Stephen King on ‘Brothers,’ Springsteen, ‘Shawshank’Alex Biese, Cherry Hill, N.J., Courier Post
Stephen King, the horror literature master who has authored more than 50 best-selling novels since making his debut 40 years ago with “Carrie,” has recently moved into uncharted territory: the world of musical theater.
King, together with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Mellencamp, has written the Southern Gothic musical “The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County.” The show, boasting musical direction by T Bone Burnett, made its live debut in Atlanta in 2012, and had an all-star CD version starring Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Kris Kristofferson and more released in 2013.
Now, “Ghost Brothers” is hitting the road in a traveling production starring Billy Burke and Gina Gershon that will be at Red Bank’s Count Basie Theatre on Tuesday, Nov. 18, following a Thursday, Nov. 13 engagement at Philadelphia’s Merriam Theatre at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
“I love it, it’s an organic product,” King said of putting his show on the road. “And for me, the books are organic and living things for as long as I’m working on them — first draft, second draft, rewrite, polish, all that stuff — and then finally it gets to be a book and you wish it well and it’s like sending a kid off to college. And you put it on the shelf and then you move on, hopefully, if you have another idea, to the next thing.
“And with this, it’s been this organic product that continues to grow. It’s a live thing. In fact, I was working on this show just about 10 days ago, trying to toughen up the lead female character a little bit and make her a little bit more like Martha in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ and that was a lot of fun. So, again, I’m grateful that I had the chance to be a part of this.
“For me, working with live actors on a stage, you get a chance to see how talented they are, both as actors and as singers, and the extra dimension they bring to the final product, so that’s great.”
Calling on a late October afternoon from western Maine, King is as busy as ever. He released the procedural thriller novel “Mr. Mercedes” in June and his second novel of the year, “Revival,” will be out on Tuesday, Nov. 11.
Mellencamp’s not resting on his laurels, either, having released the LP “Plain Spoken,” executive produced by Burnett, in September, and gearing up for a 2015 tour that will bring him to the Count Basie Theatre on April 18.
But “Ghost Brothers,” based on a ghost story that Mellencamp brought to King’s attention more than 15 years ago, represented a relatively rare act of artistic collaboration for the two men, both stand-alone stars in their individual fields.
“(Mellencamp) told me the story about this cabin that he had bought for his boys and him when they were younger and how it was supposed to be haunted by the ghosts of these three teenagers who had died there. And he said, ‘I think there might be a story in that, a musical,’ ” King recalled. “And I said, ‘Well Jesus John, I don’t know how to write a musical.’ And he said, ‘Neither do I. We’ll teach each other.’ And I thought, ‘This guy’s really got something there’ because at that point I was touching 60 and he was in his 50s and I thought, ‘Here’s a guy who’s willing to take a chance and fall on his face in public. I want to be a part of that.’ Because if you don’t continue to grow as an artist and try new things, what ... did you do it for?”
Discussing his collaborative relationship with Mellencamp, and how it differs from his typical working style, King said, “I’m mostly a solo act. John likes to say ‘I don’t play well with others.’ He’s a solo guy, too. And I don’t think it would have worked if we hadn’t had a mutual respect for each other to start with, and then a real friendship so that we could yell at each other when things went wrong.”
Boss memoriesKing’s path has cross that of rock royalty plenty of times over the years.
In the preface to the 1990 expanded edition of his classic novel “The Stand,” King wrote of New Jersey’s favorite son’s potential for starring in a film adaptation of the book, saying that “Bruce Springsteen would seem to make an interesting Larry Underwood, if he ever chose to try acting (and, based on his videos, I think he would do very well...).”
Discussing that casting suggestion now, King clarified that “I’m sure that that idea was floated at one time or another, it was never floated by me, but I would not have minded the idea of him playing Larry Underwood, who was the rocker in the story. But for me, I saw a video he did of a song called ‘I’m on Fire,’ and I thought to myself, ‘This is a guy who can act. He has tremendous screen presence and charisma aside from the ability to write those fabulous songs and perform on stage.’ ”
King said there was some talk for a time in the mid-’80s about him writing or directing a music video for the title track of Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” album, and he even passed an idea for the video on to Springsteen’s camp.
“It didn’t happen for a variety of reasons, mostly because my schedule intervened and so did his; that’s the way it happens. But I would love to work with that guy sometime.”
Springsteen even jammed with King’s author-filled band the Rock Bottom Remainders on a cover of Them’s “Gloria” at a 1997 gig in Los Angeles. “That was fun,” King said. “I was so excited to be sharing a mic with Bruce Springsteen that I forgot the chords to ‘Gloria,’ and there’s only three!”
‘Redemption’ historyAlong with marking the 40th anniversary of King’s publishing career, 2014 is the 20th anniversary of arguably the most successful cinematic adaptation of King’s works: Frank Darabont’s 1994 movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” based on King’s 1982 novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.”
The film continues to resonate with viewers two decades since its release.
“Basically, it’s a story about not losing hope, even under the most difficult of circumstances and continuing to try to escape from whatever it is that’s holding you down,” King said. “And I think that that had a deep resonance with the people who saw the film.”
“Shawshank,” it turns out, even connects with plenty of folks who might not otherwise consider themselves fans of King’s work.
“I was in a supermarket down in Florida and I came out of the housewares aisle and this old lady saw me and she said, ‘I know who you are, you write all of those horrible things. That’s OK for some people, but I like uplifting things, like that “Shawshank Redemption.” ’ And I said, ‘Well, I wrote that one, too.’ And she said, ‘No, you didn’t.’ So, some people just can’t be convinced that you can go in more than one direction.”
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