Ghost Brothers of Darkland County - Production

Production

The project was first announced by Billboard in 2000. At that time, the title was Mississippi Ghost Brothers. According to King, Mellencamp conceived the plot.

In August 2001, it was reported by the Associated Press that the musical would be finished by February 2002.

In 2005, Mellencamp said in an interview, "He's got a hundred pages of dialogue, and I've got 15 songs. We have to figure how to cut it all down. We're having our first run-through in New York with actors and actresses to see what the hell it looks like."

In November 2010, Mellencamp provided this update of the musical's progress to the Chicago Tribune:

"T Bone and I and Stephen King are working on a musical. All the music has been recorded. We had Kris Kristofferson, Neko Case, Elvis Costello, Taj Mahal, all singing different characters’ roles. I wrote all the songs, 17 songs. (T Bone) produced. It sounds like the “Sgt. Pepper” of Americana to me. Forget about the play, just the songs, the way these people sing them. I’m sitting there listening to it and thinking, “Did Rosanne Cash just kill that song or what!” The play is called “Ghost Brothers of Darkling County,” about two brothers who hate each other. If you could imagine Tennessee Williams meets Stephen King. They’re recording the dialogue now and we’re putting out a record of the entire show before it comes out. Right now, Elvis Costello, Meg Ryan, Kris Kristofferson and Matthew McConaughey are doing table readings like an old radio play. So you’ll get all the dialogue, all the sound effects, and all the songs sung by different people so you can follow the story. The CD will come out ahead of time. So many people are involved, it’s taken a long time. But we don’t have to worry about money or record companies – it’s our own money we’re putting into it, so we said, let’s just make something beautiful."

The musical will begin previews at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, beginning on April 4, 2012, playing until May 13, 2012.

Opening night is April 11, 2012. The musical will be directed by Alliance Theatre Artistic Director Susan V. Booth, with musical direction by T Bone Burnett. The cast of the upcoming production is led by Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley (Young Frankenstein, Oklahoma, Sweet and Sad) and Tony Award nominee Emily Skinner (Billy Elliot, Side Show, James Joyce's The Dead), and includes Justin Guarini ("American Idol," American Idiot, Women on the Verge…), blues musician and actor Jake La Botz, Lucas Kavner (Completeness, The Blue Flower), Kate Ferber (One Child Born: the Music of Laura Nyro), Christopher Morgan (Gut Bucket Blues) and country musician Dale Watson. Completing the cast are Peter Albrink, Kylie Brown, Lori Beth Edgeman, Gwen Hughes, Joe Jung, Joe Knezevich, Rob Lawhon, Royce Mann, Travis Smith, and Jeremy Aggers. Also, Russell Cook (Little Country Giants), Stephanie Laubscher, Joseph Signa, and DeWayne Woods. Also featuring the blood effects of Joseph Jefferson Award winning special effects artist Steve Tolin of Tolin FX, most notable for his international work on Martin McDonagh's, The Lieutenant of Inishmore

King and Mellencamp sought a regional theater to stage the show, and decided an Atlanta location offered unique advantages. “We wanted a place that was cosmopolitan but not out of touch with country roots. Atlanta seemed like the middle of the bulls-eye,” King said at a press conference for the musical on December 15, 2011. “You know that song, ‘If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere?’ That’s how I feel about Atlanta and this show.”