Stephen King’s ‘Ghost Brothers of Darkland County’ To Tour U.S.

Stephen King, John Mellencamp and T Bone Burnett will launch a national tour of their long-in-the-works musical, “Ghost Brothers of Darkland Country.”

King wrote the book for the southern gothic musical, while Mellencamp and legendary producer Burnett teamed up to work on the musical.

The tour will kick off October 10 at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington, Ill., and will run through a November 6 performance at the DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, Mich. The rest of the tour will take place primarily in the Midwest, with stops in Evansville, Ind.; Akron, Ohio; Rockford, Illinois; Milwaukee; Sioux City, Iowa and South Bend, Indiana, among others.

A release by presenter AEG Live says the show, 13 years in the making, “is a haunting tale of fraternal love, lust, jealousy and revenge.” An ensemble cast of 15 actors will perform the musical along with a four-piece live band.

Here’s the official description of the musical:

Set in the tiny town of Lake Belle Reve, Mississippi, the Ghost Brothers’ story centers on two sets of brothers: the ghosts of Jack and Andy, dead in an apparent murder/suicide, and their nephews, the living Frank and Drake, who seem to be headed toward the same downward spiral as their uncles. Joe, younger brother of Jack and Andy, father of Frank and Drake, has decided it’s time to reveal his own terrible secret at the site of the tragedy, before it’s too late.

In the statement, King also spoke of why he wanted to take on this project.

“John can make rock & roll records and I can write books for the rest of our lives, but that’s the safe way to do it, and that’s no way to live if you want to stay creative,” he said. “We were willing to be educated, and at our age, that’s an accomplishment.”