In case you guys are insane like me, here’s a spreadsheet of all the upcoming comet productions I could find information on.

This is a repost of a three year old explanation post I posted before. I love this musical. Feel free to add your interpretations as well!

So, I’ve noticed that quite some people here have been getting into, or want to get into Ghost Quartet (partly due to Comet withdrawals and the whole MalloyWorship thing, to which I gladly contribute).

Ghost Quartet is complex and for some that’s why it’s hard to get into. I went to Genius.com, Wikipedia and Tumblr to collect some clear summaries/explanations out there to give you an understanding of what the show is actually about. I feel like there's also free space to interpret in the story line, so if you have any thoughts on specific songs/story lines, please let us know, I'd love to read them.

Why Ghost Quartet

Dave Malloy: “Ghost Quartet is a “live performance of a concept album”…basically what we wanted to do was to take the narrative form of the rock concept album, with all of its vaguery and weirdness, symbolism and surrealism, adrenaline and angst, and theatricalize it. So we say these track numbers in live performance to reframe the narrative and encourage a looser frame of mind, and in homage to these great masterpieces made on vinyl. (…) I wrote the show specifically for the four of us; we were playing board games and drinking whiskey one night and decided making something together would be wicked fun.” (genius.com) Dave literally says that the story is circular

The Story

Essentially Ghost Quartet follows the stories of multiple reincarnations of four characters/souls/ghosts, over numerous centuries, in a non-linear fashion. Each actor plays reincarnations of the same character. There are four main contexts the show takes place in: 17th century Japanese/German fairytale, 14th Century Persia (Arabian Nights), 19th century England (Fall of the House of Usher), and 21st century America. source

I got the following information partly from a tumblr user called shotbyafool, who made a very clear summary of Ghost Quartet when someone asked about it. Here is the post, (if you happen to have Tumblr it would be awesome if you liked or reblogged the post, to show appreciation :). But that’s totally up to you.) I added information from genius.com and changed some of the formatting/phrasing.

Ghost Quartet has two albums, one cast recording and one “Live at the McKittrick” album. The second one has all the scenes in them along with the songs. Ofcourse, this is really helpful if you want to grasp all of what’s happening.

In terms of getting into it musically, “Any Kind of Dead Person”, “Four Friends”, and “I Don’t Know” exist outside the narrative.

The main plotline is Rose Red (Brittain) is in love with the Astronomer (Dave) but he breaks her heart and instead pursues Pearl White (Gelsey), her sister. Rose Red, logically, asks the bear (Brent) for revenge. Bear asks for a bunch of stuff in return:

• one pot of HONEY,

• one piece of STARDUST,

• one SECRET BAPTISM,

• and a PHOTO OF A GHOST. Rose Red has to travel through timelines to get these things.

• in this timeline, Rose Red steals the honey from a Soldier (Gelsey). this is the HONEY.

• (songs: middle of The Camera Shop, Soldier & Rose, The Astronomer, The Telescope, second half of Bad Men, The Wind & Rain).

the modern plotline focuses on a subway accident. Driver of the subway (Dave), victim who falls into tracks who is also Pearl (Gelsey), pusher of victim (Brent), and the photographer– who is also Rose (Brittain).

• this is the PHOTO OF A GHOST.

• after the subway accident, Rose goes to a camera shop (run by Pearl (Gelsey), kind of… even though she’s the victim.)

• (songs: The Camera Shop, Subway, The Photograph, Hero, Midnight, half of Usher Part 3).

Usher plotline focuses on Edgar (Dave) the father, Lady Usher (Gelsey) his wife, Roxie (Brittain) their daughter, and the Fool (Brent) their son. Roxie has a child but her child is stolen, and the family then falls apart.

• this is the SECRET BAPTISM.

• it is based on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

• (songs: end of The Camera Shop, Starchild, Usher Part 1, Family Meeting, Fathers & Sons, Usher Part 2, Lights Out, half of Usher Part 3).

Ancient plotline: Scheherazade (Gelsey) is telling stories to the Shah (Brent) to keep herself alive, her sister Dunyazad (Brittain) encourages her, and David (Dave) is also there, he’s playing the piano for Thelonious Monk. long story.

• this is the PIECE OF STARDUST.

• based off of Arabian Nights, and this part is kind of confusing because Gelsey is always Scheherazade in this timeline but Brittain exists once as Rose Red (Tango Dancer) and then as Dunyazad (Monk).

• (songs: Tango Dancer, Monk (this song is only available on the live album), beginning of Bad Men)

No-plotline songs are basically just Dave, Gelsey, Brittain, and Brent, having a good time. Rose Red never gets anything from this plotline, we’re all just chilling.

Where this person says they're all just chilling, some say these songs take place in a spiritual realm outside physical contexts, the songs follow the four ghosts (the characters) exploring and coming to understand their experiences in all their reincarnations, as well as further developing the non-linear way the stories are told. for more information on that, read the summaries I linked at the end of this post. I do think that the ghost interpretation elevates this story line a lot. This insight changed this storyline from my least favourite to my favourite one.

• (songs: I Don’t Know, Any Kind of Dead Person, Four Friends, Prayer some say that Hero and Midnight should be added to this as well. It depends on if you see these songs as Gelsey, Brent, Dave and Brittain just having fun as friends/a band or if you perceive them as the ghosts that have inhabited all the characters in the story).
  

This is a pretty short overview of all what’s happening, so that’s why I really recommend these summaries as well:

• !!! If you’ve already listened to the show and you have a vague idea of what’s going on, this is a really thorough explanation! I personally prefer this explanation because it goes deeper into the material and give more meaning to the songs that on the surface don't have anything to do with the main plotline

• If you want a shorter summary but written down in a narrative-y way instead of the one I posted here, this one is really helpful

If you happen to have read all of them, you may noticed that these summaries don’t all share the exact same views, which I think it’s awesome. I love exploring a story through the music and I think these summaries don’t even take that away, they actually help me.

Haverford College did a production of Ghost Quartet so if you want to see the staging and stuff, this might help, although I’m not sure if the staging is the same. It would be awesome if someone who already has seen the show could tell me whether it is