Taika Waititi will produce a new stage production called Fyre Fest The Musical which will explore the titular 2017 disaster and its founder Billy McFarland, Deadline reports.
Other notable contributors include “Skyfall” and “Rolling in the Deep” songwriter Paul Epworth, ; set designer David Korins, who worked on Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Beetlejuice; and director and writer Brian Buckley, (2017’s Pirates of Somalia).
“When Bryan Buckley told me he wanted to make a musical about the Fyre Festival, I said ‘Who the hell is Bryan Buckley?’” said Waititi in a statement. “I then remembered we’ve been friends and work mates for 15 years so it was kinda hard to say no. 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.”
Marketed as a luxury, elite music experience, the 2017 Fyre Festival was endorsed by celebrities and influencers, with tickets costing up to $1,000. Once on site, however, attendees were greeted with inadequate food, lodging, and sanitation. The festival unravelled in real time on social media and became synonymous with music industry scams.
In 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison on wire fraud charges. After his release in 2022 he spent the next few years promising to stage a Fyre Festival sequel. That officially came to an end this year when McFarland sold most of the rights to the Fyre Festival brand on eBay for just $245,300, excluding allowances for a streaming service and musical.
The timeline of the production has not yet been revealed, but a short synopsis has been released. “It’s not just a Greek-sized tragedy of one man’s con,” the synopsis reads. “It’s a satirical indictment of an entire generation. Fyre Fest the Musical. It’s about as wrong as a bad idea can go.”
