The case against Stereophonic

[Joey Ledenio]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 11:32am

Having read the lawsuit against David Adjmi over Stereophonic being a work of plagiarism, and knowing someone who works at Playwrights Horizons and helped oversee the rewrite process for the show, I think there's a scarily credible case against David. There are a LOT of similarities between the Fleetwood Mac memoir and his play (with some passages lifted verbatim). I think it only hurts David that he's already been sued for copying Three's Company which he won only because he called it a parody, and with this he's definitely denied parodying the memoir while also admitting to reading it. Wonder if this will be a case of sharing royalties or if a bigger fallout a la "Blurred Lines" 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 11:55am

I think there's no question that this gets settled, probably in the form of revenue-sharing and an option payment. Maybe even a "suggested by the book" credit on future productions. Adjmi has admitted to reading (and liking) the book and there are clear similarities in the story arc, some plot beats, and even some lines.

None of that changes the fact that Stereophonic is a great play.

The only surprise is that the lawsuit took this long, being that people have been making the Fleetwood Mac comparison since it was at PH. But as Michael Schulman said in his NEW YORKER piece, the book author/engineer had never seen a Broadway show before and is based on the other coast.

The list of defendants is kind of funny because it's clear that the Plaintiffs' lawyers have no understanding of how a Broadway producing LLC actually works (and seemingly a lack of understanding in how Broadway economics work), but that part will be easily resolved.

I'm not a lawyer, but if Caillat wins this, could there also be a life-rights case against the play by members of Fleetwood Mac who are fictionalized in the play?

Updated On: 10/2/24 at 11:55 AM

[PipingHotPiccolo]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 12:34pm

No idea what a life rights case would look like--- Fleetwood Mac are very much public figures, and their work product (ie songs, writings) are not being used. 

I also am not sure where the law lands re biographical works. Could Hamilton sue LMM if he were alive? Chernow worked with LMM, sure, but if he hadnt, and LMM compiled Hamilton using history books--the very purpose of which are to teach/communicate historical facts-- im not sure how far that lawsuit would go so long as the work stuck to the historical narrative.

Maybe Adjmi lifted whole sections of dialogue from these guys, in which case, yikes, but if you write a narrative tale about Fleetwood Mac, im not sure why someone else can use that history in his or her own artistic fashion. Not my area of the law, though.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 12:54pm

This falls under the same scenario as The Supremes and DREAMGIRLS. There are enormous similarities to their career story from starting off as a sister/background act to The Primes (later The Temptations), to Florence Ballard (Effie White) being the group’s original lead singer being pushed into background singer status as Deena Jones (Diana Ross) is moved to lead spot to market the group to the pop music market. Then there’s the Diana Ross/Berry Gordy (Deena/Curtis) romance. Lots of other similarities as well. 

[Kad]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 1:06pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "This falls under the same scenario as The Supremes and DREAMGIRLS. There are enormous similarities to their career story from starting off as a sister/background act to The Primes (later The Temptations), to Florence Ballard (Effie White) being the group’s original lead singer being pushed into background singer status as Deena Jones (Diana Ross) is moved to lead spot to market the group to the pop music market. Then there’s the Diana Ross/Berry Gordy (Deena/Curtis) romance. Lots of other similarities as well."

There is a major difference here in that there was not one specific source that Dreamgirls drew from or that anyone claimed it drew from. The allegation here is that Adjmi used Ken Caillat's book as the primary source and adapted it, lifting details, scenarios, and even dialogue. Looking at some of the comparisons between Caillat's book and the Stereophonic script in the lawsuit, there does appear to be some similarity if not outright paraphrasing or slight rewording of specific quotes.

Updated On: 10/2/24 at 01:06 PM

[JSquared2]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 1:08pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "This falls under the same scenario as The Supremes and DREAMGIRLS. There are enormous similarities to their career story from starting off as a sister/background act to The Primes (later The Temptations), to Florence Ballard (Effie White) being the group’s original lead singer being pushed into background singer status as Deena Jones (Diana Ross) is moved to lead spot to market the group to the pop music market. Then there’s the Diana Ross/Berry Gordy (Deena/Curtis) romance. Lots of other similarities as well."

Not the same scenario at all.  In the case of STEREOPHONIC, Adjmi has lifted certain dialogue and other specific details verbatim from Caillat's book.  No way the show wants this going to trial -- a settlement will be made (and I'm amazed it took this long for the lawsuit to be filed).

 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 1:11pm

The key difference with DREAMGIRLS is it's not cribbing from published source material like STEREO.

It reminds me a little bit of the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay vs Original Screenplay categories:

MAESTRO, SPOTLIGHT, TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO SEVEN, GREEN BOOK, and THE KING'S SPEECH can be considered "Original" Screenplays, because even though they're based off real-life people, events, news reports, and anecdotes (and in some cases happened in conjunction with the estates), they're not based on one specific published work. As opposed to something like LINCOLN or HIDDEN FIGURES, which were adapted from books.

Updated On: 10/2/24 at 01:11 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 1:12pm

Frankly, after what happened with 3C - which, to be clear here, was a cut and dry fair-use case and was rightfully settled in Adjmi's favor- I am surprised that there wasn't more due diligence taken to make Stereophonic squeaky clean legally.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 1:38pm

This is kinda drifting from the subject at hand, but a lot of rightsholders really hate parody, because though it's fully legal, they have no control over it.

Like imagine if Disney had been in the process of adapting James Cameron's TITANIC into a stage musical, or if Celine Dion and her reps had been working on a catalogue musical about her life? Both those things might have less value for the stage now that TITANIQUE exists and is showing no signs of stopping. I can't imagine any of those parties are thrilled with the show.

A sanctioned bio-play or bio-pic of MAKING RUMOURS might have stood to make more money for Ken Caillat and Steve Stiefel (and the band if the songs were used) due to the ability to advertise Fleetwood Mac. But it probably wouldn't have been better than STEREO.

Updated On: 10/2/24 at 01:38 PM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 2:29pm

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "The key difference with DREAMGIRLS is it's not cribbing from published source material like STEREO.

It reminds me a little bit of the Oscar for Adapted Screenplay vs Original Screenplay categories:

MAESTRO, SPOTLIGHT, TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO SEVEN, GREEN BOOK, and THE KING'S SPEECHcan be considered "Original" Screenplays, because even though they'rebased off real-life people, events, news reports, and anecdotes (and in some cases happened in conjunction with the estates), they're notbased on one specific published work.As opposed to something like LINCOLN or HIDDEN FIGURES, which were adapted frombooks."

Well, strictly speaking THE KING'S SPEECH was adapted from a play, it's just that the play hadn't been produced yet so the Academy still considered it original. There's a long history of iffy categorization in writing submissions, such as WHIPLASH being considered adapted because of the proof-of-concept short film being screened at festivals or this year EMILIA PEREZ being submitted by Netflix in Original despite the movie being explicitly based on Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute.

[BorisTomashevsky]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 2:58pm

This is all a real shame. Kinda taints the entire last year or so of the raging success the play has had. Obviously most audience members won't know or really care, but morale in the producing office and backstage must be a bit down.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 10/2/24 at 3:12pm

"Aline” is even better than Titanique.

Legal scholars, why did that need to change names?