I saw Shucked this afternoon, and as an Ohioan who grew up corn-heavy Guernsey County, my expectations for the corn content were as high as corn to an elephant’s eye.

I purchased my ticket through the Theatre Development Fund (tdf.org), and picked them up about 30 minutes before curtain. I was assigned Mezzanine, Row C, Seat 113, which was a little further left than I would have liked. There was, however, a number of seats to my right still empty at the start of the show, so I shimmied over to Seat 109, which offered a slightly better view. I didn’t miss anything.

I’ll get this pun out of the way: this show is corny! Where some shows could not even fathom delivering pun after pun the way this show does, it just works for Shucked. And delightfully so! The two Narrators and the whole cast delivers one-liners, puns and misdirection jokes throughout, and to be honest I thought they would get old, but, golly gee, they did not!

The songs in Shucked are enjoyable and some are memorable. Each moves the story along at just the right pace, and each felt like they added to the experience, the characters and none felt out of place. It’s been about two hours since I left the theater as I write this review, and a handful are still bouncing around in my head, including the showstopper Independently Owned. Alex Newell, as I had hoped and expected, blew the roof off the house and left me with goosebumps. They own that song and they earned the Tony they so rightfully won for it. It truly is worth the ticket price alone.

I describe the story of Shucked as a fish out of water bringing back another fish and all the fishes learning what family is. The comedy bits, often presented in vaudevillian fashion, land and have been rehearsed and polished to perfection. Not a single joke didn’t land. Not one. The bad-reception-cell-phone bit was masterful and so enjoyable! When they finished it, the actors rightfully took a bow.

I recommend this show. How much? So much so that I bought a magnet. That’s saying something.