‘Shucked’ at the Curran harvests a bumper crop of guilty, giggly pleasures

Narrators Tyler Joseph Ellis and Maya Langerstam in ‘Shucked’ (photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Some pundits have likened ‘Shucked,’ the ditzy pun-packed musical goof-a-rama now playing at the Curran Theatre to “Hee Haw,” a syndicated TV celebration of hayseed humor and country music that ran from 1969 to 1993.

But while the musical’s hoe-down sounds, by seasoned Nashville hands Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, do tip a Stetson to that notably sexist showcase for Minnie Pearl and Daisy Dukes, “Shucked” is more attitudinally akin to “Hee Haw”’s big city cousin, “Laugh In.”

“Hee Haw” was, in fact, conceived as a clean-scrubbed flyover alternative to Rowan and Martin’s hipper coastal comedy with its sex-positive, women’s rights conscious, liberal ethos. “Shucked” keeps the copycat