Taika Waititi is planning a Fyre Festival musical
Director Taika Waititi has confirmed he’s planning a musical based on the ill-fated music festival, Fyre Festival, alongside Rita Ora.
The adaptation currently has the title Fyre Fest The Musical, and is a musical comedy that focuses on the life and times of the festival’s founder, Billy McFarland. After the event didn’t go ahead in 2018, leaving attendees stranded in the Bahamas, McFarland served a lengthy prison sentence for fraud.
Upon leaving prison, McFarland made it his mission to revive the Fyre brand, and intended to host the second incarnation of the event in Mexico earlier this year, which, ultimately, was cancelled.
Fyre Festival 2 faced a of major complications, such as failing to secure artists to perform or a location to host the event.
Then, in July, McFarland announced his plans to sell the Fyre Festival brand on eBay, which was eventually bought for $245,000. McFarland was live-streaming the final hours of the auction and remarked to viewers when it ended, “Damn. This sucks, it’s so low.”
Waititi and Ora’s project will be directed and written by Bryan Buckley, with Paul Epworth writing the music and David Korins in charge of stage design.
In a statement, Waititi shared: “Working in the theater is always fun. I mean I haven’t done it for 15 years because it was no longer fun, but I’ve been told it will be fun this time. And I believe them. When Bryan Buckley told me he wanted to make a musical about the Fyre Festival, I said ‘Who the hell is Bryan Buckley?’ I then remembered we’ve been friends and work mates for 15 years so it was kinda hard to say no.”
He continued, “Honestly, I think the idea is exciting, weird, and potentially disastrous, which seems apt and is how I like to work. I can’t wait to get started and snatch me some of that sweet American theatre money.”
Meanwhile, Buckley admitted he “never saw myself doing a theatrical musical comedy”, but caveated this by saying, “But then again, I never saw something completely mind-bendingly ridiculous and intriguing as what went down with Fyre-festival.”
Buckley added, “A spectacular failed endeavor — that will haunt a generation forever. I cannot wait to get this show out to the world. And yeah man, this time there will actually be music or your money back.”
There is no current timeline for when Fyre Fest The Musical will arrive on stage, or whether it’s destined for Broadway or London’s West End.
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