Country Date Night at Broadway's 'Shucked' — Kelsea & Chase, Kacey & Cole and More Couples!

The premiere of Broadway's new musical Shucked was a star-studded country music date night!

Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes, Kacey Musgraves and Cole Schafer, Walker Hayes and wife Laney, Carly Pearce and Riley King as well as Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook all stepped out to the Nederlander Theatre in New York City on April 4 for the musical comedy's opening night.

Other celebrities in attendance included Little Big Town's Kimberly Schlapman and Phillip Sweet, Jennifer Nettles, Susan Sarandon, Kristin Chenoweth, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Justin Mikita, Rachel Dratch, Jane Krakowski, Kathy Najimy and Bridget Everett, among others.

Featuring music and lyrics by hit-making country songwriters Shane McAnally and Brandy Clark, Shucked centers on a small town reliant on corn production as the plants go rotten, causing the residents to panic. The show stars Caroline Innerbichler as protagonist Maizy, who walks away from her wedding to save the town's greatest export.

Also featuring performers Alex Newell, Grey Henson, Ashley D. Kelley and Andrew Durand, Shucked boasts catchy and hilarious songs written behind the famed songwriters, responsible for hits by Ballerini, Musgraves, Hayes, Pearce, Miranda Lambert and The Band Perry, among other artists.

In a recent interview with Broadway World, McAnally, 48, said he's confident audiences will "laugh" watching Shucked. "We've been doing readings of this show for 10 years, I'd say we've probably done 30 or 40, and then we've also been out of town, it never doesn't make people laugh, and the music never doesn't work for people as well," he said.

McAnally explained that he and Clark, 47, are "hoping" that audience members "walk away feeling the effects of something bigger than what they think they saw, which is about inclusion, which is about the state of our world, and how love can prevail, and although that's a really simple and corny message, it's true."

The Shucked premiere arrived shortly after the 2023 CMT Awards on Sunday, where Ballerini, 29, and Stokes, 30, made their red carpet debut. "I have a really hot date tonight," the country star told CMT's Carissa Culiner on their red carpet preshow.

"I'm really really happy and it's really nice to... this is our first outing so I'm like, 'Come on into my world and then bring me into Charleston [where Outer Banks shoots],'" continued Ballerini. "I don't know if it's the big moments on TV or where I am in my life or what it is, but I feel really good. I'm happy to be here."