Chicago URINETOWN Lawsuit Settled

The lawsuit involving a Chicago production of Urinetown has been settled.

The controversy began when the creative team of Chicago's Mercury Theater production of Urinetown in May 2006 was accused of using "significant aspects of the Broadway team's original, creative work." The Chicago team later filed a countersuit. The Chicago team's suit asked for declaratory judgments stating it did not violate the Copyright Act or the Lanham Act (which contains federal trademark law).
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A statement released Nov. 29 by the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers — an independent national labor union — says that the two sides have "resolved their differences and settled the case pending before the federal court in the Northern District of Illinois."

Both parties have acknowledged that the work of the original Urinetown creative team — including John Rando (director), John Carrafa (choreographer), Brian MacDevitt (lighting designer), Scott Pask (set designer) and Gregory Gale (costume designer) — were incorporated into the Chicago mounting, but the "Chicago production [also] included original and creative works of Tom Mullen, Jen Kules, John Rotonda, Brian Loeffler, Matt Gunnells and William Morey."

The statement also says, "The parties desire to settle their differences and mutually regret any embarrassment or negative inferences caused by or resulting from this dispute. . . It was not the intent of anyone involved in either production to suggest that anyone associated with such productions acted maliciously."

To resolve the controversy, the Chicago production will pay an undisclosed sum to the Broadway team.

The Carousel Dinner Theatre in Akron, OH, had also been accused of plagiarism by members of the show's Broadway creative team for its production of Urinetown. The statement does not mention the Ohio production.
Chicago URINETOWN Lawsuit Settled

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Updated On: 11/30/07 at 08:28 AM

"So basically the Chicago people admitted to stealing their ideas and are paying them accordingly. Sounds fair to me."

They were accused of using the same staging and lighting, neither of which are copyrightable. And also, those aspects are owned by the show's original producers, not the designers. If I were commissioned to design a set for a Disney musical, do you honestly think that I would own that design? That's what the case was about. The only reason this settled was because it would cost more to litigate than it was worth for a non-profit like the Mercury.

They used the EXACT choreography from Broadway on several numbers.

I think if you sued every director who used ideas from other productions, they'd all be broke. Isn't every production a take off from the original Broadway production anyway?
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TheatreDiva - when you do Fiddler, you are ENCOURAGED to use the original choreography. You get a huge choreography guide book with every step mapped out. In fact, professional productions are REQUIRED to use it. Your program must say "Original direction and chorography by Jerome Robbins". You are not allowed to list anyone else as choreographer. You may only say "Mr. Robbinns' choreography RECREATED by_____ ______".

I'm not talking about "ideas". I'm talking about EVERY SINGLE STEP AND HAND GESTURE.

Well, Urinetown Creative team, I saw a High Schol production last month- looked identical to the one I saw at Mercury to me. Sue away.

"As an artist you can "copyright" an idea"

No, you can't.

As long as there are bootleg video, there will be productions that copy Broadway, down to every hand gesture.

But if that's the case, the "choreographer" should list themselves in the program as "the person who watched the video a hundred times and then taught the moves to the cast".

And the "costume designer" should be "the person who saw a photo of the Broadway costume and duplicated it."

"They were accused of using the same staging and lighting, neither of which are copyrightable."

Actually, pretty much anything can be copyrighted. You can write down staging and lighting, and thus they can be copyrighted. Not sure where this misconception is coming from.

"I think if you sued every director who used ideas from other productions, they'd all be broke."

And thus it is okay to steal other people's work?

God forbid someone be creative and come up with their own stuff rather than copying the bootleg as seems to be so prevalent EVERYWHERE these days. What a great way to show you love the work somebody else did--by stealing it, using it in a production that makes money, and not including them in any of the profit! Gee thanks!

Sorry, I'll never buy it. Except for productions that come licensed with staging books (West Side, Fantasticks etc.) it is ridiculous to steal not to mention not very creative either. Admire original choreography all you want for whatever it historically did.. that does NOT make it OK to steal it!

It's kind of like people that only use xerox's for voice lessons and coachings.. to which the response is "well, music gets too expensive." So do cars. I guess we should start stealing those too.

Dear Miss R:

You asked where are my sources are?? I do not need any sources, I did the PR for the show, I have all the footage of the authors working here in Chicago with the Chicago cast. I also saw the dismal tour of the B'way production and the show is NOT even close to being a copy. The fact remains the Chicago company did it better!

The big whoops here is that the entire staff at Music Theatre INT has been telling everyone that the creative team on Broadway is trying to secure a portion of the authors royalties. So stop saying that it is about credit, it is about MONEY!!

Glad this was bumped 3 months later!

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