Back in 2015, composers Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, along with playwright Robert Horn, believed they had a surefire future Broadway hit on their hands. But as is often the case, a New York City theater dream didn’t quite go as planned.
The world premiere in Dallas of that would-be hit musical — “Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical” — landed with a lukewarm fizzle. Despite the feeling that the tepidly received premiere sealed the fate of the show, there was still another chapter to explore.
With a nice long break, renewed vigor, and some tinkering and retooling, the trio’s embattled musical ultimately became the Broadway charmer “Shucked,” which, after a successful 2023-24 Broadway run, has embarked on a North American tour plays at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco Sept. 9 through Oct. 5.
For Clark, there is no doubt what her feelings were back in 2015, and she was resigned to closing the chapter on her first major musical theater collaboration.
“We got very mixed reviews and it was definitely a low point, and I felt like it was over for sure,” recalled Clark, a 2024 Grammy winner for the song “Dear Insecurity.” “Honestly, I was a little bit OK to walk away from it, even though there was sadness.”
Horn boasts writing credits that span many generations, including “Designing Women,” “Teen Beach Movie” and its sequel, and “Tootsie the Musical,” a 2019 Tony Award winner for best book for a musical.
He readily admits that “Moonshine” and its lack of a clear point of view buried its chances of moving on to other business.
“I think we all felt disillusioned with it, and it felt unsatisfying because we didn’t hit on what it was supposed to be,” Horn said. “We needed to step away from it. But after something like three years, I called Brandy and Shane and said, ‘Let’s start over,’ and they were right there. So yes, it was disappointing, but I’m grateful. Had we not had that break, I don’t think we would have had what we have now.”
What the trio has now is something that goes hard in the fun category, nominated for nine Tony awards in 2023. The show follows the citizens of Cob County as they prepare for a wedding, rubes who fiercely love God and moonshine (not necessarily in that order). They also love their corn, which, tragically, has suddenly begun to die off due to a mysterious malady. A slimy podiatrist who calls himself a “corn doctor” comes into town with curious, self-serving solutions that the bumpkins are happy to oblige. There are also parallel love stories, a hearty collection of “corny” jokes, and a soundtrack that pays tribute to country music with other stylistic influences sprinkled throughout.
While very little has survived from that original Dallas premiere, it does retain its focus on the nature of family, whether by blood or by choice.
“In the process of creating the show, Robert, Shane and myself became family, and that’s what we held onto,” Clark said. “I think there were times where I didn’t necessarily believe in what we’re doing or the direction we were going in, but I believed in the three of us and I think they both felt the same way because we had to go down a lot of roads.
“Not all of those roads felt right when we were going down them, but what always kept me coming back was the synergy between the three of us.”
For Horn, creating something that contained heart and comedy in equal measure, leaning towards that synergy of his collaborators gave him renewed purpose. The hindsight also provided a blueprint to avoid, transitioning from a story lacking perspective to one that has its purpose clearly defined.
“Whenever you write a musical, you have two questions — why does it want to sing, and what does it want to say,” Horn said. “We decided we wanted the show to be a fable with narrators who are taking us on a journey with a surprise at the end. Once we went in that direction, suddenly it all began to take shape.”
That shape is built from the strengths of each of the three creators. While Clark and McAnally have grasped the nuance of mixing tempos and styles to create a plentiful collection of delightful and poignant Broadway tunes, Horn’s edgy humor fits in nicely, giving a show with plenty of heart some crude humor to spice things up (a character named of “Peanut” delivers many irreverent one-liners that keep audience mouths agape).
Horn had a level of comfort having written for Broadway and film over the years, yet Clark and McAnally dealt with quite the learning curve. But once their comfort level in a new genre locked in, Clark counted her blessings daily.
“I didn’t realize things like the economics of Broadway, or how hard it is to get and keep a theater,” Clark said. “It was a gift for Shane and I coming in as outsiders to this world, because if someone would have said you can do this, but it’s going to take 10 years, I don’t know if I would have signed up for it. But we needed every one of those years to get the show to where it is.”
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social.
‘SHUCKED’
Music and lyrics by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, book by Robert Horn, presented by BroadwaySF
Through: Oct. 5
Where: Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St., San Francisco
Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes, with an intermission
Tickets: $62.01-$198.90; broadwaysf.com