In a lot of ways, the irreverent new musical about corn and sexual innuendo is actually a pretty classic piece of work. And not just because of its corn-fed twang. The story takes structural cues from classic musical theater by revolving around two heterosexual couples, one straight and one comedic (a la Guys and Dolls or Oklahoma), and it even ends with a wedding, in the tradition of classic western comedies. But I would like to examine the similarities between Shucked and the Shakespearian comedy that doesn’t end in a wedding- Taming of the Shrew (so is it really a comedy? a subject for another day).
Shucked won me over primarily with its music, but a close second was its charming mix of dumb puns and mind-bending wordplay. And the wordplay reaches its Shakespearian height when Alex Newell’s character Lulu meets the smarmy Tampa con-artist Gordy, played by John Behlmann. The insult-laden repartee and double entendres tossed between the two reminded me so strongly of the first meeting between Katherine and Petruchio in the infamous Shakespeare play.
PETRUCHIO
Come, come, you wasp! I’ faith, you are too angry.
KATHERINE
If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
PETRUCHIO
My remedy is then to pluck it out.
KATHERINE
Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.
PETRUCHIO
Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting?
In his tail.
KATHERINE
In his tongue.
PETRUCHIO
Whose tongue?
KATHERINE
Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell.
Katherine and Petruchio- and also Lulu and Gordy- engage in a level of wit and wordplay unmatched by anyone else in their respective stories. It’s infuriating, and sexy. They’ve met their match.
Shakespeare contrasts the level of wit Katherine and Petruchio are able to reach with the somewhat less impressive banter of the other suitors:
HORTENSIO
Marry, sir, to get a husband for her sister.
GREMIO
A husband! a devil.
HORTENSIO
I say, a husband.
GREMIO
I say, a devil.
Hortensio and Gremio play with the same two words (husband/devil) for four lines of text. In the same space, Katherine and Petruchio move from tail to tale, from wasp to man, and from insult to innuendo.
For me, that’s the tragedy of Taming of the Shrew. Katherine and Petruchio could have been a perfect couple. But Petruchio cared more to be admired by the men than to find love and respect with wife. And so he spends the rest of this play from here on systematically devaluing and dismissing her words, so much so that when she delivers the final speech of the play, the one about husband being lord and so on, it is written in the most boring, simplistic styles of Shakespearian poetry possible. All the character and intelligence has been stripped from Katherine. And so, there is no longer any possibility of love and happiness for either of them. Katherine cannot love as a diminished person, and there is nothing left in her for Petruchio to be attracted to. (Side note: someone hire me to direct Taming of the Shrew).
Like Katherine and Petruchio, Gordy and Lulu engage in sexy quick insults and are attracted to the intelligence and ruthlessness in each other. Unlike the Shakespearian duo though, Gordy never ever tries to change Lulu, and Lulu absolutely would not stand for it if he did. Their quickfire connection sustains their attraction throughout the show, and I expect for the rest of their lives. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Lulu and Gordy from the corn musical are the couple I wish Katherine and Petruchio could have been.
I was so nervous watching their romance develop during the show because of Lulu’s anthem “Independently Owned” (which Alex Newell CRUSHES btw). The song is all about how Lulu doesn’t need a man to be emancipated/intelligent/complicated/AMAZING. So what does it mean if she does end up with a man? Well… nothing. She didn’t need a man. She wanted him.
