To: JakeStraw who wrote (23823 ) 10/23/2000 1:53:04 PM From: SIer formerly known as Joe B. Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 49843 Monday October 23 11:15 AM EDT John Mellencamp Working On Musical With Stephen King dailynews.yahoo.com John Mellencamp Working On Musical With Stephen King (10/23/00, 7 a.m. ET) - John Mellencamp is collaborating with best-selling author Stephen King on a musical they hope will one day end up on the Great White Way. "Our goal is someday to end up on Broadway, [but] we're not going to take it straight to Broadway," Mellencamp told Billboard. There's a ghost story at the center of the project, but the idea came initially from Mellencamp and not King, who's known for horror novels like Carrie, Salem's Lot, and The Shining. There's no word on when the show might be staged, or how far along it is at this point. The play revolves around a pair of brothers in their late teens or early 20s "who are very competitive and dislike each other immensely," according to Mellencamp. Their father takes them to the cabin where his older brothers, who also hated each other, killed themselves, and their ghosts haunt the cabin, along with some other spirits. Mellencamp has already written four songs for the as-yet-unnamed play, with titles including "You Don't Know Me" and "My Name Is Joe," and the singer says he's written each with specific characters in mind. "I plan to have every person sing from their generation. When the 18-year-old sings, he'll be rapping ...When the people in their 70s are singing, they'll be singing in the style of Broadway or the style of [Frank] Sinatra or country." Mellencamp added that the songs will run the gamut of American music. Mellencamp and King are treading ground that has seen some spectacular failures of late, most notably with Paul Simon's ill-conceived Capeman, but the singer said neither of them is worried about the outcome: "That's the great thing about this for Steve and I both; we don't really have to do this." --Bruce Simon, New York