American producer Ken Caillat and Steven Stiefel have sued the creators of Broadway’s Stereophonic, after alleging that the show stole from their book.
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Caillat – who is known for sound engineering various Fleetwood Mac albums such as ‘Rumours’, ‘Tusk’, and ‘Mirage’ – teamed up with writer Steve Stiefel in 2012 to create his memoir Making Rumors. The book detailed Cailliat’s perspective of creating the band’s legendary 1977 album ‘Rumours’ including the “endless partying and relationship dramas to the creative struggles to write and record” some of the band’s most famous tracks (via GoodReads).
Now, Caillat and Stiefel have filed a lawsuit against the makers of Stereophonic, the hit Broadway show which won five Tony awards this year. Created by playwright David Adjmi, the play centres around a fictional, mixed-gender British American band making an album in the ’70s and the many tensions that arise.
Daniel Aukin, Justin Craig, Tom Pecinka, Juliana Canfield, David Adjmi, Sarah Pigeon, Chris Stack, Andrew R. Butler, Eli Gelb, Will Butler, and Will Brill pose at the after party for “Stereophonic” Broadway opening night at Pearl Alley on April 19, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Valerie Terranova/Getty Images)
Similarities between both the band and the play have been widely recognised as well as the 2023 series Daisy Jones & the Six which was influenced by Fleetwood Mac.
According to the suit (as per Rolling Stone), Caillat claimed that the play “copies the heart and soul of Making Rumours, and is substantially similar.” It also adds that the play “presents a nearly identical story arc as Making Rumours” alleging that the play’s setting of being in the studio with the audience watching “from the perspective of the engineers and producers” mirrors the unique perspective of Caillat’s memoir which is told from his view at the control booth.
The suit also notes that the Stereophonic character Grover – one of two sound engineers – is “new to the band depicted,” in the same way that Caillat was new to working with Fleetwood Mac on ‘Rumors’ and the character gets promoted to co-producer during the play in the same way the producer was promoted in real life while creating the 1977 album.
It also argues that Adjmi “implicitly acknowledges having read Making Rumours, calling it an ‘excellent book,’ but incredulously proclaims that ‘[a]ny similarities to Ken Caillat’s excellent book are unintentional.’”
Fleetwood Mac pose for photographers backstage at the 5th American music Awards. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
The suit also referenced the playwright being previously accused of copyright infringement for his show 3C, which ended up nowhere after 3C was protected as a parody of the sitcom Three’s a Company. Caillat’s suit claimed that Stereophonic “is not a parody or other fair use of Making Rumours.”
Caillat is seeking unspecified damages, including profits earned from the production and claimed that Stereophonic is “harming the downstream market for adaptations of Making Rumours.”
Speaking about the producer’s claims in an interview with The New Yorker last month, Adjmi said: “When writing Stereophonic I drew from multiple sources – including autobiographical details from my own life – to create a deeply personal work of fiction. Any similarities to Ken Caillat’s excellent book are unintentional.”
In that same New Yorker piece, Caillat shared that he felt “ripped off” by the playwright and added: “The connections between the play and Fleetwood Mac and the ‘Rumours’ album are so obvious that multiple news outlets have called out the numerous similarities,” the complaint said. “Simply put, any attempt by Mr Adjmi to disclaim Stereophonic as not being about Fleetwood Mac and ‘Rumours’ is disingenuous.”
Adjmi previously spoke about his inspiration for the play in an interview with Deadline and said: “I know why people are saying, ‘Oh it’s the Fleetwood Mac story,’ but I don’t know Fleetwood Mac. I never met them. You know what I mean? There is no beginning and end to a Fleetwood Mac story. You know, this play is its own invention.”
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