Perhaps it’s time to adapt Marx’s famous maxim for the 21st Century. These days history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce and third as a musical.
Yes, it seems that the most notorious music-related debacle of recent times - Billy McFarland’s Fyre Festival, in case you were wondering - is to be developed in a song and dance show, with the Ronseal-like title of ‘Fyre Festival: The Musical’.
The team behind it are Rita Ora and her husband Taika Waititi, who have put out a press release that describes the planned production as: “not just a Greek-sized tragedy of one man’s con. It’s a satirical indictment of an entire generation. Fyre Festival: The Musical. It’s about as wrong as a bad idea can go.”
It’s early days yet for the project. But Waititi and Ora have assembled what sounds like a decent team which includes Super Bowl commercial director Bryan Buckley on directing and writing duties, esteemed producer Paul Epworth doing the music and Hamilton’s David Korin on set design.
Buckley has put out a statement of his own. “I never saw myself doing a theatrical musical comedy,” he said. “But then again, I never saw something as completely mind-bendingly ridiculous and intriguing as what went down with Fyre Festival. A spectacular failed endeavour — 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.”
All this is possible because Billy McFarland sold the rights to the Fyre brand in July for $245,300, a fraction of what he hoped he would receive. McFarland still owes over $20 million in restitution to the investors of the original Fyre festival back in 2017.
You may recall that the convicted frauster – who was released from prison in 2022 after serving less than four years of his six year term – tried to get a second version of Fyre off the ground earlier this year.
But Fyre 2 never happened. McFarland did not get the necessary registrations and permits in either of the planned locations on Mexico’s Atlantic coast. Laughably, on closer inspection the permit he had obtained was for a 12 hour listening party limited to 250 people.
Now that he’s sold the rights, McFarland won’t receive a penny if the planned musical is a success. Perhaps IF it does become a Broadway hit, Waititi and Ora might consider making a donation to the many investors whose hands have already been burned by Fyre. Just a thought...
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