Registration now closed

Shucked: A New Musical

Small-Town Music in a Big-City Medium (Adults)

Join us for a presentation by music historian Stephanie Ruozzo where we learn about the score behind this "corny" new musical and its departure from a traditional Broadway show.

See other dates and locations for this program on our events calendar.

From the earliest days of its theatrical dominance, Broadway has been associated with affluent urbanites. The core demographic of Broadway musicals was white middle- and upper-class denizens of New York City. Creators, performers and executives working on Broadway have always recognized musical theater as a commercial medium and worked to appeal – at least on some level – to that core demographic.

Shucked works to expand the demographic of Broadway across class, geographical and racial boundaries. Featuring a score hovering between country/western, folk and blues, Shucked’s score frequently displays self-awareness of the disparity between the onstage events and personae, and the events and personae we would normally expect to see on a Broadway stage.

Refusing to descend into mockery of marginalized populations, the music of Shucked plays with Broadway audiences’ preconceived notions about what those populations sound like while giving those populations a modern voice. In this program, we discuss the score of Shucked, its composer’s musical inspirations and how the musical as a whole subverts traditional Broadway conventions.