[When Sibling Revelry Turns Dark: Ghost Brothers’ Debut]

When Sibling Revelry Turns Dark: Ghost Brothers’ Debut
by George Walker- Oct. 11/2013

The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County had its official opening to a full house at the IU Auditorium last night.  

It’s John Mellencamp and Stephen King’s play with music.  Two generations of McCandless family brothers each with a wild young woman lose their lives to a toxic mix of lust and sibling rivalry.

Jesse Lenant as the Zydeco Cowboy was the amiable host who bridged the story from scene to scene. Ghost Brothers… is loosely set as an old time radio play with a microphone at center stage. Characters appear either in their present in 1967 or 2007 or as their shroud wearing ghosts.  It’s no A Prairie Home Companion.

Joe Tippett and Lucas Kavner with Kylie Brown were the doomed trio from 1967. Travis Smith and Peter Albrink with Kate Ferber were the hope of the future in 2007. Bruce Greenwood  sang eloquently  as the old Joe in 2007, and  he along with Zac Ballard as the young Joe in 1967 were the links from the fixed past to the potentially flexible future.

Emily Skinner sang and acted movingly as the forgiving in life and death figure of old Joe’s wife Monique.

Eric Moore sang powerfully as the friendly bartender where there are no ‘drinks on the house,’ but the advice is free.

Jake LaBotz played the devilish figure who eggs the two families on to destruction. He got one of the show’s few laughs. When he was asked if Hell is as hot as they say, he replied, “Yes, but it’s dry heat.”

The story of Ghost Brothers is sketched out almost with the drama of a comic book, depending on the visual effects and the songs to fill in the characters. Things develop slowly in the first act and require a bit of patience, but they pick up in the second.

The music of Ghost Brothers is varied, flirting with rock and roll along with country and zydeco sounds. It can be loud and throbbing, but it doesn’t seek to pound the audience into submission. This is one show you can leave your ear plugs at home for.  Overall music direction is by T-Bone Burnett. Band leader and arranger Andy York led the nicely understated quartet.

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County leaves Bloomington on tour heading to Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Ohio. It swings back to the Auditorium for a second performance on October 23rd.

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=94611

[Theater Review - 'Ghost Brothers of Darkland County’: Fraternal strife at center of unconventional musical]

Theater Review -  'Ghost Brothers of Darkland County’: Fraternal strife at center of unconventional musical
by Curtis Schieber

“This is the oldest story in the world,” says the Zydeco Cowboy (Jesse Lenat) at the opening of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a unique music and theater production that touched down in the Palace Theatre last night.

He was talking about the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, but given the work’s creators — novelist Stephen King, singer-songwriter John Mellencamp and songwriter-producer T-Bone Burnett — it was a foregone conclusion that the yarn would tilt to the dark side.

Sure enough, Satan — or “The Shape,” as he was called —appeared for the first full song, That’s Me. As delivered by singer Jake LaBotz, he was cocky, tattooed and the harbinger of constant bad news. “I always win,” he sang merrily but full of ice.

Ghost Brothers was first heard as a song cycle with a narrative thread, released this summer and performed by the likes of Elvis Costello, Neko Case, Dave and Phil Alvin, Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson, Taj Mahal and Rosanne Cash. King created the libretto for the stage show as well as the overall shape of the story. If the recording was a bit vague on the narrative line, the show was a bit thin on the music.

From the first, the musical performances on record more surely stood on their own than those last night. Costello opened the collection with a Beelzebub as much showy snake-oil salesman as evil agent. By the end of the evening’s drama, though, LaBotz created a seething but seductive face of evil.

The story revolves around two contemporary brothers, Frank and Drake McCandless (Lucas Kavner and Joe Tippett, respectively). Drake is the high-school idol, Frank, the nerd. Drake’s longtime girlfriend Anna (Kylie Brown) has begun an affair with Frank as the story unfolds.

The triangle just happens to mirror the tragic relationship decades ago between the brothers of the two boys’ dad, Joe: Jack (Peter Albrink) and Andy (Travis Smith). The show presents the parallel destiny of two pairs of brothers, and it takes much of the first act to sort out all the time frames and family histories.

By the time it all becomes clear, though, so does the fact that this is all about Joe, just 10 when the first brothers met their demise. Joe’s challenge is to come clean 40 years later about the circumstances of their death in order to save his two battling sons and, more important, himself.

Spoiler alert: It doesn’t end well for any of the principals. Nonetheless, unlike the recording, the stage presentation finally kowtows to convention by ending in a cast singalong that finds a silver thread.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2013/10/23/theater-review-ghost-brothers.html

[Review by Hope Baugh]

Review by Hope Baugh
Indy Theatre Habit

Several years ago I applied for a job at the public library in Seymour, Indiana.  I met a LOT of people during the interview process, including some of the regular patrons (customers), and at some point I brought up the topic of rock star resident John Mellencamp.  I said something gushy like, “Maybe I’ll run into him at the grocery store!”

Whoever I was talking with made a face and said, “He’s no saint, you know. We’re proud of him, but he’s no saint.”

Now, years later, after driving down to Bloomington, Indiana last night for the premiere performance of the Midwest tour of “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” that’s kind of how I feel about the show: it’s not perfect, but I’m proud of John Mellencamp (music and lyrics) and Stephen King (libretto) for trying something new while still letting their audiences enjoy their musical and storyelling strengths.  I’m glad I paid $65 and drove two hours there and back after work to be with a gazillion other excited fans in the Indiana University Auditorium on opening night of the tour.

Should you go see “Ghost Brothers” when it comes through Indianapolis next week?  Well, you know my first answer is always, “Of course you should go see a show that interests you.  Go see it and form your own opinion!”

But in this case I’ll add that if you already are a Mellencamp and/or a King fan, then yes, you should definitely go, because the a) the songs are fresh but have that relatable, tormented-yet-honest Mellencamp feel and the singers and instrumental musicians performing them are outstanding.  And b) the story has that Ahh-I’m-so-comfortable-no-wait-I’m-in-a-nightmare-no-wait-no-what-oh-awesome feel that Stephen King does so well and it is told in this production by excellent actors.

As a theatre piece “Ghost Brothers” disappointed me a bit.  I always hope for a core-shaker when I go to the theatre, but this was merely interesting, not immediately transformational.  I’m going to try to figure out why by writing about it at length in another post without worrying about spoilers.  After I do that, I’m going to read and respond to two or more other local reviewers that I know blogged about last night’s performance, but first I want to see if I can figure out “what I think” all by myself.

So please check back for Part Two of this review, and in the meantime, if you go see “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” I hope you’ll leave me a courteous comment, too.

I suspect that even though I didn’t join in standing and cheering at the end last night, I will be thinking about this piece for a long time.  It is no accident that delayed transformation is one of the themes of “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.”

‘See you at the theatres!

http://www.indytheatrehabit.com/2013/10/11/ghost-brothers-of-darkland-county-theatre-review-part-one/

[Review by Anne Haines - blog site]

Review by Anne Haines - blog site
http://annehaines.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/review-ghost-brothers-of-darkland-county/

Tonight I was fortunate enough to see the tour premiere of “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” the musical written by Stephen King and John Mellencamp (with musical direction by T-Bone Burnett). I’m not going to write up a detailed review, but I have some thoughts about it. Since it’s a mystery, I’m going to do my best not to include any spoilers.

I’m not particularly a fan of musicals (it’s just a taste I never really acquired), and I’m not that big on mysteries either. The performance was strong enough to overcome my general lack of interest in those genres, though. There were some really fantastic singers on that stage; I was especially taken with Bruce Greenwood (Joe) – who you may know from his acting career but probably didn’t know that he actually has a killer singing voice – as well as Kylie Brown (Anna) and Eric Moore (Dan Coker) but there were a lot of very strong voices. I was completely captivated by Jake LaBotz (The Shape), who played a slimy, funny, villainous, charming, evil, sexy Satan-esque character like it was what he was born to do. Great voice, great movement, incredible stage presence. The songs were terrific, Mellencamp in absolutely top-notch songwriting form, and the band (Mellencamp’s guys – Andy York, Dane Clark, Troye Kinett, Jon E. Gee) was spot-on perfect.

The staging was minimal, but worked really well for me. The idea was that it would be sort of like an old-time radio drama, and there’s even an old-fashioned microphone that serves as a center stage focal point. The set is extremely minimalistic and the costuming is not elaborate. That could, in some hands, make it feel low-budget and amateurish. But because the lighting was very nicely done and the performance was so very good, the staging served to leave room for the audience’s imagination. It was, in a way, kind of like reading a book – you get a certain amount of description but you have to fill in a lot of it for yourself. I liked that very much.

That said, I’m troubled by some things about the show. First, and just to get this out of the way, the women in the show basically existed to serve as pretty prizes for the men to fight over. It really became quite problematic for me. The actresses were great, and they did what they could with the roles, but make no mistake, they were basically high-class props on the stage. It didn’t prevent me from enjoying the show, but it did bug me.

The other troubling thing – and this is troubling in a more interesting way – is that I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to take away from the show. It’s going to be hard to explain this very well without including spoilers, so this may be sketchy. It was quite clear to me that this was meant to be more than just a thrilling ghost story – there are themes of family dynamics and how those repeat from one generation to the next, of the relationship between the living and the dead, of sin and forgiveness, of how lies and secrets can poison the soul.

I think my question about the takeaway is really a question about the theology of the show, oddly enough – and I know even less about theology than I do about musicals, so it’s possible that the gap in understanding is all on me. I guess I’m just not sure, in the end, what position the story takes on the possibility of redemption. The musical finale said one thing and I’m not entirely sure the script was saying the same thing. It kind of felt like when I write a poem that has a bang-up final couplet, boom boom perfect ending, but the couple of stanzas before the couplet are a mess and you don’t really feel like the ending was arrived at, more like I got tired of trying to get to the ending I knew I wanted and so I just gave up and stuck the ending on there. But maybe I’m meant to walk out of the theater asking the question about redemption?

I can’t really go farther than that without spoiling it, and I do think it is good enough to be worth seeing, so I don’t want to spoil it. Go for the very strong performances, go for the great music, go so you can explain to me what I’m not quite getting about the theology thing! It’s playing mostly around the Midwest through early November; I wouldn’t be surprised if it – or possibly a slightly revised version of it – ends up touring more widely, so keep an eye out.

['Ghost Brothers of Darkland County' an enjoyable ghost story almost despite itself]

'Ghost Brothers of Darkland County' an enjoyable ghost story almost despite itself
by Jeffrey Lee Puckett

“Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” a musical play conceived by horror writer Stephen King and songwriter John Mellencamp, boasts elements that clearly echo the past work of its creators — but they are only echoes, without the rich textures and emotional depth to which fans of either man are accustomed.

While frequently awkward and unsure over the course of its two hours and change, “Ghost Brothers” ultimately emerges as a nice entertainment that manages to succeed despite its issues. That won’t be enough for some, especially theatre veterans, but King’s “Firestarter” and Mellencamp’s “American Fool” were imperfect and often wildly effective.

The production, which played Friday night at The Kentucky Center’s Whitney Hall, is neither a pure musical nor a stage play. It has elements of both and then adds a few of its own: a live band on stage, a couple of narrators/performers, and a vibe that feels like that of a radio play, with a stripped-down set that leaves room for an audience’s imagination.

The play begins tentatively, its storyline developing too slowly and with an excess of exposition. It’s unclear who we’re supposed to be pulling for, a problem that never disappears completely, but Jake La Botz as The Shape — Satan, actually — makes sure no one’s attention wanders for long. His Satan is evil but also up for a good time, and La Botz provides some well-placed laughs.

King’s story begins coming together around 30 minutes in when Joe McCandless, played by Bruce Greenwood, steps up as the emotional focus after he delivers the play’s first really good song, “How Many Days.” The energy immediately went up Friday night and, for the most part, stayed there. The music, shaped under the direction of T Bone Burnett, also gets better from that moment on.

Greenwood, a familiar character actor in feature films, plays a classic King type in that McCandless has allowed a terrible secret to twist and shape his life. In a King book, that secret usually has a sinister, supernatural aspect but “Ghost Brothers” isn’t a spook show despite having plenty of ghosts.

The plot revolves around a 1967 shooting of a man by his brother, and the subsequent suicide by the surviving brother and the girl who had pitted them against each other. The men were Joe’s older brothers, and he witnessed the whole mess. His secret is that there was no suicide, and that he accidentally caused those deaths.

Now Joe’s sons are facing an identical crisis, which means that “Ghost Brothers” is essentially a Bible story combining Cain and Able with the bit about the sins of the father being visited upon his children. Most of the action takes places at the cabin in the woods where the shooting occurred, with the ghosts of the dead watching their story play out once again.

The Shape provides the supernatural aspect, and eventually sparks the play’s most satisfying scene, one in which the stage is left littered with a fresh set of dead bodies. At that moment, the play feels very King-like, dark and weirdly satisfying, but there’s one more pump fake that raises more questions than it answers.

Everyone in the play has been dead the whole time, and Joe has apparently failed many times at reshaping this tragedy in an effort to make things right. When he finally accepts that he can’t make things right — maybe because everyone is already dead? — he is able to leave purgatory and move on.

Why the other spirits have played along with Joe’s ghost-world fantasy is unclear, and director Susan V. Booth tries to sweep this breakdown of logic under the rug with a rousing finale of “Truth,” after which everyone marches off to heaven with a smile.

A pile of bodies certainly isn’t a happy ending, but in this case it might have been a better one.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20131011/SCENE05/310110150/Stephen-King-John-Mellencamp-play-louisville?nclick_check=1

[Stephen King, John Mellencamp, T Bone Burnett's 13 years of collaboration brings ghost story to stage]

Stephen King, John Mellencamp, T Bone Burnett's 13 years of collaboration brings ghost story to stage By Piet Levy

Stephen King fans can enjoy new content across multiple mediums this Halloween season, whether it's a book ("Doctor Sleep," his sequel to "The Shining"), a movie (the remake of "Carrie") or a musical.

Yeah, that's right, a musical.

If you're expecting splashy songs like "You've Been a Bad Dog Cujo!" or "I Wish I Could Roam, but I'm Under the Dome," or perhaps a soft-shoe number with the "It" clown, think again.

"Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" is a supernatural (of course) slice of southern Gothic concerning feuding brothers and their father, and the fraternal ghosts that haunt them.

And while King has dabbled in music on the side, the haunting Americana songs come from a pair of tried-and-true professionals — John Mellencamp and Grammy-winning producer T Bone Burnett.

In the making for 13 years, "County" has itself taken on multiple forms since its debut last year, including an Atlanta stage production, an illustrated digital book and an album featuring performers such as Sheryl Crow, Rosanne Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Neko Case and Elvis Costello.

The latest iteration is a traveling radio play with a live band, starring character actor Bruce Greenwood (John F. Kennedy in "Thirteen Days"), that makes a stop Tuesday at the Riverside Theater.

Mellencamp's haunted cabin

Even though King is the writer, the germinal idea came from Mellencamp, Burnett said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel.

"John bought a cabin in Indiana that really is haunted," Burnett said. "Radios would come on in the middle of the night, all these sounds would happen... He would put his guests up in this cabin.... happy to scare the pants off of them."

"It turned out there had been this horrible murder there," Burnett said.

The story goes that in the late 1930s, a couple of brothers and a girl were at the cabin. The men were drinking, quarreled and one hit the other in the head with a poker, accidentally killing him. The surviving brother and the girl drove into town for help, but skidded off the road, crashed into a pond and drowned.

"He was compelled to tell that story," Burnett said, he suspects in part because Mellencamp had his own history of brotherly strife. "He more or less enlisted Stephen King, who tells the best ghost stories of anybody."

That was back in 2000, but despite their busy schedules, Mellencamp continued to write songs while King revised the book over the next 10 years.

"They're both simpatico," Burnett said as the reason they stayed committed to the project and collaboration. "They both live in small towns and write about small-town America and write stories that grow right out of the ground. And they both use urban legends and the stuff of this country and reframe it, and talk about life with it."

But after 10 years, Mellencamp and King had a whole lot to say.

When Burnett was asked to join the project, the show was 31/2 hours long.

"When I first came on board, we were thinking about doing this as a radio play," Burnett said.

"It was something I had never done and would be fun ... I wanted it to sound like you were going down the bayou, and you can hear music in the distance across the swamp, music in the trees, that spooky, otherworldly feel."

That's the vibe that's conveyed on the guest-star-studded album, which Burnett oversaw, emailing notes and song files to King and Mellencamp for their approval.

"The music part went really smoothly," Burnett said. "It was seriously the easiest job I ever had."

No bells or whistles

A few years back, another party — Susan V. Booth, artistic director at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, became interested in bringing the story to life on stage.

"I had been asked what projects I'd hoped to bring to the Alliance Theatre," Booth said via email. "I said I hoped to get John Mellencamp to write a musical. ... A few years later, a mutual friend reached out to me and told me he had."

When Mellencamp and King had trouble getting a stage version to New York, the job went to Alliance.

"This was John Mellencamp writing these beautiful character study songs, Steve King writing a multigenerational family ghost story, and T Bone Burnett creating swampy atmospherics," Booth said. "It's three brilliant artists all working in their sweet spots."

But aside from Burnett, theater was a completely new experience for King and Mellencamp.

Right out of the gate they broke some rules, with the songs expressing character sentiment instead of moving the plot forward, and Broadway-style razzmatazz left out completely.

Consequently, the Atlanta production received mixed reviews.

"It has the feel of something devised over Skype," the New York Times proclaimed. And Booth admitted that "just getting the three of them in a room together can take months."

But Burnett said the negative reviews were justified. "The pacing could be better, the story could be clearer," he said.

"One really great song got cut." In fact, during the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interview, Burnett made a note to himself to insist the "beautiful song" called "You Are Blind" — it sounds like Leonard Cohen, imagined as rustic Americana — "is put into this production."

Perhaps to escape the stigma of the Atlanta show, and most likely for budgetary reasons, the touring show is "the story told simply and without bells and whistles."

Even without sets and costumes, the cast remains large at 15, plus a four-man band. Booth insists the story is better for it.

"The end result is gorgeous music, a great story and the audience's imagination completing the picture," he said.

And if you think after all these years that King, Mellencamp and Burnett are ready to move on from "County," think again.

"I'm still working on it," Burnett said. "I think it makes a great movie."

More T Bone

Like King and Mellencamp, Burnett keeps himself busy. He shared some thoughts about his latest projects.

"The Diving Board" by Elton John: "Elton is getting a lot of respect for his work on this record and I'm glad to see it," said Burnett, who produced John's September album. At Burnett's insistence, it was largely constructed around piano, bass and drums, John's band set-up early in his career.

"Inside Llewyn Davis": Burnett's biggest career breakthrough came from collaborating with the Coen Brothers as the producer for the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, which won a Grammy for album of the year in 2001 and triggered the American folk resurgence. Burnett has teamed up with the fraternal filmmakers again for their forthcoming feature "Davis," set in New York's folk scene in 1961.

"Everything was recorded live on set without a click track, without any overdubbing or lipsyncing," Burnett said. "That was intense. It was like walking a tight rope — without a net, and without a rope." They also recently teamed up on a related project: a live concert in New York featuring songs from the film, performed by the Avett Brothers, Jack White, Marcus Mumford and others.

"The Coens are doing a film on it," Burnett said. It's slated to air on Showtime in December. "It's an evening about the way this music continues to be reinvented in the 21st century."

A secretive, all-electronic musical score. You read that correctly: The producer celebrated for his earthy folk, rock and country catalog is going digital. If he's committing sacrilege, he's "having the most fun ... Doing electronic music, it's really incredibly easy."

http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/musicandnightlife/stephen-king-john-mellencamp-t-bone-burnetts-13-years-of-collaboration-brings-ghost-story-to-stag-b9-228958791.html

Blog Review by Dan Dillard - DemonAuthor.com

I don’t go to see a lot of live theater. I saw the traveling version of The Lion King in San Diego… I’ve seen several university theater productions including Grease and Little Shop of Horrors… I’ve even been involved in a few productions—I was the guitarist for a local theater production of Grease back in high school and I filmed versions of Godspell, Coppelia, Agnes of God and a few others for that same group back when I thought I might want to be a filmmaker (I still do!). I even married a thespian. Just ask her.

I told you all that to tell you this. I’m not really qualified to review a theater production, but I’m going to do it anyway. So read this. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night

As a horror writer and lover of all things creepy, I couldn’t not go see a live show that was in part created by His Highness, Stephen King (responsible for the libretto), and John Mellencamp—hold the Cougar. Mellencamp initiated the project based on a ghost story he was told about a cabin he was buying on Lake Monroe right here in Southern Indiana. This musical play is a ghost story of the Southern gothic variety and they’ve been banging away at it for thirteen years. A magic number in the world of the strange and superstitious. To round out the creative minds behind it, they boys brought in T-Bone Burnett as a musical director and for once, being in Bloomington, Indiana had its perks, because we got the opening night for the touring show.



King and Mellencamp have claimed in other interviews that the collaboration between “non-collaborators” has made them like brothers, going so far as to say they’ve not had a bad word between them during its entire development process. Believe that if you will. I, for one, hope it’s true. The finished product—even though Ghost Brothers of Darkland County is considered a work in progress—“Art is never finished, only abandoned,” Mellencamp said in an interview with Bloom Magazine—is a mixture of some very cool things.

I’ll try my best not to spoil the story for you—and I definitely won’t give away the ending, but there will be some details in the next couple paragraphs. Read at your own risk.
The story is an old one. Competitive brothers Jack and Andy McCandless were brought to the point of murder by their love of the same woman, Jenna, back on Lake Belle Reve, Louisiana, 1967. There’s a twist here though in that the brothers mentioned in the title aren’t necessarily the forefront of the story. The show is about their nephews, 20-somethings Frank and Drake McCandless, who are following in the Ghost Brother’s footsteps, still in Lake Belle Reve, but in 2007. Frank is a musician that plays a local honky-tonk hoping but failing to catch the eye of a record producer. Drake, his younger brother just landed his first book deal—half a million dollars worth—and not only that, but he is engaged to Anna…who is Frank’s ex girlfriend.

Frank and Drake have been summoned to the family cabin by their father, Joe, and mother, Monique, because Joe has something he wants to tell the whole family, something that has haunted him since he was a young boy. The truth about what happened to his older brothers forty years ago and why he still wakes up screaming in the middle of the night.
Joe hopes to prevent Frank and Drake from continuing on their path and repeating history. Monique wants her sons back—the best friends she remembers from just a few years ago, and she wants her husband back from the haunted place he has crawled into. Drake wants out of his old hometown and wants the support his mother only seems to give to Frank…and Joe wants the haunting to stop.

Helping the story along are some interesting characters. The Shape sits house right (stage left) and is a tattooed, leather wearing smart-ass representing the devil. House left (stage right) is The Zydeco Cowboy who represents the light side…and in the middle, where most of the performance takes place, you have either the Dreamland Café (purgatory), the McCandless cabin, or a handful of other settings denoted simply by a single screen in the back with projected images.

The Zydeco Cowboy narrates us from one scene to the next and The Shape fires off some comical quips about the true nature of man. “He’s always around”, Zydeco says and it proves true. The Shape tells us things like “People prefer songs about fuckin’ or killin.” And on the subject of church, he says “I get bad reviews there. Always have…any true artist does.” He also seems quite happy about the lust, betrayal and violence that ensues joyously claiming, “It’s like a two for Tuesday!” and “This is what you call your basic clean sweep!” The Shape is funny.

In the Dreamland Café, the proprietor is a man named Dan Coker who is constantly trying to move folks out of the bar letting them know they don’t have to go home, but they can’t stay there. With all the tragedy in the McCandless clan, none of the ghosts seem to want to move on.

The production is done in the style of an old-time radio show, the type with a live audience. This both works and doesn’t… I’ll start with the bad because there’s so little of it and then move on to why the show works.

As an old time radio show, there isn’t much in the way of set design or costuming. The players generally stand in the center and perform. Each wore a headset, but for show, they sang into an antique microphone that was center stage on a stand. All players were on stage at all times, taking a seat in the background when they weren’t performing. The band was also on stage behind The Zydeco Cowboy so there was a lot to look at. The problem is this, there was not a lot going on visually. With no real sets to move around, the actors were forced to pantomime and for the most part, they did a wonderful job, but this is a musical performance. Some of the more seasoned vets had great stage presence with their dialogue and their songs…but some just stood like statues to sing. A little choreography would’ve gone a long way and it did for “Tear This Cabin Down” which was the most energetic ensemble number.

Also, at times during ensemble acting, there was no motion in the characters at all and it was tough to tell who was actually speaking. Folks in the front few rows may have had an easier time.

If I had one more complaint, it would be length. Could’ve been some opening night issues, but there were a few sections that seemed to drag on and trimming ten or fifteen minutes wouldn’t hurt. Act one was just over an hour and act two lasted about 75 minutes with a 20 minute intermission.

Performance-wise, the show was brilliant. The acting was solid all the way around with standouts being Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek: Into Darkness) who played Joe, and Emily Skinner (Tony nominated stage actress). Show stealers included Eric Moore as Dan Coker, Jake LaBotz as The Shape and Zac Ballard as ten-year old Joe—kid was adorable. Some of the background players were obvious rookies, and it really showed in Act I, but the cast settled for Act II and got a standing ovation for their work.

All vocal performances were excellent, some mind blowing and the band was fantastic. The music ranged from rock to country to gospel to zydeco and blues and while every tune was different, you could hear a little Mellencamp in each one, he has an ever maturing sound and a style that is finally all his own. Songs to watch for are “Tear This Cabin Down”, “Truth”, “Home Again” and anything performed by Eric Moore—dude has skills and a bluesy, gospel tone that will stand up the hairs on your neck.

Story wise, it was a mix of Mellencamp’s lyrics, used to develop the characters, and King’s story for the narrative bits. King’s presence is felt throughout. That being said, it isn’t scary. There are very tense moments, twists, and there are ghosts, but they serve as the Greek Chorus. The ghost brothers and the spirit of Jenna and Dan Coker give us some insight to the events of 1967 while guiding the 2007 characters to do what they hope is the right thing. Supernatural? Yep. Horror? No, not at all, but it isn’t meant to be. The story is tragic and has moments of pure lust and moments of pure slime and there is a bit of violence. Its message is about telling the truth before it’s too late. Too late meaning, the first time because you can’t go back and change the past… once the lie is out—all one can do is make amends, leave it in the past, and try not to continue screwing up in the future. It is an adult show with plenty of choice language—most of it for laughs. That brings me to comedy. It’s a funny show.

Technically, this show was simple. As I said before, there were no set pieces and the background was a screen with projected images. Effects were courtesy of simple sound and lighting tricks. Several scenes ended with freeze-frame images, moments paused in time so the Zydeco Cowboy could tell us—in Dukes of Hazzard commercial break style, if you remember that show—what he hoped might happen next.

Sound was excellent with crystal clear vocals and music and only a few glitches that didn’t detract from the performances.
Again, I won’t spoil the ending, but there’s more than one twist to the story and they were satisfying. Nothing turns out like you’ll probably hope as at its heart, this story is a tragic one, and much like The Walking Dead—you’ll question which set of brothers are really the ghosts...

Unless you just hate theater or just hate music, I have to highly recommend getting a seat for this show if it comes anywhere near your town. Stepping out of their comfort zones served the novelist and musician well.

As a side note, Stephen King and his wife Tabitha, and John Mellencamp and his girlfriend Meg Ryan were in the audience, but I didn’t tackle them. Not even sure I saw them. Not a huge fan of Mellencamp, but having grown up in Indiana, he was difficult to escape (and who doesn’t love a little Jack and Diane?). It was a big theater and it was a sold out show. I wish them well with the performance and hope it has a long run. Part of me was disappointed they didn’t take the stage with the performers at the end—or maybe introduce the show, but on the other hand, it was classy move not to upstage the players, many of which (especially the rude and talkative women seated behind me) seemed to be there only in hopes of glimpsing the world famous writer. I won't lie and say I didn't have thoughts of meeting King at the show, letting him know I was a writer and it was at least one-third his fault (the other two thirds blame belongs to my mother and grandmother who bought me all of King's books in hardback when I was probably too young to read them)...but I'm also not an idiot. Maybe one day I'll be that writer that folks look up to.

http://www.demonauthor.com/2013/10/stephen-king-and-john-mellencampghost.html?zx=ffda8e6de7b2688e

[Of Monsters and Mellencamp]

Of Monsters and Mellencamp
Amy Stumpfl, theater reviewer for The Tennessean

Halloween is a couple of weeks off, but Ryman Auditorium played host to a good old-fashioned ghost story on Wednesday night, as the much-anticipated tour of Southern Gothic musical “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County” hit Nashville.

A unique theatrical collaboration with libretto by Stephen King, music and lyrics by John Mellencamp and musical direction by T-Bone Burnett, “Ghost Brothers” offers a cautionary tale of sibling rivalry and revenge that spans 40 years.

It’s an interesting concept, but “Ghost Brothers” is far from traditional musical theater fare. At times, it feels more like an old-time radio play — a format that works especially well in the historic Ryman. With its stripped-down approach to storytelling, offbeat narration (featuring the lively Zydeco Cowboy and a devilish entity known as “The Shape”) and a stellar four-piece band, there’s a timeless quality to “Ghost Brothers.” As one character observes: “It ain’t then, and it ain’t now.” It just is.

The story is a bit uneven, but fans are sure to recognize King’s distinctive voice. Still, it’s Mellencamp’s bluesy, roots-tinged score that makes “Ghost Brothers” so engaging. And while his songs don’t necessarily advance the narrative, they do provide a sort of loose commentary, defining characters and developing themes. Highlights include “That’s Who I Am,” “Tear This Cabin Down,” “Away From This World” and “Truth.”

The 15-member ensemble provides many memorable moments. Canadian film star Bruce Greenwood (who recently reprised his role as Captain Christopher Pike in “Star Trek Into Darkness”) offers a strong moral compass as patriarch Joe McCandless. And Broadway’s Emily Skinner brings depth to the role of Monique.

“Ghost Brothers” continues its tour through Nov. 6. Meanwhile, local fans can check out the deluxe edition soundtrack — featuring Elvis Costello and Sheryl Crow — available at http://www.GhostBrothersofDarklandCounty.com.


Ghost Brothers at The Ryman: Emily Skinner, left in front, and Bruce Greenwood; Kate Ferber, left in background, Peter Albrink, Travis Smith, Eric Moore, Joe Tippett. Photo credit: Harry Sandler

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20131018/ENTERTAINMENT05/310180145

Through the grapevine; Apparently 1 hr. of treadmill or stationary biking a day.... regime since his heart attack many years ago.

[No rest for the wicked in Stephen King and John Mellencamp's Ghost Brothers of Darkland County]

No rest for the wicked in Stephen King and John Mellencamp's
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County  
review by Stephen Trageser

In a little lakeside cabin in the backwoods of Louisiana, Joe McCandless' family members — the dead and the living — gather around him as he musters the courage to tell the true story of the tragedy that happened 40 years ago in that very room. Keeping the secret burns like acid in his veins, and so does the thought of revealing the truth — which may be his only chance to save his sons from sharing their uncles' tragic fate. So begins Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a musical theater piece brewed up by novelist Stephen King, master of all things macabre, and roots rocker John Mellencamp, who knows all too well what darkness lurks in the heart of small-town America.

Despite their standing as two of the most popular and gifted storytellers of the past half-century, King and Mellencamp had no prior experience in theater, and knew they needed skilled hands to bring their creation to life. For 13 years, the project fermented, tended first by T Bone Burnett, who arranged the music and produced the all-star album of the piece, and later by veteran director Susan Booth, who brought it to the stage.

Booth is the highly regarded artistic director at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, where Ghost Brothers premiered in 2012. (The company won the 2007 Tony Award for best regional theater.) Casting a production that's as much rock concert as stage play began a creative process that tapped all of her considerable abilities. The music covers an impressive array of styles, each subtly linking the piece to its setting in Louisiana. "The added wrinkle," Booth tells the Scene, "is that John's music isn't anything a traditional Broadway singer would have in their wheelhouse. So we had to find amazing musicians with the grit, the gravity, the straight-up musicianship to do John and T Bone proud."

And find them she did. Successful roots musician and established character actor Jake LaBotz plays The Shape, a devil-like character who gloats over his misdeeds in numbers such as the jug-band shuffle "That's Me." Kate Ferber, who portrays the now-dead vixen Jenna, tours regularly in One Child Born, a one-woman show she co-wrote celebrating the mercurial genius of the late singer-songwriter Laura Nyro. Bruce Greenwood, who plays Joe McCandless, is best known for his portrayals of John F. Kennedy in Thirteen Days and James T. Kirk's mentor Christopher Pike in two Star Trek films, but before becoming a professional actor, he toured as lead singer and guitarist in a rock band. His musical chops are evident as he grinds through his self-doubt in the brooding "What Kind of Man Am I" and struggles with the pain of secret-keeping in "How Many Days."

On the recording, Joe's story unfolds with an aching slowness, building the tension to a fever pitch — but just when the listener is salivating for the follow-through, the forward momentum evaporates, letting the dread hang like a dead weight and leaving us puzzled. The stage presentation adds several songs not included on the album that help delineate the plot, which spans four decades, but in aVariety review of the inaugural stage run last year, theater critic Frank Rizzo wrote that the story line was still unfocused.

Since then, Booth says she and the creators have been hard at work streamlining the production. They've pared back stage elements and multimedia enhancements that The New York Times called "fussy," and shifted the focus entirely to the story, the actors, the music and the audience's imagination. "We listened hard to that first audience, learned where they had questions, and then talked about which ones we wanted to answer and how best to do that," Booth says. "You don't answer them all, of course. That's the beauty of a Stephen King story: It's not done until you need to hash it out with someone else who saw it [or] read it."



http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/no-rest-for-the-wicked-in-stephen-king-and-john-mellencamps-ghost-brothers-of-darkland-county/Content?oid=3915721

[What worked]

Joel Pierson of the Bloomington Herald-Times had this to say about the Ghost Brothers premiere last Thursday night:



Photo courtesy of Chris Howell/ Herald-Times

A packed house was on hand at the Indiana University Auditorium Thursday night to watch the premiere of the long-anticipated national tour of “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.”
The new musical, with book by Stephen King and music by John Mellencamp, is more than 10 years in the making, and like any new work for the stage, it will evolve and change, finding its way with each new audience. The premiere was a bit of a mixed bag, with some things that worked well and others that would benefit from another polish.

What worked
Clearly, what drove this show was the performances. Bruce Greenwood as Joe McCandless was the anchor, as well as the link between the show’s two time periods. In 1967, a young Joe watched his two brothers die needlessly; in 2007, his own sons are at risk of repeating history.
Greenwood brings an earthy seriousness to the role, and man oh man, can that guy sing! Tony nominee Emily Skinner was equally impressive as his long-suffering wife, Monique.
Narrating the show for the audience were Jesse Lenat as the Zydeco Cowboy and Jake LaBotz as a demonic presence known as “The Shape.” Both characters interacted with the players as well as the audience, even expressing their hope that we had a good intermission. Aww, thank you, Zydeco Cowboy.
Mellencamp’s music is strong as well. Fans of his folk/blues style will find plenty to love in this show. Songs like “How Many Days,” “Brotherly Love” and “Tear This Cabin Down” demonstrate the hard-bitten edge that’s been woven through his music for years.

What didn’t work
That said, writing folk rock isn’t exactly like writing for the stage, and as such, the music featured powerful solo and duet pieces. Ensemble pieces weren’t always as strong, missing out on opportunities for stage favorites such as powerful four-part harmony.
My biggest qualm was with the staging. It was very minimalist, with an old-timey microphone at the front of the stage and a row of folding chairs up center.
When characters were performing, they stood at the microphone, often acting full front to the audience, rather than to each other. Those who weren’t in the scene sat in the folding chairs, in full view of the audience. This made “Ghost Brothers” feel more like a costumed concert than a night of musical theater.
Another surprise was the tone of the show. With King’s storyline, I expected it to be dark and gothic, moody and atmospheric. There were hints of this, but what pervaded was humor — frequent, often off-color jokes that, for me at least, undercut the “Kinginess” I came to see.

I’m glad I went, and the show has potential to be a hit, but the producers need to remember that Broadway ain’t Bloomington, and they’ll need to bring their “A” game for a theatergoing audience that wasn’t born in a small town.

As a footnote, I was seated about six feet away from Messrs. King and Mellencamp and Meg Ryan, and I frequently looked over at them, watching King whisper in his collaborator’s ear, as Ryan swayed and bopped to the music. It was a pleasure to watch them get into the show this way. I only wish they’d given me a bit more to look at on stage.

http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/entertainment/some-parts-work-others-don-t-in-ghost-brothers-premiere/article_0950c01d-2131-52b6-9b49-60bb63a43d6f.html?_dc=381117739714.6821

Ghost Brothers opens tonight at the IU Auditorium.  David Lindquist of The Indy Star had this sneak peak at a recent rehearsal and here is his article.

Photo by Matt Kryger/The Star

http://www.indystar.com/article/20131008/THINGSTODO03/310080081/Company-Mellencamp-King-show-readies-opening-night

Seems embedded code for video isn't working.

Here are some production photos from rehearsals.  Set and lighting design is awesome.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=BG&Dato=20131008&Kategori=THINGSTODO03&Lopenr=310080801&Ref=PH via the IndyStar.com

Totally agree with #1,2, 8, 9 & 10.  Those are at the top of my list of favorites too!  Would have to add Longest Days, Forgiveness and Brand New Song to my top 10 list.

I'm a complete mix of cross-over.  CD's and radio in the car with the odd plug-in from my iPhone.  No cloud music for me.  Love CD's because when I download music to my mobile device I truly miss the liner notes and inside info. you get.  At home....well CD's only for me if and when I do get to put something on.  If on the bus or taking the subway then tunes off my phone.

Now if my lovely iPhone ( ) would synch to my laptop then there are over 800 songs loaded there from my CD library that I'd love to have on the go!!