Corny country musical Shucked is no Book of Mormon

Shucked
Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, London, until June 14

There’s always a cheering atmosphere at the first night of the opening show of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as it brings with it the prospect of long summer nights and swimming pools full of chilled rosé wine.

I would not say Jack O’Brien’s production of Robert Horn’s hit US country musical comedy Shucked amounts to vintage Regent’s Park – he is a good, spirited director of a very slight sort of show – but the good-nature of the cast and the great set from Scott Pask make it all seem a lot more than the sum of its parts.

There’s a lot of yee-hawing among the farm hands as Maizy – Sophie McShera – prepares to marry Beau – Ben Joyce – in corn country. But ultimately it all feels a bit like a sub-prime Oklahoma, and, whatever else one might say about Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally’s music and lyrics, they sure ain’t up there with Rodgers and Hammerstein. It feels ambitious to say, as some have done, that this could be as big as The Book Of Mormon.

Its big redeeming feature is Keith Ramsay wisecracking his way through the proceedings, noting, among other things, that the women who want sensitive, intelligent boyfriends seldom notice that those potential boyfriends already have boyfriends.