Ghost Brothers of Darkland County
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| Ghost Brothers of Darkland County | |
| Music | John Mellencamp |
|---|---|
| Lyrics | John Mellencamp |
| Book | Stephen King |
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County is an upcoming musical written by novelist Stephen King with music by rock musician John Mellencamp.
Contents |
[edit] Production
The project was first announced by Billboard in 2000.
According to King,
- "I was in Florida, so John came down and told me the plot. It was kind of a ghostly thing, which is why he thought of me, I guess. I liked the story."
In August 2001, it was reported by the Associated Press that the musical would be finished by February 2002.
In 2005, Mellencamp said in an interview,
- "He's got a hundred pages of dialogue, and I've got 15 songs. We have to figure how to cut it all down. We're having our first run-through in New York with actors and actresses to see what the hell it looks like."
The play was profiled in Playbill in January 2006.
In January 2007 King said,
- "We’ve got a guy and I’m not going to mention his name but we got a guy who looks like he’s going to direct it. I’m not telling you who it is because he hasn’t signed up for it yet but he’s going to come down here. He’s talked to John and he’s going to talk to me. We’re going to have lunch and talk about some things at the end of this month and then I would like to go back to work on that again."
The musical was set to premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia from April 15 through May 10, 2009, but the website has since been updated to read that the show for that date is "To Be Determined"
[edit] Plot
Regarding the plot, Mellencamp says,
- "I can tell what it's not going to be like: It won't be Jack and Diane meets Cujo. He's already written the story -- it's very beautiful, more like The Green Mile. It's an American story about an American family. Some of the characters are 100 years old, some are 15. So that will give me the opportunity to write for each character in a different style. I ain't writing a bunch of rock songs."
In a later interview he said,
- "[It's about] two brothers; they're 19 years old or 20, maybe 18 or 21, who are very competitive and dislike each other immensely. The father takes them to the family vacation place, a cabin that the boys hadn't been to since they were kids. What has happened is that the father had two older brothers who hated each other and killed each other in that cabin There's a confederacy of ghosts who also live in this house. The older [dead] brothers are there, and they speak to the audience, and they sing to the audience. That's all I want to say, except through this family vacation, many things are learned about the family, and many interesting songs are sung."
[edit] Style
According to both King and Mellencamp, the production will have a very interesting and distinct style.
Mellencamp says,
- "I plan to have every person sing from their generation. This is what I'm thinking right now, but it may not work out this way. When the 18-year-old sings, he'll be rapping at you. When the people in their 70s are singing, they'll be singing in the style of Broadway or the style of Frank Sinatra or country. I intend to cover any type of music that Americans have invented."
Mellencamp also says that the play will have a Tennessee Williams feel.
In 2007, King said,
- "It’s very sweet and at the same time some of the pieces rock really hard and it’s something that’s really not been done on Broadway in my experience. You know there are plays that are kind of like the Andrew Lloyd Webber deal where everybody sings all the parts and there are musicals that here in the states we call Juke Box musicals and the closest thing to what we’ve got is Jersey Boys which used to be autobiography, it’s the biography of The Four Seasons which is a story with a lot of music in it but that’s like, almost like a bioplay you know and this is fiction and drama. It’s interesting it’s a kind of a one of a kind thing right now."
[edit] Songs
According to interviews, Mellencamp has written about 20 songs for the production. The ones that have been mentioned by name are: "You Don't Know Me," "My Name Is Joe," and "Tear This Cabin Down."
