A Dinner Date With Destiny
"I had a field day writing this song," shares music icon Boy George on his original theme song for The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover open now at Faena Theater.
“It’s not on the menu, but there is a price. A dinner date with destiny, that money cannot buy.” Consider those lyrics an invitation to the hottest ticket in town where you’ll find yourself seated in the blood-thirsty dining room of Le Hollandais in a completely immersive theater experience.
Boy George was commissioned to write an original theme song for the show’s final number, which splices together a litany of pop hits. “I was delighted to be asked,” says the multi-hyphenate artist. “I remember when the film first came out. It was fun to go back and rewatch it and try to come up with a song that summed up the whole story as succinctly as possible”, he added.
The spellbindingly sadistic storyline tells the tale of a dramatic love triangle narrated by the restaurant’s omniscient waiters that unfolds between a ruthless restaurant owner, his wife and her lover.
I had a field day writing this song, I enjoy being given a narrative to play with and a set of ideas. I had the chance to really sink my teeth into the story and figure out how to depict all the characters.
- Boy George
“I call the chorus the ‘Bowie Mambo’,” he laughs, referring to David Bowie (one of his chief musical influences also known for his theatrical flair) and the track’s Latin rhythm. The tune has a markedly tango beat, an intended homage to Faena’s Argentine owner, Alan Faena. “I wanted it to be as dramatic as possible to go with the setting of the show,” he added.
Throughout the performance, actors blend seamlessly with Faena Theater’s waitstaff as they wend their way through the audience, drawing guests into the gripping logomachy and mayhem that challenges them to question their deepest human instincts. The show’s sybaritic three-course menu comes from Miami culinary luminary Michelle Bernstein—a Michelin-starred James Beard winner—who puts a distinctly Floridian twist on classic French and European cuisine.
Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, the boundary-pushing production keeps viewers on the edge of their seats until George’s song closes out the performance in a show stopping crescendo. “People will leave feeling emotionally and mentally stimulated,” he says, and without a doubt, humming the smash song’s catchy chorus for days to come.
For tickets and more information, visit www.faenatheater.com
