Producer of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ sues over play ‘Stereophonic’

The Tony Award-winning play Stereophonic, which opened on Broadway in April, is loosely based on the making of Fleetwood Mac’s iconic album Rumours, and now one of the producers associated with the album is suing over it.

Ken Caillat, who co-produced Rumours, has filed a lawsuit against the writer and producers of Stereophonic, alleging the play used portions of his 2013 book, Making Rumours: The Inside Story Of The Classic Fleetwood Mac Album, without permission.

In the suit, which was also filed on behalf of Caillat’s co-author Steven Stiefel, the pair claim Stereophonic “copies the heart and soul of Making Rumours, and is substantially similar,” noting they didn’t authorize the play’s writer, David Adjmi, to “copy, reproduce, or create a fictional adaptation or derivative work of their book.”

“The striking similarity is readily apparent right from the beginning of the show,” the suit notes, pointing to Stereophonic’s setting of a recording studio, with the audience watching from the perspective of the engineers and producers.

“The set of Stereophonic essentially places the audience in the very chair where Mr. Caillat sat as he engineered and produced Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, as Plaintiffs vividly described in Making Rumours,” reads the suit.

It adds that while Adjmi claims the show isn’t about the making of Rumours or based on Caillat’s book, the play “presents a nearly identical story arc” as the book.

The plaintiffs are suing for copyright infringement and are seeking to recover damages, profits, attorneys fees and costs, noting they may also look for an injunction to stop the performance of Stereophonic “if necessary.”

Caillat, father of singer Colbie Caillat, recently gave an interview with The New Yorker, where he detailed the similarities of his book and the play, including portions of dialogue he believes were taken right from his book.