John Mellencamp Community

'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.

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