Stereophonic, the Tony-winning Broadway smash with music by Will Butler, centers on a British-American rock band with multiple intra-band romances recording their new album in Sausalito in 1976. In other words, it’s clearly based on Fleetwood Mac’s experiences recording Rumours. For one of the band’s producers, that’s a big problem.

Ken Caillat, who co-produced Rumours with the band and Richard Dashut, sued the makers of Stereophonic in a federal court in New York Tuesday, Reuters reports. In the lawsuit, Caillat and his co-author Steven Stiefel allege that the play “copies the heart and soul” of their 2012 book Making Rumours: The Inside Story Of The
Classic Fleetwood Mac Album.

“The connections between the play and Fleetwood Mac and the Rumours album are so obvious that multiple news outlets have called out the numerous similarities,” the complaint reads. “Simply put, any attempt by Mr. Adjmi to disclaim Stereophonic as not being about Fleetwood Mac and Rumours is disingenuous.” The suit asserts that the success of Stereophonic interferes with Caillat’s plans to adapt his book into a movie. Playwright David Adjmi and a slew of producers and production companies are named as defendants.

One passage from the court filing:

The striking similarity is readily apparent right from the beginning of the show. The first thing audiences see when they watch Stereophonic is that the set for the play is a recording studio, with the audience positioned so that they are watching the play from the perspective of the engineers and producers of a rock album. Indeed, 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.

Last week in a New Yorker feature, Caillat discussed the similarities between Stereophonic and his book. He noted that much of the play is told through the eyes of Grover, a recording engineer who is promoted to producer, just like Caillat was during the Rumours sessions. He also cites passages of dialogue that seem to be lifted directly from the pages of Making Rumours. From the New Yorker article:

Then there were odd details that repeated odd details in Making Rumours. Grover has a crush on the studio’s front-office girl, as Caillat did. The John McVie character gives a boozy monologue about Sausalito’s “houseboat wars,” which Caillat describes in the book. A character mentions seeing Tony Orlando out drinking in L.A., as Caillat did — not exactly a name you’d pluck from the air. Before some takes, Grover says, “Wheels up,” which was Caillat’s studio catchphrase. (“We had airline seats in the control room,” he explained.)

Adjmi 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. Any similarities to Ken Caillat’s excellent book are unintentional.”

Stereophonic set the record for most Tony nominations with 13. It won five including Best Play, Best Direction of a Play, Best Featured Actor in a Play (for Will Brill), Best Sound Design of a Play, and Best Scenic Design of a Play. Coincidentally, our own Scott Lapatine saw the play last night; he says he could not stop thinking about Rumours the whole time. And yes, millennials, Ken Caillat is the father of Colbie Caillat.