SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Oct. 6, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — Gephardt Daily had the chance to speak to the Grammy Award®-winning songwriting team of Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, who wrote the score for “Shucked,” a new Broadway-bound musical about the one thing Americans everywhere can’t get enough of: corn.
The show will have its world premiere at Pioneer Theatre Company from Oct. 28 through Nov. 12.
The production is described as follows: “‘Shucked’ is the new musical comedy that proves sometimes tearing down a few walls, rather than growing them, is the only way to preserve our way of life. ‘Shucked’ is about to turn Broadway on its ear and offer a kernel of hope for our divided nation.”
Clark, who has been nominated for 10 Grammy Awards®, spoke from California, before coming to Salt Lake City for a month to put final touches on the score, while McAnally, a Grammy Award® winner, spoke from Salt Lake City Tuesday morning.
As well as having a thriving solo career, Clark’s songs have been recorded by Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, The Band Perry, Reba McEntire, LeAnn Rimes, Billy Currington, Darius Rucker, and Kacey Musgraves, among others. She was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
McAnally, as well as being a solo artist, has written and produced songs for artists including Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, Walker Hayes, Lady A, Reba McEntire, Lee Ann Womack, Kacey Musgraves, The Band Perry, Brothers Osborne, Old Dominion, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, Kelsea Ballerini and more.
Clark talked about how she and McAnally met and how they discovered their chemistry as writers:
“We met in the kitchen is what I always tell people because that’s the truth,” Clark said. “I was writing at a publishing company, that Shane, he wasn’t at the company, but he was coming to write with another writer at that same publishing company as I was at, and we would all get in the kitchen in the morning and get coffee, you know, everybody that wrote there, so there might be you know, 10 writers in that kitchen. And he was there writing with another guy who he’s also had a lot of success with Josh Osborne.
“And I met him (Shane) and I felt this instant connection to him. And he said he felt the same thing about me. He and I were scheduled to write the next day, we had never met before that, and he called the person that we were scheduled to write with who was kind of known to cancel at times and said, we can’t cancel this, I have a feeling about this girl. And so we wrote, and our first writing appointment was not magic. But he called me right after and said, I know that that wasn’t like, you know, we didn’t hit it out of the park, but I know we can.
“And so from there, we just started to write, not only write, but hang out a lot. We became great friends and really, I think the magic of Shane and I is even though we come from very different parts of the country, we sort of come from the same place and see the world similarly; we have a lot in common, we both were really close to our grandmas, and you know, love our moms, and you know, just around the same age and, you know, we both love country music, grew up on it. So that’s how it started. And then it didn’t take long for the creative chemistry to happen.”
McAnally elaborated on this story, referencing country great Loretta Lynn, who passed away Tuesday.
“We are both like mega fans (of Lynn),” he said. “We both have, we had similar grandmothers and our grandmothers died around the same time, even though we didn’t know each other then. And we’ve our stories about our grandmothers are very similar and one of the things our grandmothers had in common is that everyone told them they looked like Loretta Lynn.”
McAnally explained how the two became involved with “Shucked.”
“Brandy as an artist had released an album called ’12 Stories,’ and this was about 10, a little over 10 years ago,” he said. “And when they started looking for writers to do this, I know they spoke to a couple other people but what happened was somebody in the process said that this album ’12 Stories’ is how we imagined the music to sound. And so we wrote that record together.”
Clark spoke about how the name “Shucked” came about for the title of the musical.
“I wish we could take all the credit for that, but we can’t take it all,” she said. “The whole team, meaning myself, Shane, Robert Horn, our book writer, producer Mike Bosner, (director) Jack O’Brien, we all had a big creative powwow and were trying to figure out a title for the show. And, and I think it was Shane, who said ‘Shucked’ actually. And I remember it not being, it wasn’t like, like everybody said, ‘yeah!’, you know, there was a lot of like, ‘oh, like oysters? I don’t know, this might be confusing.’ But it stuck, you know, and I gotta say, the longer it stuck, the better. I mean, I think it’s just personally I think it’s a pretty genius title and it wasn’t mine. So I feel like I can say that. It really sets the show.”
McAnally explained what the two will be doing while they are here in Salt Lake City.
“Because of COVID and because of us getting this sort of bonus two years that at first seemed like a detriment but has turned into like the greatest gift because I think two years ago we thought the show was was ready,” he said. “And what happened was the entire show has been completely rewritten and pulled apart. We tried some things that really worked. So we come into Salt Lake, I think with a very close to finished show. So like yesterday, being day one, we knew that the director and Robert had some ideas about one song we needed in the second act and so we went ahead since we had the time and we haven’t been around each other feeling inspired. We went ahead and wrote it.”
McAnally added: “Today, we’ll probably clean that song up, show it to everybody and see what the notes are. And then beyond that, we have a couple of reprises to work on and as of now that’s it. So being here this long probably could seem a little indulgent in in that we we may not need to change a lot but what I have learned about the process of musicals, it’s very different from our world, as a writer and producer in Nashville, is that sometimes just sitting with stuff and watching it over and over and over, new things will evolve and we’ll just say what if that line changed to this? Sometimes it just takes being there.”
He also spoke about the advantages to writing with someone that you know very well, as he does Clark.
“I feel like it’s a huge advantage,” he said. “I can’t imagine doing something this that is this massive of an undertaking with someone that I didn’t have natural rapport with or rhythm more than just creative. We we don’t have the luxury of trying to step around each other’s feelings. Our history proves that we respect and love each other and if one of us says I don’t think that’s right, nobody has to go down the road of feeling like you know, feeling personal, because we both know how much we respect the other.”
Clark said the show is important in the current climate of 2022.
“I think it’s gonna help, it’s gonna make people laugh,” she said. “More than anything, I think it’s important for that reason, and I think we’ve all been through a lot and to have to have a couple hours where you can go and just be entertained, I think is is that’s more important than anybody really even knows. But I also think it’s important because in its humor, it tackles some pretty big things. You know, some pretty big themes. You know, our story’s about a town that nobody’s ever left and nobody’s ever come into. And they’re scared of outsiders. And they have to save their town, they have to let an outsider in. And I think that that speaks volumes about what’s going on in our world.”
Asked what her dream trajectory for “Shucked” would be, Clark said. “Well, my dream would be that it would run on Broadway for decades. And that it would be that show. The first show I ever saw was ‘Oklahoma.’ When I was a little kid, my mom took me to see a community production of ‘Oklahoma.’ And my dream would be that many, many little kids will discover musical theater by seeing community productions of ‘Shucked.'”
Clark added the show is child friendly.
“I think it is a show for the family,” she said. “I think it’s a show that, you know, some of the humor is is a little more than than PG, but that humor tends to go right over the heads of those that shouldn’t hear it.”
Clark said she is happy with the cast, which includes Broadway veterans John Behlmann (“Tootsie,” “Significant Other”) as Gordy, Kevin Cahoon (“GLOW” on Netflix, currently in “Monarch” on Fox) as Peanut, Andrew Durand (“Head Over Heels”, “War Horse”) as Beau, and Caroline Innerbichler (Anna in the North American tour of “Frozen”) as Maizy.
“I feel like we have a dream cast,” she said. “You know, along the way, I’ve gotten attached to different people because this show in some form or fashion has been in development for a decade. And so you get attached to different actors in different roles along the way and and you know, things happen, they’re not available anymore, or the show changes and it doesn’t work. And that’s always a bit of a heartbreak. But I feel like this cast that we’re coming into Pioneer with is is really the right cast for the show. And that feels really good, and it’s not the way I would have dreamed; it doesn’t look the way that I had it in my head. But it’s even better.”
After “Shucked” opens, Clark will be making a new record in November, while McAnally will be traveling with his husband and 9-year-old twins.
“We are taking our kids out of fourth grade, we’re traveling around the world,” McAnally said. “We did our first 100 days in Europe. We came straight from there to here and they are in Nashville doing just regular doctor’s appointments, dentist appointments, but we’re homeschooling this year. And so we love to travel, finding even just whatever a city makes the city tick.”
After Salt Lake City, McAnally and his family will be heading to Africa, then South America.
“We start in Morocco,” he said. “And then we’ll be in Egypt. And then we go to Kenya. So it’s a month and then we’ll come home for Christmas. For a week. And then we do our South America piece. Yeah. So yeah, pretty exciting actually. We’re very, very blessed and the timing just lined up with the show too. Because we’ll do this for six weeks, we’ll go to Africa, come home for Christmas, go out to South America and then we’ll all be in New York City for the Broadway setup. So I mean, honestly, this is like a dream.”
Gephardt Daily asked the pair their thoughts on the most perfect country song of all time.
“I don’t know that I could pick one,” Clark said. “It’s hard you know, because I’ve got my favorites but the most perfect you know so many, so many. Let me think here for one if you’ll give me just a second, really narrow it down. ‘Crazy’ is my favorite country song of all time. But I don’t know if that’s the most perfect you know, I mean, ‘Green Grass of Home’ is pretty great. You know? Because there’s something to me about a country song that makes you well actually, no, I’m gonna tell you what I think the most perfect, I think it’s Merle Haggard ‘Are the Good Times Really Over for Good.’ I think country music really celebrates blue collar hard working American values, small towns, and that song does not have that, you know him missing a different time?”
McAnally added: “My favorite song of all time is a song called ‘You Don’t Know Me?’ which is old, Eddy Arnold song and I just love it’s very economical. It’s very simple. It has very few lyrics and ultimately the the hook is; ‘you’ll never ever know the one who loved you, so no you don’t know me.’ It’s basically unrequited love.”
Tickets for “Shucked” are available individually, or as part of PTC’s season packages, at PioneerTheatre.org or by calling PTC’s box office at 801-581-6961.
