Stephens Auditorium will begin ticket sales for an upcoming production by Stephen King, John Mellencamp and T Bone Burnett on Friday, May 17.

Ghost Brothers of Darkland County is a production written by famous author Stephen King and is described as a “southern gothic, supernatural musical.” It will start to tour American cities in the Midwest and Southeast in October, and make one tour stop in Ames.

“They put a date on hold on March 17 for the production with AEG Live, and based on their availability we ended up with Saturday, November 2,” said Mark North, general manager of the Iowa State Center.

North said the Iowa State Center’s relationship with AEG Live has a lot to do with the fact that Ames is included in the select list of cities to house this. 

The production has been in the making for 13 years, and offers a blues and folk music score by John Mellencamp and T Bone Burnett. It will star 15 actors and include a four-piece live band to tell “a haunting tale of fraternal love, lust, jealousy and revenge.”

According to a March press release, director Susan Booth described the event as “a gothic story-driven rock concert.”

It is inspired by a story told to Stephen King by John Mellencamp regarding his lake cabin in Indiana. Years before there had been a fight between two brothers over a girl whom they both loved.

One of the brothers ended up killing the other by accident, and soon after dies in a car crash with the same girl.

King creates his own story set in Lake Belle Reve, Miss., that balances between two pairs of brothers. The older pair is of two deceased brothers, Jack and Andy, who died in a murder/suicide. The brothers now haunt a cabin where their younger brother, Joe, lives. Joe lives with his two sons, Drake and Frank. The living brothers are entering into the same fate as their late uncles.

The March news release also talked about Booth’s ideas for this musical.

“I want the emphasis to be on this fantastic score and our great singers and how the story advances us from song to song,” Booth said in the release. “In most musicals, the songs advance the narrative. With Ghost Brothers, the story will advance the songs.”

North said the sales were going well, despite the lack of information that has been out in the public recently.

“I hope the creative team behind this will translate into the sale of 1,500 to 2,000 tickets, [and] we even hope to sell-out,” North said. “At this point, ticket sales on the first day are at 137 in the last hour, which is not bad for a show that people are not that educated about.”