Firehouse Museum to Benefit from “Bum Farto- The Musical” Gala Opening on October 13

Alex Vega holds up a uniform worn by 1975 Fire Chief Bum Farto, on display at the Key West Firehouse Museum. The museum will be honored with  “Bum Farto- The Musical” and the Sizzling 70s Opening Night Gala, with proceeds to benefit the nonprofit museum located on Virginia and Grinnell Streets. The show is a hilarious true crime musical that tells the tale of an infamous fire chief who tempted fate and federal agents who set him up in a drug sting known as Operation Conch and  opens at the San Carlos Institute Theater in Old Town, Key West on Thursday, October 13 through October  27. Bumfartothemusical. Image by Cricket Desmarais

Break out your bellbottoms, pull on some platforms, and get your tickets for the Sizzling 70s Opening Night Gala of  “Bum Farto- The Musical” on Thursday, October 13, at San Carlos Institute Theater in Old Town, Key West. The evening pays tribute to the island’s firefighting heritage by benefitting the Key West Firehouse Museum, with groovy tunes, pre-show cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and square grouper (joke!) that precede the hilarious true crime musical about the infamous Key West fire chief who tempted fate and federal agents in the 1975 Operation Conch drug bust. 

“What they got him for back then today would be, let’s say, routine,” says retired firefighter Alex Vega “The feds couldn’t get the drug kingpins they wanted so they made it look like he was. They knew he knew a lot of the players and this might force him to talk.” 

Vega knows this history and more, not just because his dad worked with him or that he was also a firefighter. Vega saved the 115-year-old building from demolition and ensured it was restored and preserved with the help of local donors and state grants. The former Station No. 3  is now filled with prominent artifacts, including a firepole, an antique fire truck, and the shoes Farto wore—flaming red like most everything else he owned. Even his house. 

“Bum Farto did things a certain way, his way. And that was it,” says Vega. 

A snippet of true Key West history blended with fiction, “Bum Farto- The Musical” is produced and directed by actor, comedian, and author Pamela Connolly and is a swift 90-minute production that’s raucous, sensual, and at times, tender. Acclaimed actors, dancers, and musician from around the globe and locally— including Broadway’s Aaron LaVigne, the Jesus Christ Superstar lead who trades his crown of thorns for a tourniquet and needles to play Brutus, the heroin-addicted snitch, music producer Dan Krysa’s rollicking score of more than two dozen song-and-dance numbers, vibrant lighting design, and historic images and news clippings projected against sparse but colorful sets, the diverse “live-and-let-live” world of Key West in the mid-seventies comes to life and Farto back in the spotlight— this time, to be celebrated. 

“He loved the fire department and always looked after the fire department,” says Vega. “Whether it was legally or illegally, he did things to make sure that the fire department stayed running.”

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