By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Saturday 10 May, opens 19 May and runs through 14 June 2025 RUNTIME: 140 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Fans of the country-inspired hits by acts including Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter will find a great deal to enjoy here in this Tony-winning musical about a woman trying to save her community when the corn that protects it starts dying.

• Read on for reasons including how this is the best new musical of the year so far

Sophie McShera (The Entertainer, Garrick Theatre and Downton Abbey) plays Maizey delightfully and at the show’s opening we join her as she is about to marry 1st love Beau (an on fire Ben Joyce) until she decides instead to leave her isolated Cob County home to find a solution to her corn predicament.

The show’s best segment three-quarters of the way through makes the most of its best songs to explain the fate of the podiatrist, or corn doctor, she finds in Tampa, kisses and brings home jeopardising her relationship with Beau.

Vividly drawn is Maizy’s best friend forever friendship with successful businesswoman Lulu and it is Georgina Onuorah’s (Cinderella, Gillian Lynne Theatre and Kiss Me Kate, Barbican) performance that you will perhaps remember most about this very funny and hugely entertaining show.

Sample line to a potential squeeze: ‘Opinions are like orgasms – mine matter most. And I don’t care if you have 1.’ She also bosses 1 of the show’s stand-out songs (see Broadway version below).

Keith Ramsay as Beau’s brother Peanut gets the bulk of the show’s funniest lines and there are a lot of corny innuendos.

Beau may struggle articulating to Maizy exactly how he feels but his song Somebody Will (watch below) when they break-up and he contemplates life without her sounds like exactly the sort of country-inspired song with multiple hooks that dominates radio play across the world right now.

We loved the show’s kooky narrators who both propel the action but are also very funny and there’s even a bad guy to root against given life by a dastardly Matthew Seadon-Young (The Baker’s Wife, Menier) who really just needs redemption through kindness

The winner of 1 of the 9 Tonys it was nominated for in 2023, Shucked is a new musical with a book by Robert Horn (Tootsie) and this gorgeous outdoor venue is the perfect setting for a story about nature – its joy and decline – particularly as the sun sets on a beautiful day during the show as it did on this night.

If you’re thinking about paying a visit to this – and you should – check out the Broadway cast album beforehand because you’ll fall in love with the songs with other gems including Friends and Maybe Love.

But nothing could quite prepare us for the strong sense of community about this show, its fantastic cast, score of thrilling country hits and how much we would laugh along with it. Best new musical of the year so far.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre Tickets
• Have you seen a Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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