Tyler Joseph Ellis (right) as Storyteller 2 with Maya Lagerstam (Storyteller 1) in The North American Tour of Shucked (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
“Wait, what did you say…? Oh, shucked. What is Shucked?”
“Oh, it’s a musical about corn!”
This is what my friends, family, and coworkers said whenever I asked them about the Tony-winning musical Shucked, which is now playing at the Fox Theater. The corniest show on Broadway debuted in October 2022 and kicked off its first national tour two years later.
Like Maizy, the heroine of Shucked, I’m a humble small-town guy with big questions. To get answers, I met up with someone from the big city—no, not Tampa, New York! I had the privilege to speak with Tyler Joseph Ellis, a screen and stage actor who plays the role of “Storyteller 2.”
Their names may be generic, but Storyteller 1 and 2 are a big part of Shucked’s magic. Ellis and his costar, Maya Lagerstam, keep the show running with their wacky narration, filled with puns and pop culture references. They try on different voices, impersonating mobsters, pawn brokers, and, to a lesser degree, Cardi B.
Ellis, who hails from the Berkeley, CA metro area, has a somewhat different backstory from the singing hayseeds of Shucked. He graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2020 and moved to New York the following year. It was a difficult time to launch an acting career: “A lot of us wondered if the theaters would ever open again.” Ellis made comedy videos and chronicled his young actor’s life on TikTok and Instagram. This eventually led to roles in That Nineties Show (Netflix) and The Sex Lives of College Girls (HBO).
By 2022, the pandemic had receded; people were ready to swap their sweatpants for suits and return to Broadway. Audiences were back; playwright Robert Horn, fresh off the success of the Tootsie musical, had a new story to tell. Ellis landed a job with the marketing team of Shucked and helped to promote the show. You can thank him and his colleagues for the show’s mysterious advertising, which features little more than a cob of corn. As the residents of Cob County might say, “what else do you need… besides more corn?”
Ellis recalls the first time he saw Shucked on stage: “I was friends with Robert Horn. I loved the show and wanted to get involved. And I wanted to play this exact character. The way the story is structured… it’s just brilliant comedy. It reminded me of the first time I saw The Book of Mormon.”
A modest hit on Broadway, Shucked has found new life and energy as a touring production. If anything, Ellis thinks that the show will have even more success on tour. “It’s not your typical musical fare. The score is country music-inspired, and that genre is all about storytelling.” The show features music by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, whose songs have been performed by Sheryl Crow, Kasey Musgraves, and other stars. Not only that—Shucked has Reba McEntire as its official “stalksperson.”
Ellis also believes that the show will become a hit with high school theater programs once the script becomes widely available. “It doesn’t have any crazy set pieces and it doesn’t need a big budget. The story is pretty simple, but it’s told so well. And I think high schoolers would have a lot of fun with this.”
Shucked will be performed at the Fox until Sunday Feb. 23. Ticket prices range from $37 to $99. For more info, check out the official Shucked website. This is a musical tailor-made for us corn-fed folks in flyover country, so show up and “maybe” show them some love! | Rob Von Nordheim
