'Shucked' opens to great reviews for limited run at CIBC Theatre in Chicago

ByMarsha Jordan and Hosea Sanders WLS logo
Friday, January 10, 2025
'Shucked' opens to great reviews for limited run at CIBC Theatre
'Shucked' opened to great reviews for a limited run at the CIBC Theatre in Chicago; Miki Abraham and Quinn VanAntwerp talked about the show Friday.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- "Shucked" just opened to great reviews; it's at the CIBC Theatre in a limited run.

Miki Abraham and Quinn VanAntwerp have key roles in the musical, and both appeared in the Broadway production.

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They're thrilled to bring it to the Chicago audience.

Abraham, who plays Lulu, said the show is set in Cobb County, and it's about a town whose livelihood is corn. One day, the corn dies, and they have to figure out what to do.

"So, our hero leaves to go find help, and she ends up bringing back a con man," Abraham said. "And it's really a show about discovering change isn't really as scary as we think it is, and actually welcoming in new people can be really great and really fun."

VanAntwerp plays Gordy.

"It's a show about family; it's a show about corn, but really it's about loving each other regardless of our difference," VanAntwerp said.

He said he's the "bad guy."

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"I'm the con man that comes to town, and everything goes wrong and hopefully redeems himself in the end. Being able to be invited into this group of misfit toys, creating this show from the beginning was such an incredible experience for an actor," VanAntwerp said.

Abraham said the writer of the show said "cold is for comedy."

"If you're a little chilly, you'll be more willing to laugh at something. So, performing this show in Chicago is cool for that reason," he said.

VanAntwerp said he's always wanted to perform in Chicago.

"It'll be fun to do this show here, in this theater that so many of my friends and people I look up to have played," he said. "People come in not knowing what it is, and by the end they leave. And it's one of their favorite things they've seen in the last 10, 15 years. It's not just an escape. By the end, you'll be wondering why you're laughing and crying at this silly corn musical."

"When is the last time people can sit in an audience together and just laugh, just take two and a half hours from whatever is going on in your life and just laugh with each other?" Abraham asked.

VanAntwerp called it "hijinks."

"(It's) just a really good night of theater," he said.

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