Welcome to my message board.
New member registration has been disabled due to heavy spammer activity. If you'd like to join the board, please email me at MaxDevore at hotmail dot com.
New member registration has been disabled due to heavy spammer activity. If you'd like to join the board, please email me at MaxDevore at hotmail dot com.
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County
Mellencamp, author King collaborate on musical
Even though John Mellencamp is prepping for his first tour in three years, he's managed to carve out a little time for Stephen King.
Not a Stephen King novel, mind you, but the man himself.
What started out as a conversation between old friends has morphed into plans for a full-blown musical theater production.
Mellencamp has known King since both men were first forging their respective careers. He pitched his story idea to his friend years ago. Mellencamp developed the story but knew it was too long for a song.
The tale, set in the 1940s, revolved around a family facing the residual effects of a long-ago murder between brothers.
King took the story idea and set to work.
What Mellencamp got back was a fully evolved tale of Americana with his own story now a mere portion of a greater vision.
"I had a short story, and he turned it into a novel. Now, it's very involved," he said. "Steve is a great storyteller."
Mellencamp says the story stays away from the horror genre, leaning more toward the mystical, not unlike King's "The Green Mile."
"It's not ‘Cujo' meets ‘Jack & Diane,'" Mellencamp jokes.
Set in Louisiana, the production has allowed Mellencamp to explore zydeco, folk and jazz musical styles. "It gives me a chance to not write John Mellencamp songs."
He sees the play as having a Tennessee Williams feel.
With a first official reading set for March, Mellencamp has expectations for his little side project — high expectations.
"We will have it on Broadway," he says.
Of course, before Mellencamp can bring his musical to Broadway's New York audiences, he'll bring his music to the masses with his "Words and Music" tour, kicking off March 23.
Even though John Mellencamp is prepping for his first tour in three years, he's managed to carve out a little time for Stephen King.
Not a Stephen King novel, mind you, but the man himself.
What started out as a conversation between old friends has morphed into plans for a full-blown musical theater production.
Mellencamp has known King since both men were first forging their respective careers. He pitched his story idea to his friend years ago. Mellencamp developed the story but knew it was too long for a song.
The tale, set in the 1940s, revolved around a family facing the residual effects of a long-ago murder between brothers.
King took the story idea and set to work.
What Mellencamp got back was a fully evolved tale of Americana with his own story now a mere portion of a greater vision.
"I had a short story, and he turned it into a novel. Now, it's very involved," he said. "Steve is a great storyteller."
Mellencamp says the story stays away from the horror genre, leaning more toward the mystical, not unlike King's "The Green Mile."
"It's not ‘Cujo' meets ‘Jack & Diane,'" Mellencamp jokes.
Set in Louisiana, the production has allowed Mellencamp to explore zydeco, folk and jazz musical styles. "It gives me a chance to not write John Mellencamp songs."
He sees the play as having a Tennessee Williams feel.
With a first official reading set for March, Mellencamp has expectations for his little side project — high expectations.
"We will have it on Broadway," he says.
Of course, before Mellencamp can bring his musical to Broadway's New York audiences, he'll bring his music to the masses with his "Words and Music" tour, kicking off March 23.
Comments
The rocker's next project is a theater piece, "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," with novelist and screenwriter King.
"It's our dramatic play with music; I don't want to call it a musical," he said of the vehicle that has been four years in the making. "He's got a hundred pages of dialogue, and I've got 15 songs. Add all that up and, 'So far, Steve, we've got about five hours worth of play.' 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."
Much of the play takes place in the 1940s in Louisiana and Mississippi, so Mellencamp has been writing blues, Cajun, zydeco and jazz tunes -- but no rock.
"If anyone's got the crazy idea that this is 'Jack and Diane' meets 'Cujo,' they're nuts," the Indiana rocker said.
The two have been working on The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County for several years. They recently held a read-through in New York City, which Mellencamp called the most exciting thing that I have done in my career since somebody called me up in the early '80s and said I had a No. 1 album.
But changes will have to wait until fall.
I've got to do these shows this summer (and) Steve is finishing a book, says Mellencamp, who's written more than 20 songs for the musical. We're going to reconvene in the fall, make some changes and make it our job until we see it on the stage.
A long-awaited collaboration between Stephen King and John Mellencamp is moving closer to production.
In May, actors participated in an initial read-through of the "dramatic musical" that features a story by King and songs by Mellencamp.
Broadway is the hoped-for destination for "The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," but Mellencamp advises patience.
"If we're lucky, a year from now we'll be in Chicago or Miami putting the thing together," he says, referring to a theatrical debut that customarily precedes a move to New York.
The singer clearly liked what he saw and heard during the read-through.
"It was the most exciting thing I've done professionally in probably 25 years," Mellencamp says. "It was so much fun to see those characters come to life and hear those songs being sung."
The story features two quarreling brothers from Mississippi, their father and the ghosts of two uncles who couldn't resolve their differences before meeting a tragic end.
Mellencamp has written 17 songs in the acoustic blues style heard on his 2003 album, "Trouble No More." When "Ghost Brothers" makes it to the stage, Mellencamp says, his band will play the music from the orchestra pit.
King and Mellencamp have been working on the project since 2000.
The rock star says he's enjoyed forging a give-and-take relationship with the author of "The Stand," "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Carrie."
He also admits to having little success when suggesting rewrites to King.
"He would say, 'I'm the writer, you're the songwriter. Shut up,' " Mellencamp says with a laugh.
Recalling doubts about a specific scene, Mellencamp says the read-through revealed King's accurate instincts.
"It was so sweet and so great," the Seymour native says. "Steve was sitting right in front of me, and he turned back to say, 'Not going to work, eh?' "
-- David Lindquist
Mellencamp previously said the play is 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," he continued. "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."
Having just concluded a summer tour with John Fogerty and the 20th annual Farm Aid benefit, Mellencamp will perform Oct. 29 at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, Calif. Two additional benefit shows in New York are in the works for November, but details have yet to be announced.
Meanwhile, Mellencamp's paintings will on display from Nov. 18-Jan. 7 at Indiana University's Herron School of Art in Indianapolis.
"What we will do is take it to Chicago or the equivalent and workshop it -- get the kinks out before we try to take it to Broadway," Mellencamp told the Herald-Times. "Elton John opened his musical in San Francisco, and it lasted all of seven days before they closed it down and decided to rework it. When we hit Broadway, we want it ready from day one."
"Steve is the sweetest guy you could ever meet; there's nothing weird about him or demonic or anything like that," Mellencamp says. "I remember once we were playing in Green Bay, Wisc., and he came out and played acoustic guitar on a song. I went back to get him, and his hands were shaking. I said, 'You gotta be sh*tting me -- the man who scared the world is scared to walk out in front of 10,000 people?!' He said, 'Yeah, I'm f*cking afraid!' I said, 'Get your ass out there!' He's just the sweetest guy, and he's great to work with."
Mellencamp invited Colbert to help mc the upcoming Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival which, this year, takes place on September 9th on Randall's Island in New York City. The two kibitzed about Colbert's "farmer's tan," or lack thereof, and got into a heated discussion about the war in Iraq. Colbert asked, "As a member of heartlandia, you support the war in Iraq, don't you?" To which Mellencamp replied, "I didn't get the memo."
The two discussed scripture ("an eye for an eye..." vs. "do unto others...") after which Mellencamp theorized that his host had "never been in a fight in [his] life" to which Colbert responded, "In the playground, I scratched a few eyes out." Upending his own desk, Colbert pushed Mellencamp and jabbed at him, assuming a pugilistic posture. Mellencamp proffered his fists at this provocation and menacingly proclaimed "I'm for peace but I'm not a pacifist." At this point, Colbert judiciously called for a commercial break. Following the break, hostilities had ceased as Colbert introduced his guest who performed a haunting, acoustic, solo version of "Our Country."
RS: Can we have an update on the Stephen King project [the "play with music" The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County]?
JM: We have another workshop in New York coming up, and from there it goes into production in Atlanta, Georgia next spring. And then if it goes well in Atlanta, then we'll come to Broadway. If it don't go well in Atlanta, we're done.
RS: What can you tell me about working with Stephen?
JM: Oh, I love Steve. Steve is nothing like everybody thinks he is. Steve and I really have a lot in common. He lives in the middle of nowhere. I live in the middle of nowhere. He's not comfortable being around a lot of people. I'm not comfortable. We just have a — you know, we're kinda antisocial guys, and, of course, we're bigmouths.
RS: How did working in this new medium, the play, challenge you both?
JM: Steve is not used to a live performance. I am. So whenever the stage goes dark, he's pumped up, man. He's excited. Somebody came and watched the last reading that we had in New York and reviewed it. The review said this is a musical that men will enjoy. Unheard of, the guy said.
The king of goosebumps and a soon-to-be Rock and Roll Hall of Famer are creating a new musical that will debut at the Alliance Theatre.
Mystery writer Stephen King and Grammy Award-winning pop-music legend John Mellencamp, both newcomers to theater, will unveil the world premiere of "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" in April and May of next year, the Alliance has announced.
"It is John Mellencamp's musical style and it's Stephen King's gothic style, and I just thought it was too cool to pass up," Alliance artistic director Susan V. Booth says.
Set in 1957, "Ghost Brothers" centers on a simmering 40-year-old legend about the strange deaths of two brothers and a beautiful young girl in the fictional town of Lake Belle Reve, Miss.
Booth says it's too soon to say if the show will transfer to Broadway but that commercial producers will be charting the musical's progress. In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Mellencamp said, "If it goes well in Atlanta, then we'll come to Broadway. If it don't go well in Atlanta, we're done."
Mellencamp, who has been working on the piece for eight years, is to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10.
Booth said the idea for "Ghost Brothers" came from a story Mellencamp heard as a youth in his hometown of Seymour, Ind. When the writer of hits "Jack and Diane" and "Hurts So Good" decided to turn the material into a musical, he realized he needed a book writer.
At that point, Booth says, Mellencamp thought: "Wait, it's a ghost story. Who's the best ghost story writer there is? So his people talked to Stephen King's people, and now they are buddies and they have written this musical together."
Booth describes the show as "a theatrical piece with music." There will be a live band onstage, and New York director Peter Askin will direct. Askin's credits include Eve Ensler's "The Good Body" and John Leguizamo's "Sexaholix" on Broadway and John Cameron Mitchell's "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" off-Broadway.
"John and Stephen have the kinds of names and reputations that are going to attract people's curiosity," Askin says, "and the fact that they have not worked in theater before is an interesting thing."
He describes the musical style as zydeco. "It's Southern and it's kind of country."
"Ghost Brothers" will join an impressive list of new musicals to play the Alliance since Booth arrived in 2001. "The Color Purple," "Sister Act: The Musical" and "The Women of Brewster Place" have all helped put the Alliance on the national map. Last year, the Alliance won the regional Tony Award for sustained excellence.
The Alliance is expected to announce the rest of its 2008-2009 season this week.
A haunted cabin. A late night jump off lover’s leap. A chilling new musical.
In 1957, in the tiny town of Lake Belle Reve, Mississippi, a terrible tragedy took the lives of two brothers and a beautiful young girl. During the next forty years, the events of that night became a local legend. But legend is often just another word for lie. Joe McCandless knows what really happened; he saw it all. The question is whether or not he can bring himself to tell the truth in order to save his own troubled sons, and whether the ghosts left behind by an act of violence will help him...or tear the McCandless family apart forever. Stephen King’s script brings the power of suspense and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp brings a gritty rock and zydeco score to this World Premiere musical that’s certain to send chills up your spine.
Why We Love This Play
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County is a sultry Southern gothic mystery, with a blues-tinged guitar-driven score. It’s a great story of family tension and secrets, a gripping mystery and a traditional ghost story. Since Aida, our Alliance has participated in the development of some of the most exciting and heartfelt new American musicals. Our audience has a reputation for an adventurous spirit and support for new work, embracing the excitement of developing theatre, a reputation that drew the remarkable creative team of this new musical to Atlanta.
Read a synopsis
ATLANTA (AP) — A musical by John Mellencamp and Stephen King, scheduled to be produced next season in Atlanta, has been postponed, the Alliance Theatre announced Monday.
The Alliance announced in February that "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," with music by Mellencamp and a book by horror master King, would open in April 2009, with the object of preparing it for a Broadway run.
The Alliance notified subscribers on Monday that the project has been delayed because of "unanticipated scheduling problems which could not be resolved in time for the production."
Members of the creative team "realized the script would not be ready by spring 2009," the statement said.
In the February announcement, the Alliance described the play as "a sultry Southern gothic mystery with a blues-tinged, guitar-driven score." Peter Askin was announced as the director.
The story is set in the fictional town of Lake Belle Reve, Miss., and centers on the deaths in 1957 of two brothers and a young girl and the legend that grows out of the tragedy.
The Alliance said it now hopes to produce the show during its 2009-2010 season.
On the Net: Alliance Theatre: http://www.alliancetheatre.org
Meanwhile, casting continues for the projected "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" CD/book package involving a recording of the songs and the dialog of John's musical collaboration with Stephen King. No word yet on who's on board, but several major artists have signed on.
The cast for the production is still not finalized but will definitely be star-studded. Projected release of the completed project is next January and will be in more than one configuration, with a "deluxe" version to include a book containing the show's full text and song lyrics, a CD featuring the show's dialog and songs, and a second CD with only the songs.
"It's there ... it's in the editing studio right now. We've got a lot of people from the music world who agreed to do parts – Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Roseanne Cash ... it should be like an old-time radio show and then it's scheduled to go on stage in Atlanta next fall."
Rosanne Cash: I just did a part in a Stephen King radio play, The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. I played the mother, Elvis Costello played Satan, and Kris Kristofferson played my husband.
>>> Source
SEE: What is “The Shape”?
Elvis: “The Shape” is the name of a character that I’m portraying in a piece which is being constructed. It’s an unusual form. It’s a sort of a radio play, as it were, except it’ll be on record. It’s a collaboration between John Mellencamp and Stephen King, produced by my friend T-Bone Burnett, and a number of singers, some of whom are friends like Roseanne Cash and people that I’ve recently met through Spectacle like Neko Case, Cheryl Crow, likewise, and Kris Kristofferson. There are actually a number of people that have been on Spectacle but that’s purely, completely coincidental. But we happen to be all characters in this story, and “The Shape” is this sort of demonic, satanic I suppose, demonic rather than satanic, the provocateur character that nobody sees but whispers in everybody’s ear. Typecast again. But it’s interesting to do. I think some people got hold of the wrong end of the stick and imagined it was going to be a Broadway musical, but I think it would be pretty tough to imagine all those people showing up for Broadway.
SEE: A little, yeah.
Elvis: But this is another way to do it, I think it’s an interesting way to do it, get people into the studio and record. It’s kind of like a collage almost of dramatic performances, and a lot of the songs are written in character voices. I’ve written a number of songs where I’m not that person that’s singing, there’s even reprehensible characters in songs where I wouldn’t want to be that person. But here I’ve got a little more licence to go a bit further with that, because it’s somebody else’s character that’s been created and I have to sort of try and bring it to life in some way that made sense to me and I hoped that they liked it. People are trying different things. The record company relationship with artists is less dominant than it used to be. People are able to sort of try some different forms without being worried about losing radio play in Idaho. Nobody cares about that anymore. If there’s a good station in Idaho, then they can have a direct conversation with you. If there isn’t, then you’re not losing anything by doing something that’s interesting to you. It’s probably a good idea to give it a try, see what happens.