. Bringing it around the country, including the heartland, is another. “Every state has a different sense of humor,” Wade said. Something she also learned when starring in the national tour of “Mean Girls” (though she was no longer with that tour when it played Connecticut in 2022 and 2025). “For the first few minutes you’re figuring out what they think is funny.” The cast has learned to modulate the mirth as needed.
Adding to the challenge of bringing such an uproarious show on the road is the fact that “Shucked” is an all-original musical, not based on a book or a movie or a video game or anything other than the antics of American agriculture. The show’s book is by Robert Horn, who adapted both “Tootsie” and Disney’s “Hercules” for the stage and worked on Disney’s “Teen Beach” movies. Horn also co-wrote the musical “13,” whose pre-Broadway workshop at Goodspeed’s Terris Theatre featured a young Ariana Grande. The play’s music and lyrics are by Brandy Clark, the country music star who wrote songs for Kenny Rogers, Reba McEntire, Miranda Lambert and LeeAnn Rimes before becoming a star in her own right in the 2010s.
“Shucked,” the musical comedy adventure about a town where all the corn is dying, is at The Bushnell Feb. 24 through March 1. (Evan Zimmerman/Matthew Murphy)
The advertising campaigns for both the Broadway and touring versions of “Shucked” don’t give much away in terms of plot, an intentional ploy to keep things surprising. “No one knows what they’re walking into,” Wade said. “These are entirely made up, new adventures. Maizy is the main romantic character, but she also lives in a town entirely encased in corn and she’s the one who ventures out to save the corn. She’s the ingenue, but she’s a bit of a mess.”
The every-busy Broadway director Jack O’Brien, who besides having “Shucked” on tour also directed the tour of “The Sound of Music” coming to New Haven’s Shubert Theatre in March, declared that “Shucked” is ‘the funniest (expletive) thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. It’s totally original. How often do you get this experience? There’s so much stress, unhappiness and violence in the world, you need something where you just laugh your ass off.
“In this show, they stand for jokes!,” said the famed director, whose Broadway triumphs include “Hairspray,” “The Full Monty” and Tom Stoppard’s “The Coast of Utopia.” “We get standing ovations for jokes!”
“Shucked” runs Feb. 24 through March 1 at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Ave., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. $45.50-$174. bushnell.org.