'Ghost Brothers of Darkland County' gives John Mellencamp new directionBy Bruce Miller
How's this for a disconnect: Growing up, John Mellencamp loved Broadway musicals.
"My older brother was the star of all of them -- 'Camelot,' 'My Fair Lady,' 'South Pacific.' And I enjoyed watching him perform. They had a very ambitious musical director at our high school. He wasn't afraid to take on any musical."
And John? "I was too much of a hoodlum for anything like that."
The love, however, never died. When musicians from ABBA to Billy Joel were finding their music in Broadway shows, producers came to the Indiana rocker and asked if, maybe, he'd like to get in on the jukebox trend.
"I said no to that...the songs weren't written for that," he says by phone. "One size does not fit all. I'm not for hire. But if you ever want some new songs, call me."
Sharing the information with his agent, the Grammy winner said he had a story he wanted to adapt, but needed someone like Stephen King to write the book.
"And my agent said, 'Steve is my client.'"
Phone calls were made, the two met in Florida and "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County" started its 15-year trek to completion.
At that first meeting, "Steve and I talked like two old friends," Mellencamp says. "We shook hands that day and haven't talked business since."
Instead, the two Broadway rookies tackled the mission largely without outside help. They spent hours on the phone hashing over concepts; months trying to figure out what they needed to do next.
"The songs don't move the story forward in the traditional musical way," Mellencamp explains. "You could make the case it's like 'Pygmalion.' There's the story...and there are the songs."
The musical's book is based on a legend Mellencamp heard about two brothers who had gotten in a fight over a girl. One killed the other, then died with the girl in a car crash a short time later.
King latched onto the idea, changed its location and made it about two sets of brothers. One pair died in a murder/suicide. The other, their nephews, seem headed down the same path.
Neither creator had any problem getting into the "Darkland County" mindset. "If a person looks inside himself, he can imagine what it's like to be a mother who's being ignored," Mellencamp says.
Because both had active careers ("Steve has written like 270 books in the time we've been working on this"), they couldn't devote every writing hour to it. One phone call, however, "and we can pick up where we left off...no breaking in period."
Five years ago, the two brought in Grammy-winning producer and musician T Bone Burnett to look at what they had done. "If you're bringing me in, I can't be anything but honest," Mellencamp remembers him saying. So Burnett laid it on the line. "We got him to point us in the right direction. We knew we were doing it ass backwards."
The show got a test run in Atlanta last year where both creators decided it needed paring even more. They didn't like a show with a lot of bells and whistles. Instead, they wanted something less theatrical.
"Steve's goal is different than mine," Mellencamp says. "He just wants to see people leave with some emotion. I want to make sure they leave the theater and go 'wow.'"
To do that, King, Mellencamp and Burnett created a new edition that will tour the country this fall before attempting a run on Broadway. Bruce Greenwood (one of the stars of the "Star Trek" reboot) and Emily Skinner (a Broadway veteran) have been cast in the production that will hit Sioux City's Orpheum Theatre Nov. 1.
"A normal Broadway production didn't work for us. It got in the way of the story," Mellencamp says. "We're doing a presentation that is akin to an old radio show. It's a play with music."
At one point the production team had a problem finding a leading man. They asked Mellencamp to think about taking the role. Quickly, he reminded them that wasn't an option.
Rock, in fact, is still on the front burner. Mellencamp is about to go in the studio and record his 27th album.
If "Ghost Brothers" never hits Broadway, that's just fine with its creators.
"We've been working on this for 15 years. We haven't fallen in love with the words we've written and we're always up for change," Mellencamp says. "Generally, what I've found is a work is never really done. It's only abandoned."
And that love of musicals? It still burns brightly, Mellencamp says.
"My Fair Lady" is his favorite show because it's so absurd. "I love the idea of men trying to change women and how ridiculous that is," he says with a laugh. "It should be the other way around. The pale white man has led the world long enough. I'm a person who believes we have (messed) it up this much...it's someone else's turn."
http://siouxcityjournal.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/ghost-brothers-of-darkland-county-gives-john-mellencamp-new-direction/article_019cefb4-b4a7-535f-b518-1af8d6806533.html
