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From “Oklahoma!” we learned that corn stalks reach as high as an elephant’s eye, but in the feel-real-good, maize-centric musical “Shucked,” now at Segerstrom Hall, quirky jokiness stacks up way higher than that. Skeptical? Here are a few of its countrified non sequiturs. “When we were kids we would make sand castles with grandma … ’til grandpa started hiding the urn.” “But like the fast food cashier said, change is never easy.” “If you get drunk before you get your driver’s license picture taken, you’ll look normal when they pull you over.” Now if you feel some of the fun in this vehicle just got road killed by those spoilers, not to worry, writer Robert Horn’s cheery, appealing script is jammed with literally dozens more. It’s not often the case but this time, there’s plenty of comic lines in a musical comedy. The touring production of “Shucked” is on stage at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through Nov. 23. (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman) The touring production of “Shucked” is on stage at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through Nov. 23. (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman) The touring production of “Shucked” is on stage at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through Nov. 23. (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman) Show Caption1 of 3The touring production of “Shucked” is on stage at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa through Nov. 23. (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman) Expand Matched up to Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally’s somewhat simplistic but highly listenable country-pop score, “Shucked” weds sly intelligence to its overall good-natured down-homeness. Despite the jokes and puns, the biggest accomplishment could be that the show isn’t so corny at all. At the (sizable) heart of Horn’s original story is the mythical, cloistered community of Cob County — “somewhere South of North and North of South” — happily subsisting in the center of its single crop existence that stretches as far as the eye can see. When rot suddenly wilts the cornstalks, a planned marriage is put on hold and the community’s dutiful daughter bravely heads to the citified world (Tampa) and returns with a questionable interloper. Relationships get re-sorted, corn replenished and has it already been mentioned there is machine-gun laughter rolling in waves through the audience. Veteran Broadway director Jack O’Brien first saw and fell in love with an early mounting of the show in Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Theater Company. A three-time Tony winner — for the musical “Hairspray,” the drama “The Coast of Utopia” and a Shakespeare mounting of “Henry IV” — O’Brien’s range of skills likely added the polished alchemy to buff Horn’s fanciful tale. Despite a couple of lesser songs early in the second act, the pace never flags. Another device that works well is two narrators (Maya Lagerstam and Joe Moeller) who interact throughout, acting as co-tour guides as well as commentors on the tale. This pair are at their most impactful during a lightning-fast choreographed double phone call skit, where they befuddle the bad guy who has bad cell reception. Later, they cleverly fast-forward a whiskey drinkathon among the male cast. The touring cast functions as a tight comedy ensemble with some powerhouse voices including Lagerstam, who is on strong display in “Travelin’ Song.” Miki Abraham as Lulu and Ryan Fitzgerald appear in a scene from “Shucked,” on stage at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts through Nov. 23. (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman) Miki Abraham as Lulu the moonshiner belts the show’s feminist anthem “Independently Owned” and owns it entirely. Befuddled boyfriend Beau, Nick Bailey, who straddles tenor into baritone, has a powerhouse instrument and delivers impactfully in the animated “Somebody Will” and later follows up with the plaintive ballad “OK.” The nonmusical star of the show is the show’s one edible reference other than corn, which is Beau’s…

Santa Margarita’s signing day ceremony included two-time All-Orange County baseball infielder Brody Schmaker. Schumaker signed with Texas Christian University. His father, Skip Schumaker, was an All-Orange County player at Aliso Niguel and last month was named manager of the Texas Rangers. Brody Schumaker was among seven Eagles baseball players to sign Wednesday. Another was catcher Warren Gavely IV, All-County fourth team last season, who signed with Notre Dame. Santa Margarita’s boys basketball signees included All-Orange County first-team guard Kaden Bailey who signed with Georgia Tech. Drew Anderson signed with Oregon State. Brayden Kyman, All-OC second team last season, signed with Washington State. Memphis Burnett, an All-County girls volleyball player who played an integral role on Santa Margarita’s CIF Southern Section Division 2 championship team, signed with UC Irvine. Santa Margarita had 48 students take part in its signing day/college commitment ceremony Wednesday. Related Articles Fall Signing Day 2025: Mater Dei’s Luke Barnett, Kaeli Wynn sign Fall Signing Day 2025: Mater Dei’s Layli Ostovar says USC ‘felt like home’ Fall Signing Day 2025: Orange County athletes who are signing, Nov. 12 Signing Day is Wednesday, Nov. 12: Share your signing news with OCVarsity

Because Earth and Mars move around the Sun in the same direction in concentric orbits. Mars is currently about as far away from Earth as it can get, around 225 million miles. In February 2027 it will only be about 60 million miles away. Hanging out one million miles away at L2 waiting to close the distance makes sense. Space is big. Even our largest rockets don’t have the ability to just fly from one planet to another.

Like many of you, I’m mad as hell that a group of eight weak-kneed Democratic senators broke ranks to join Republicans in ending the shutdown. Like many of you, I wonder how Democrats could have willfully undercut their newfound momentum — as shown so convincingly in the recent elections — by giving up the fight. Especially knowing, as I wrote the other day, that a willingness to fight is the only thing Donald Trump understands. Like many of you, I think it’s time for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step down. He’s the wrong face for a forward-looking Democratic Party, which basically doesn’t have a leader now. Schumer either couldn’t hold Democrats together just when they seemed to be winning the shutdown battle or he actually facilitated — this is my guess — the endgame behind the scenes. Either is unacceptable. The thing is, I think the Dems folded at exactly the wrong time. There would likely have come a point when a continuation of the shutdown turned the country against the Dems, but it wasn’t now. And it wouldn’t have been a week from now or anytime soon. How did the eight senators think giving Trump, for example, a pass on airport chaos as the holidays fast approach — for very little in return — was a winning strategy? It leaves Democrats having to answer the what-was-the-point question, when it’s Democrats who should still be asking Trump what is the point of his unwillingness to see the suffering of working Americans, especially among those rural whites who voted for him in 2024. Timing the end was never going to be easy, particularly when it’s impossible to predict what crimes against humanity Trump would present next. We know he was never going to fold on Obamacare subsidies, meaning Democrats could never actually walk away with a complete victory. But winning now matters. History — or was it political analyst/poker aficionado Nate Silver? — teaches us that you don’t fold when you have the cards. Trump talks all the time about who has the cards. This time, the Democrats had them because Trump unwittingly — or is that redundant? — passed the winning cards to them. Want early access to Mike’s columns? Subscribe to get an exclusive first look at his columns twice a week. SUBSCRIBE With the shutdown, the Trump/MAGA cruelty, their utter ruthlessness, came to the fore for all to see. And it got uglier by the day. Refusing to fund food stamps for the working poor. Chaos at the airports, as Thanksgiving approaches. Refusing to renew Obamacare subsidies, thereby ensuring that prices for health insurance for millions will double or more. Voters not only blame Trump — again, as the election results showed — they see him, as his cratering approval ratings show. And with each day of the shutdown, it reminded voters of Trump’s ongoing cruelty. I can’t explain why so many couldn’t see it before, but I’m thinking now that, in the best case, it can’t be unseen. I mean, Trump really did hold a decadent Great Gatsby-style party at Mar-a-Lago the night before he cut off funding for food stamps. And in folding — as renowned columnist Charlie Pierce noted — these senators sold out the No Kings marchers, sold out the voters who swept Dems of all stripes into office last week, sold out the judges who have stood up to Trump, even sold out the jurors who acquitted the sandwich guy. Many defenders of the surrender and of Schumer say that much of the anger is on the online left and doesn’t hold across the Democratic landscape. I’m pretty sure that’s wrong. I’m pretty sure that it misses the point entirely. When seven million take to the streets, it seems inarguable that you have a movement, which fed the off-off-year GOP shellacking. But the anger, in my view, belongs to mainstream Democrats, a notion underlined by the fact that of the eight senators who voted to end the shutdown, two are retiring next year and the other six are not up for reelection in 2026. And it should be noted that Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, both…