SOURCE: Marietta Daily Journal

by Gloria Love
glove@mdjonline.com

MIDTOWN — In crafting the new musical “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” author Stephen King & musician John Mellencamp set off down the twisted roads of the Southern Gothic & were led to Midtown’s own Alliance Theatre.

The tale of tragedy in a tiny Mississippi town is scheduled to premiere in April to close the theatre’s 2011-12 season.

During a developmental workshop at the Alliance in December, King said he began work on the project 12 years ago after Mellencamp contacted him with a ghost story from his home state of Indiana.

“What a long, strange trip it’s been,” King said. “One of the reasons I got into this and said yes is, first of all, I respect John as a musician and as someone not content to stay in one place.

“I’m in my 60s now. I’m not a kid. … I wanted to try something a little bit risky and something outside my comfort zone.”

King penned the story of two brothers and a young girl who meet a mysterious end — and their interaction with the event’s one living witness.

Mellencamp stepped in with music and lyrics and brought in legendary producer T Bone Burnett as musical director. Burnett provided similar direction for the 2000 film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

King and Mellencamp sought a regional theatre 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. “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.”

The pair also wanted the benefit of working with Susan Booth, the Alliance’s artistic director, who “has forgotten more about the theatre than John and I know,” King said.

“The only other play I wrote was for the Boy Scouts,” he said. “I was 10.”

King and Mellencamp started to stage the show two previous times, once at the Alliance and once on Broadway, but called those productions off for various reasons, Mellencamp said.

Now, they are solely focused on creating one great Atlanta production, he said.

And after Atlanta?

“I personally don’t care if we go to Broadway or Washington, D.C., or to the moon or Indiana,” Mellencamp said.

“Ghost Brothers” is set to run April 4 to May 13 at the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. Tickets are $45 to $85.

For more information, call (404) 733-5000 or visit www.alliancetheatre.org/ghostbrothers

SOURCE: The Express Tribune

By AFP

LOS ANGELES: Elton John is working on a biopic about himself and would like Justin Timberlake to take on the lead role, he said in an interview published Sunday.

The British veteran star also spoke about his and partner David Furnish’s love for their son Zachary – whose first birthday was on Christmas Day – saying the child was the “light of our lives.”

An announcement about the biopic is due very soon, the 64-year-old told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

“That’s very much in the works. We’re making an announcement about that very, very soon. We have a director on board, and then it’s just going to be a matter of getting the script exactly the way we want it,” he said.

Lee Hall, who wrote megahit “Billy Elliot,” has written the screenplay, he said, adding they will soon start trying to cast and plan production.

On who will play him, he said: “I don’t know. I’ve got a wish list of people No 1 on my wish list is Justin Timberlake, because he played me before in a David LaChapelle video of (Elton classic) ‘Rocket Man’ and was superb.”

The film will be a “jukebox musical” with possibly a couple of new songs, he said.

“It’s going to be a surreal look at my life, and not just a factual look at my life… I just don’t want it to be a normal biopic because my life hasn’t been like that,” he added.

The singer – who is nominated for a Golden Globe on January 15 for his song “Hello, Hello” from the film “Gnomeo & Juliet,” will be back in the studio soon to record a new album – but insisted his days as a top-40 pop star are over.

“As Elton John, my days on pop radio are over, and I know that and I accept it and I’m not unhappy about it. It’s a different time of my life now, and it gives me the freedom to do whatever kind of music I want to do,” he said.

He also paid tribute to Lady Gaga, with whom he duets on “Hello, Hello,” saying: “I was kind of like that at the beginning of my career. I dressed outrageously, and I didn’t care about boundaries.”

The star, who has homes in Los Angeles, Britain and the south of France, said the Christmas just gone was special as he and Furnish celebrated the first birthday of their son Zachary, born to a surrogate mother on December 25, 2010.

“I love him so much. It’s a different kind of love for your child than you have for your partner. Everyone kept saying that, and now I realize that, having had Zachary,” he said.

“He’s the light of our lives. I’ve had an amazing professional life, personal life, but at 64 to have a son who gives us that much love and enjoyment is, ‘Wow!’”

SOURCE: Delaware Online

Like Don Henley, Peter Cetera & Phil Collins, Richard Marx has become a punchline for hipper-than-thou fans of metal, rock or rap who want to blast a pal for liking something light.

As in, “Man, what are you doing with that Coldplay record? You’ll probably stack it next to your copy of Richard Marx’s ‘Repeat Offender.’”

Or, “The Killers? Really? What’s next – you gonna grow your hair out into a Richard Marx mullet?”

But is that really fair? I say no.

Because while I never had a glorious hair helmet like the one Marx sported throughout the 1980s, I did own “Repeat Offender” (which hit No. 1 on the Billboard album charts, by the way) as well as the self-titled debut, & I listened to them. A lot. (Granted, I was 12 at the time, but still.)

Hey, the guy was the first male solo artist to place his first seven singles – “Don’t Mean Nothing,” “Endless Summer Nights,” “Hold On To The Nights,” “Should’ve Known Better,” “Angelia,” “Right Here Waiting” & “Satisfied” – within the Top 5 of Billboard’s singles charts.

He’s real light rock, but if you watch him in concert, he resembles more of a poor man’s Bryan Adams than a regular dude’s Michael Bolton, especially with his current normal haircut. And he takes it all in stride on videos posted on his website, saying he didn’t have any friends in the ’80s, because if they did they would have said something about his outlandish headdress.

It’s true that the stream of hits dried up to a trickle by the mid-1990s, but after that Marx went behind the scenes & did just as well, if not better.

In 2000, he wrote “This I Promise You,” a Top 10 hit for ‘N Sync. In 2004, he shared a Song of the Year Grammy with the late Luther Vandross for “Dance With My Father,” which they co-wrote. He wrote two big hits with Keith Urban – the 2005 smash-hit “Better Life” & the tune “Everybody” from 2007 – that both went to the top of the country singles charts. He also co-wrote a song with Ringo Freaking Starr & even toured with the legendary drummer’s All-Star Band.

Most recently he went modern rock with “Emotional Remains,” which first came out in 2008 but was re-released in fall 2009. Check out the big guitar riff that propels “For Better For Worse” – it’s almost, well, cool!

Marx is out on tour now, and will shift gears into solo acoustic mode when he arrives at the World Cafe Live at the Queen, 500 N. Market St., Wilmington, at 8 p.m. tonight. Doors open at 6.

Tickets are $36-$56. Visit www.worldcafelive.com.