The writer of the Tony Award winning Broadway play ‘Stereophonic’ - which centres on a fictional rock band as they struggle to make a new album in the recording studio - has been accused of ripping off a 2012 memoir written by record producer Ken Caillat. That book, called ‘Making Rumours’, is about the producer’s experiences engineering 1977 Fleetwood Mac album ‘Rumours’.
In a lawsuit filed with the courts in New York, Caillat says that David Adjmi’s play is actually “an unauthorised adaptation” of his book. To that end, Caillat is suing Adjmi for copyright infringement.
A number of journalists covering ‘Stereophonic’ have noted the parallels between Fleetwood Mac and the fictional band in the play, which includes men and women, Britains and Americans, and two couples. And, in some cases, connections have specifically been made between the story told in the play and that recounted in ‘Making Rumours’.
However, when asked about all that in media interviews, Adjmi is adamant that any similarities between his play and Caillat’s memoir are coincidental.
He told the New Yorker, “When writing ‘Stereophonic’ I drew from multiple sources - including autobiographical details from my own life - to create a deeply personal work of fiction”. He then added, “any similarities to Ken Caillat’s excellent book are unintentional”.
And in a Deadline interview he 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”.
However, those claims are not credible, Caillat states in his lawsuit. Adjmi “publicly claims that ‘Stereophonic’ is his ‘own invention’ derived solely from his ‘imagination’”, the lawsuit says.
Yet the playwright “somehow ‘intuited’ pivotal scenes, plot lines, characters and conversations revolving around rock stars and complex musical techniques, even though he ‘didn’t know anything’ about the world of ‘music and music production’ and had never watched a live recording in a recording studio”. This, says the lawsuit, “is beyond credulity”.
In fact, Caillat argues, ‘Stereophonic’ “copies the heart and soul of ‘Making Rumours’ and is substantially similar”. The memoir “depicts Mr Caillat’s career and relationship with Fleetwood Mac during the making of the ‘Rumours’ album, by introducing songs and key events in the order that Mr Caillat experienced during the making of the album”, the lawsuit explains, before claiming that ‘Stereophonic’ “uncannily duplicates this precise arc”.
It’s not the first time a play by Adjmi has resulted in copyright claims. His previous play ‘3C’ satirised the 1970s sitcom ‘Three's Company’, prompting a cease and desist letter from the production firm that own the rights in the TV series.
However, Adjmi managed to secure a declaratory judgment from the courts that said the play deconstructed rather than adapted the TV show, and therefore its use of aspects of ‘Three’s Company’ was fair use under American copyright law.
Caillat references that earlier dispute in his lawsuit before insisting that fair use does not apply this time round. “The case of ‘Stereophonic’ is very different”, the lawsuit says, “because the show is not a parody or other fair use of ‘Making Rumours’”.
And not only that, there’s a procedural reason why a fair use defence can’t be used, the lawsuit adds. “Mr Adjmi denies that he used ‘Making Rumours’ at all”, it states, “so he cannot claim fair use of the book”.
