John Mellencamp Community

Review: ‘Ghost Brothers’ makes dramatic improvement
by Andrew S. Hughes

John Mellencamp slipped into the Morris Performing Arts Center to watch Tuesday’s performance of “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” the musical he co-wrote with Stephen King.

In all likelihood, the Indiana native left pleased with what he saw: The production has improved dramatically since this tour’s opening night Oct. 10 at Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington, and it already was very good.

“Ghost Brothers” tells the near-parallel stories of two sets of brothers, Jack and Andy in 1967 and their nephews, Frank and Drake, in 2007. In each case, a girl, Jenna and Anna, respectively, is only the latest cause for strife in their feud-ridden young adult lives.

Jack and Andy’s younger brother, Joe, summons his sons and wife to the family’s cabin at Lake Belle Reve, Miss., in 2007 to finally tell them the truth about the night one of his brothers shot the other there in a game of “William Tell” and then committed double suicide with Jenna by leaping from a nearby cliff. Ten at the time, Joe was the only witness to all three deaths.

Jack, Andy, Jenna and Dan — the cabin’s caretaker, who also died there under mysterious circumstances — appear on stage as ghosts in the present and as people in 1967.

Lingering in their midst is the malevolent The Shape, swathed in red light and able to guide the other characters’ actions through suggestion.

What worked in Bloomington still does, but subtle improvements to the production have made an important difference.

Now, the entire cast appears fully immersed in the characters, a slightly quicker pace has trimmed a few minutes from the run time and heightened the tension of the work, King’s liberal use of humor succeeds in places where it didn’t because the actors’ delivery of it has changed for the better, and a few adjustments to the actors’ blocking have helped to underscore its themes and conflicts.

Director Susan V. Booth stages “Ghost Brothers” as a radio drama with minimal blocking and realism, but when the actors do act out a scene, it works very well.

Travis Smith and Peter Albrink, for instance, make Andy and Jack’s antagonism feel natural and long-held in how they eye each other with suspicion, particularly at the beginning; Joe Tippett and Lucas Kavner re-enact a recent fight between Drake and Frank in a way that makes it tense even though the outcome is already known; and as Anna, Kylie Brown’s taunting of Drake has a believable maliciousness to it, while the sound of an organ and rim shots helps to increase the tension of the scene until Anna becomes out of control with rage.

As the adult Joe

McCandless, Bruce Greenwood remains compelling with his tormented, guilt- and grief-ridden performance, both as an actor with the haggard, hooded-eyes expression on his face and the confusion he makes palpable in the character’s hesitation and as a singer whose rough, weary voice imbues “How Many Days” and “What Kind of Man Am I” with anguish.

As played by Jake LaBotz, The Shape is a charismatic figure with a droll delivery and the ability to shift seamlessly from mocking to insidious, and his eyes have a disconcerting ability to pierce the audience when he sustains eye contact, while the underscore for his narration scenes roils with turbulence.

LaBotz glides up to the microphone, gyrates with its stand and delivers the opening “That’s Me” with a mischievous sensibility that fits perfectly with the song’s jaunty, burlesque rhythm, and he accompanies himself on guitar with very good finger-picked and strummed blues playing on the simultaneously humorous and seductive “Lounging Around in Heaven.”

Emily Skinner gives a multi-dimensional performance as Joe’s wife, Monique. She displays a deeply rooted range of emotions, including anger at her sons’ fighting, co-dependent maternal devotion to Drake, genuine love and affection for Joe, and disdain for Anna.

With musical direction by T Bone Burnett (“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”), members of Mellencamp’s band — guitarist and band leader Andy York, percussionist Dane Clark, keyboardist Troye Kinnett and bassist Jon E. Gee — perform the music live on stage and do so with the intimate familiarity and sensitivity you’d expect from musicians long-accustomed to playing his music.

Among the song and musical performance highlights, Gee’s slapped bass and York’s slide guitar give “Brotherly Love” a violent urgency; Kinnett’s subtle accordion, Clark’s use of brushes and the hollow sound of York’s guitar coupled with Skinner’s anguished delivery make “And You Are Blind” sound mysterious and otherworldly; and Brown delivers Anna’s “That’s Who I Am” with a seductive forcefulness that matches the character’s narcissism.

As Jenna, Kate Ferber’s colorful, warm soprano sounds inviting and comforting on “Home Again,” while her voice is tender and soulful with nicely rounded notes on “Away From This World” and suggestive on the driving rocker “Jukin’.”

The musical’s one major flaw, however, remains: King’s script.

But even there, one performance differs from another.

In Bloomington, the conflict between Frank and Drake didn’t seem as urgent and compelling as that of Jack and Andy, but that wasn’t as evident Tuesday at the Morris. Nor did Joe’s hesitation feel like a purposeful delay on King’s part, perhaps to make room for one or more additional songs by Mellencamp, as it did in Bloomington.

Instead, the roughness of the transition to King’s ending after a false conclusion stood out Tuesday in ways that it didn’t in Bloomington. This time, it seemed contrived and forced, an expedient device more than a plot development, and it may be that something as simple as an added sound effect or scream could at least smooth the transition enough to make a pivotal, late act of violence more credible.

But compared to opening night in Bloomington, the cast merited Tuesday’s standing ovation more than it did four weeks ago, and “Ghost Brothers” appears headed toward a long life, most likely as a successful repertory, college and community theater piece.

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