‘Shucked’ Co-Composer Brandy Clark on Musical’s Queer Representation: ‘If You Walk Out With Any Hate in Your Heart … You’re Probably a Descendant of Hitler’
‘Shucked’ co-composer Brandy Clark says the ultimate goal of the Tony-nominated musical is to provide audiences with pure joy. Mixed in is also a big serving of queer representation.
“I always think it’s hard to hate something that you know and love, and it’s a lot easier to hate something that’s just an idea or something you’ve heard about that you should be scared of,” Clark told me during a phone conversation from the Drama Desk Awards in New York City, where she and co-composer Shane McAnally were presented with the award for outstanding music. “So I think if you walk out of ‘Shucked’ with any hate in your heart, I don’t know if I can help you. You’re probably a descendant of Hitler.”
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Clark and McAnally are queer, as is the shows book writer Robert Horn. “It was always important to us,” Clark says of the LGBTQ characters and themes. “But it just grew exponentially as we went through the process.”
Star Alex Newell and “Some Like It Hot” star J. Harrison Ghee made history as the first non-binary actors to be nominated for Tonys.
“Shucked” is up for nine Tonys, including best musical. “I didn’t think we’d be at the Tonys,” Clark said. “I thought I might be in the crazy house with ‘Shucked’ at times. It was such a journey. But you know what? It makes it all the sweeter because there have been ups and downs. It makes all of it feel worthwhile now.”
No surprise, but talk of a movie or television series adaptation has been percolating. “The thought of us getting to do it is exciting because we love working together so much,” Clark says. “It means we get to continue to work on ‘Shucked’ for a little longer.”
The Tonys will be handed out on June 11, broadcasting on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. The Writers Guild of America has granted a strike waiver to the show with the promise not to picket Broadway’s biggest night of the year.
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