- 18 hours ago
Mike Nappi plays the role of Peanut on the National Tour of the a-maiz-ingly corny musical comedy about corn - Shucked. Mike grew up in Doylestown and is a graduate of both Central Bucks High School West and Temple University. Hear as Mike and Kristen discuss the show and its showstopper songs, as well as Mike's ongoing project, working to develop two original musicals. Catch Mike in Shucked at the Forrest Theatre, April 21st through May 3rd. Tickets at Ensembleartsphilly.org.
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00:01hi there or should i say howdy howdy yeah getting the spirit of shocked yes the forest theater
00:09next week really soon april 21st to may 3rd and uh you are one of the stars so you play
00:15peanut and
00:16from what i understand you do a little bit of everything in the show you're you're sort of like
00:20those old-time westerns where it's like the banker and also the sheriff and everything else right
00:26sort of like peanut he's one of those guys who like whenever they need someone to do something
00:31that they don't have they're like let him do it uh go officiate a wedding and uh you know that
00:36kind
00:36of stuff but be a radio host but no he's just he is he's both brother his brother's going through
00:43some heartbreak and he's there for him and uh it's just such a fun and ridiculously hilarious show i
00:49can't wait for people to see it yeah and i should have introduced you this is mike nappy and not
00:54only
00:54are you the star of shucked which is coming to philadelphia next week but you are also a local
00:59right you're from doyle's town yes go birds baby doyle's town pennsylvania there you go and you
01:06even town i love it i love it and i saw you actually went to the same high school as
01:12pink went to right
01:14as yes high school west baby yep you tell you oh my goodness i know no i i wish i
01:21knew pink but that
01:22was like the big thing was like you know pink went here it's like the pride and joy of the
01:26school
01:27uh but no i loved my time at cb west it's such an amazing school and yeah shout out central
01:32bucks
01:32school district awesome awesome place i'm from the same place as um taylor swift and i'm just like why
01:38didn't i try to meet her like how'd i know there you go our area we just have so many
01:43talented people
01:44that's what it is and do you see she's hosting the tonys this year yes i know we saw i
01:49was like pink
01:50let's go is is there something in the works maybe is she getting involved in the theater world i guess
01:55we'll see um but no she could be announcing you or or whoever oh well we'll see about that but
02:02you got this i am so psyched about the show i actually i love seeing a show that you know
02:08that
02:08people love that i've not seen yet because i really i like musical theater i went to see
02:12beaches and chess over the weekend and amazing love them both for different reasons but this one is
02:18just one that's just like i've listened to it on spotify a little bit i just think it's super duper
02:22fun and i'm excited for it to come to philadelphia where you know we are i think we think that
02:28we're
02:28more serious than we actually are but i think we totally have like just a love for this type of
02:33humor so tell me a little bit about the plot for anybody that's not familiar with shakta yeah
02:38what's it about yeah so first of all it's brand new musical like you said i love when people come
02:43and they don't know anything about it i mean how often do you do you have that these days um
02:48so you
02:48know it's a musical about corn uh basically we're in a we're in a town called cobb county it thrives
02:54on
02:54their their homegrown corn but the corn starts dying so our our heroine maizey goes on a quest to
03:01save the corn she meets some some crazy characters and it's just such a funny show it has so much
03:08heart to
03:09it and you're just going to be laughing the entire time it is is so much fun yeah and it's
03:15true there
03:15are so many tried and true musicals that have been around forever and even just in tv we're watching
03:20the same stories told over and over again and like sequels upon sequels upon sequels so it's just like a
03:26pleasant surprise to to really be surprised throughout this entire show now for someone like myself who
03:32is unfamiliar what's the music like in the show so brandy clark and shane mcannara wrote the music
03:38they are grammy award-winning country artists just geniuses and so you know the score's got some
03:44some country to it some pop some musical theater it's it's it's a sound unlike any other i remember
03:50seeing it on broadway and i was like first of all i had so much fun and also just the
03:55score was so good
03:57i was like oh my goodness jason howland did the orchestrations and he's a genius he wrote little
04:01women obviously great gatsby um and yeah it's just the score is so good uh there's so many tunes
04:09that could just be like a standalone country tune that you would hear on the radio um and yeah it's
04:15it's so awesome to listen to every night and i can't wait for people to experience it and i think
04:21in a lot of shows you know think like wicked you know defying gravity there's the song that just
04:25everybody in the audience what is that showstopper number or or which are there if there's more than
04:32one in i mean there's a few i mean independently owned is is the big one alex newell did on
04:38broadway
04:39unbelievable mick abraham here uh crushes it every night um there's somebody will nick bailey plays
04:45beau he sings that and then one of my favorites is woman of the world which our incredible leading
04:51actress uh danielle wade does uh basically about she's coming home uh she's a woman of the world
04:57now as she goes out and tries to save the corn and yeah it's just so cool to hear you
05:03know my
05:04incredible castmates you know belt out these tunes every night and uh yeah i'm just grateful to be here
05:10right and then for someone that maybe is more familiar maybe they saw it on broadway whatever you
05:15know what's something that might be even unique to this version of it or this production of it
05:20uh what's a scene or a moment that you think your cast does particularly well that you think we
05:25should look out for that's it what was really cool about this process is they treated it like
05:30an evolving uh musical so they they basically encouraged us to be like bring yourself to the
05:36role and and do your own thing which you know you also don't get that all the time and broadway
05:41was
05:41so perfect and they were like hey make this your own so you know it's it's it's shut but it's
05:47you
05:48know slightly different um there's a new opening uh song in act two uh that wasn't on broadway
05:54um that's fun that's a fun number and yeah it's it's just the cast the company the the bands they're
06:02all so talented and yeah you're in for a truth it's gonna be a good time is it similar because
06:09i'm
06:09trying to think of like you know i actually we were just in dollywood a couple weeks ago over this
06:13yeah we saw like the the hatfield and mccoy's the dinner show and so in my brain that's sort of
06:18what this is similar to you know like very country theme and and um just very fun and and lighthearted
06:24and and kind of family friendly but like they had some jokes in there um is it like is it
06:29kind of
06:29like oklahoma like what would you compare it to as far as so it started as the hee-haw musical
06:36hee-haw was a show back in the day a lot of puns ridiculous comedy robert horn wrote the book
06:42by
06:42the way he's a tony award-winning genius um and basically every joke you could possibly imagine
06:48flies at you uh you know 10 jokes per minute or something it's crazy um so you know it's got
06:55some
06:55oklahoma vibes it's got some music man vibes to it um but you know it's really its own thing i
07:01remember seeing it and being like wow i've never seen anything like this it's just so unique and and
07:07yeah it's just a really fun evening and there's just so much heart to it too i think people are
07:13surprised they're like okay i'm really laughing and i'm also crying now what is going on um so
07:19yeah love shot a cornucopia of fun you mentioned like a thousand fun even just the subject line in
07:27my email it was like cornucopia of fun and amazing you know maiz yeah it's amazing how many
07:33corn puns you can stuff into anything yes yes we're all about the puns here i love it and um
07:40as far as just the local connection you know growing up in doylestown and i saw even in your
07:44bio you performed at the walnut street theater the bucks county playhouse all of these places that
07:49we're familiar with is there anything you're really excited about doing while you're back
07:53in philly whether it's a philly's game or having a cheesesteak yeah well we're going to try and go to
07:57the philly's game they're playing either wednesday or thursday and we have our days free so i'm going to
08:02try to get there um i mean jim's cheesesteak is one of my favorite places but i just can't wait
08:08to
08:08be back i mean i haven't been back to philly in a long time and you know i went to
08:12temple university
08:13i'm going to visit the campus see some old teachers and you know it was just such a great time
08:18of my
08:19life and i just can't wait to to be there and also show my friends in the company uh you
08:25know just
08:26the awesome city that that philly is so i'm really excited to see some friends and family and
08:31and to be home and really spruced up this year for the 250th like a lot of streets are just
08:36you
08:36know new sidewalks new everything yes they've done a lot absolutely yeah and you and i share temple
08:42university as our alma mater let's go temple made baby yeah awesome well we are so excited to have
08:51you here and and just before you go i i saw this in your bio too that you yourself are
08:55a composer and
08:56play like is that what you went to temple for so i went to temple for musical theater um i
09:01always
09:01wanted to write and just never really had time or you know and then covet hit and i was like
09:07well
09:07you know the industry is uh kind of shut down as is the world uh so i needed to do
09:12something
09:13creative and so i began writing uh with some friends and yeah i have a couple musicals in the
09:18works and uh we'll see what happens you know it takes a long time to to get these things
09:23developed but just grateful to be able to do it and collaborate with uh all kinds of different
09:29people so it's been fun just a couple musicals in the works you know so humble but so world's
09:36cassette library and take me back to yellowstone everyone keep an eye out for these they're coming
09:41soon um what are what are they about if you don't mind yeah so uh the world's cassette library is
09:47actually uh slightly based on my family uh my brother would record cassettes when we were kids
09:53of like our favorite tv shows movies all these things we would listen to them and then i found
09:57out years later he was actually recording everything he's recording my sister's wedding conversations with
10:02my grandmother who's no longer alive like all these things and i was like there's a story here
10:06somewhere so basically the premise is uh three siblings the oldest brothers passed away my brother's still
10:13alive by the way but uh and the siblings find all these cassette tapes um and it becomes this memory
10:19play it's about forgiveness and family sibling dynamics and then take me back to yellowstone is
10:24like a completely different thing it's it's more shucked vibes of uh you know campy comedy um very like
10:32goonies meets the shawshank redemption about this girl who goes to yellowstone every summer with her
10:37grandmother and then she's sent to this you know etiquette reform camp and she has to find a way to
10:43escape and return to yellowstone and she meets some you know troublemakers along the way who help her
10:49out and uh yeah it's just a fun time and yeah it's just fun to write in my spare time
10:54and and try to uh
10:56get it going so certainly a productive use of covid that they both sound really interesting and for
11:01different reasons i would like to see both of those shows well thank you hopefully someday you know
11:06let us know stay in contact well good luck and i can't wait to see you this coming week again
11:11it's
11:11going to be here april 21st through may 3rd so a nice long run for you to come to philadelphia
11:16thanks for two weeks awesome thank you so much it's so nice to meet you oh you as well buy
11:22tickets
11:22at ensembleartsphilly.org for shucked thanks a lot peanut thank you
11:27thank you romanticç˝
11:27thanks a lot
11:30thanks a lot
11:31thanks a lot
11:31thanks pie
11:32you
11:32You
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