Music producer Ken Caillat has sued the makers of the Tony-winning Broadway play “Stereophonic,” which is about a fictitious ’70s band, accusing them of making an “unauthorized” version of his book about the making of Fleetwood Mac’s best-selling 1977 album “Rumours.”
Caillat and co-author Steven Stiefel state in the copyright infringement suit, which was filed Tuesday in New York federal court that play by David Adjmi “copies the heart and soul” and “uncannily duplicates” key events of their 2012 book, including the famed fights and break-ups of the real band.
The suit calls Adjmi’s insistence that he did not base the play on Caillat’s book “implausible.” It goes on to state, “Mr. 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.”
In April, Adjmi admitted to NPR, “There are iconographic elements that I stole from Fleetwood Mac, but I also stole from other things.” Like Fleetwood Mac, the band in the play has two couples and five members, some of whom are British and some of whom are American.
Caillat argues that the success of “Stereophonic” is “causing economic harm to Plaintiffs” and infringing on his efforts to turn his book into a film, as Adjmi has similar plans for the play.
Caillat is seeking “actual damages, profits earned from the infringement, attorney fees and costs, and, if necessary, an injunction enjoining the performance of ‘Stereophonic’ or any other exploitation of Plaintiffs’ book, pursuant to the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 101, et seq.”
“Stereophonic” won five Tonys in June, including Best New Play.
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