Stephen King, John Mellencamp & T-Bone Burnett Present GHOST BROTHERS OF DARKLAND COUNTY

By: Jun. 12, 2014
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

AEG Live announced today that the southern gothic, Supernatural musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County will tour across North America this Fall. Written by celebrated suspense author Stephen King, with music by Grammy Award-winning John Mellencamp and produced by Grammy and Academy Award-winning T-Bone Burnett, the tour will hit 18 cities including a stop in Durham, North Carolina for one night only on Friday, November 14.

Tickets go on sale Friday, June 20 at 10 a.m.:

  • Online at DPACnc.com
  • DPAC Ticket Center: 919.680.2787, 123 Vivian Street, Durham, NC
  • Ticketmaster.com / Ticketmaster Charge by phone at 800.745.3000

Friends of DPAC members may place their orders starting June 18. Joining Friends of DPAC is free, and you can register at http://www.dpacnc.com/fod.

This extraordinary collaboration, 13 years in the making, is A Haunting tale of fraternal love, lust, jealousy and revenge, performed by an ensemble cast of 15 actors and a four-piece live band, comprised of members of John Mellencamp's band. The staging of Ghost Brothers is an amalgam of different styles - both old fashioned, resembling an old-style radio show, and yet, modern and unique in its interactive use of storytelling, music and singing to move the macabre Ghost Brothers story forward.

After Mellencamp brought the story idea to King and the musical developed, it became clear to the collaborators that Ghost Brothers had taken them into unfamiliar territory - and they liked it that way. "John can make rock & roll records and I can write books for the rest of our lives," says King, "but that's the safe way to do it, and that's no way to live if you want to stay creative. We were willing to be educated, and at our age, that's an accomplishment." Eventually they Enlisted T-Bone Burnett, who has produced Mellencamp's music since 2008, as well as Grammy-winning albums like "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and the Robert Plant-Alison Krauss collaboration "Raising Sand", to bring his signature shadowy ambience to the music.

The production takes the audience on A Haunting tale filled with fraternal love, lust, jealousy, and revenge. The story goes that Joe McCandless saw his two older brothers battle over a girl which ended in the unfortunate deaths of all three. Now as an adult, with two boys of his own, he's watching an all too similar scenario play out before his eyes. Only one person knows exactly what happened the night of the tragedy.

As the story continues, a malevolent Shape circles the stage, singing about heaven and hell. Joe McCandless lingers in the Dream-land café, remembering the events of his life, and is urged to action by the friendly bartender. In 2007, he goes to his family cabin in Darkland County, Mississippi, where his brothers died in 1967, to tell his own sons Frank and Drake his tale of brotherly love gone sour. With his sons at each other's throats, Joe's story will save or destroy the McCandless family. Will Joe bring himself to tell the truth in time to save his own sons? Find out whether the ghosts left behind will help him-or tear the McCandless family apart forever.

Throughout the production, the eerie blues 'n' roots music reveals the inner workings of the characters as opposed to just propelling the play's narrative, with the only a few songs directly advancing the plot. Acclaimed director Susan Booth, who calls the musical a "a kind of new age travelling medicine show" explains, "I want the emphasis to be on this fantastic score and our great singers and how the story advances us from song to song. In most musicals, the songs advance the narrative. With Ghost Brothers, the story will advance the songs."
For additional information, please visit http://www.ghostbrothersofdarklandcounty.com.

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
Nov 8 Orono, ME Collins Center For The Arts
Nov 9 Orono, ME Collins Center For The Arts
Nov 11 Toronto, ON Massey Hall
Nov 13 Philadelphia, PA Merriam Theatre
Nov 14 Durham, NC Durham Performing Arts Center
Nov 15 Washington, DC Warner Theatre
Nov 16 Baltimore, MD Lyric Opera House
Nov 18 Red Bank, NJ Count Basie Theatre
Nov 20 Portland, ME Merrill Auditorium
Nov 21 Boston, MA Emerson Colonial Theatre
Nov 22 Providence, RI The VETS
Nov 24 New York, NY Beacon Theatre
Nov 26 Detroit, MI Fisher Theatre
Nov 28 Chicago, IL Chicago Oriental Theatre
Nov 29 St. Louis, MO Peabody Opera House
Dec 1 Denver, CO Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre
Dec 3 Phoenix, AZ Orpheum Theatre
Dec 4 Los Angeles, CA Saban Theatre
Dec 5 San Francisco, CA Curran Theatre

##

ABOUT DPAC:
Since its opening in 2008, DPAC, Durham Performing Arts Center, has become the center for live entertainment in the Triangle. Recognized for its contemporary design, DPAC features 2,700 seats, intimate sightlines and state-of-the art sound and video. Listed four times in the top 10 in Pollstar magazine's annual worldwide theater attendance rankings, DPAC is currently the #4 ranked theater in the U.S.

What is up next at DPAC? The ultimate summer music experience Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band (June 22), Move Live on Stage Starring Julianne and Derek Hough (June 29), and the top ten finalists from Season XIII in American Idol Live 2014 (July13).

For more information please go to http://www.DPACnc.com.



Videos