How Fleetwood Mac inspired the West End's hot new play – and a very ugly lawsuit

Telegraph

02-05-2025

This month, one of Broadway 's most successful recent plays transfers to the West End. Stereophonic is set in a recording studio and tells the story of a five-piece British-American rock band recording an album in trying circumstances in California, 1976. Having debuted off-Broadway in 2023 before transferring to New York's stately John Golden Theatre in 2024, Stereophonic, written by American playwright David Adjmi and with music by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler, became the toast of the town.
It's the most Tony-nominated play of all time, receiving 13 nominations last year – beating the record previously held by Jeremy O Harris's Slave Play, with 12 – and winning five awards, including Best Play. Stereophonic was also named the season's best play by the New York Drama Critics' Circle, among myriad other accolades.
But despite its run at the Duke of York's serving as its London debut, Stereophonic may strike a familiar chord with British theatre-goers. After all, the story bears strong similarities to the recording of Fleetwood Mac 's 40-million-selling album Rumours, which was also recorded in trying circumstances by the five-piece British-American rock band in California in 1976, and released in February the following year. From its location and era to its band members' genders, conflicts and drug habits, the play's story arc may seem to some like, well, second-hand news.
Like Fleetwood Mac, the band in Stereophonic comprises a male British drummer and bass player, a female British vocalist-pianist, a male American guitarist-vocalist and a female American vocalist. All of whom could be interpreted as Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks respectively. In the play, the two couples are mid-break-up, just as the McVies and Buckingham and Nicks were during Rumours' high-tension creation. Cocaine was everywhere (it also features in the play).
'Drama. Dra-ma,' was how the late McVie described the recording process to Rolling Stone shortly before the release of what is often hailed as one of the greatest albums ever made.
Even Stereophonic's music, played live by the actors during the three-hour show, sounds – to my ears – like Fleetwood Mac, from the Chain-like throb of Masquerade to the Dreams-esque Bright (Fast). 'Stereophonic is a triumph that sneakily takes the Fleetwood Mac story to Broadway,' ran a headline in Rolling Stone last spring. The same piece said that Stereophonic 'might as well be titled Who's Afraid of Fleetwood Mac?, given all the covert and not-so-covert references to the band'. Fleetwood Mac stage shows do exist – a show featuring the band's music, Go Your Own Way, opened in the West End in 2023 and is now touring, as are the perennially popular covers band Rumours of Fleetwood Mac – but these are more tribute nights than serious dramas.
Stereophonic's playwright Adjmi declined to be interviewed for this article, but he has called the musical a 'fantasia' whose inspiration came from many places. 'I keep getting the question 'Is this Fleetwood Mac? Is it this and that?' Why do people want to know that?' Adjmi told Variety in April 2024. 'There is no real story. The whole thing is invented.'
Still, Stereophonic was deemed to have overstepped the mark by Rumours producer Ken Caillat when he saw the play last year. Caillat, now 78, sat behind the mixing desk for Rumours's arduous year-long recording process as a 29-year-old. In 2012 he co-wrote a book called Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album. Caillat watched Stereophonic 'in a daze' and saw 'uncanny' similarities between Making Rumours and the play, according to a New Yorker article published last September.
'I feel kind of a numnuts… I feel ripped off,' he said. Adjmi was quoted in the same article as saying that any similarities to the 'excellent' Making Rumours book were 'unintentional'. But, last October, Caillat and his Making Rumours co-writer Steven Stiefel launched legal action against Adjmi and numerous other parties involved in the play.
In a 29-page complaint filed at the Southern District of New York Court – seen by the Telegraph – Caillat and Stiefel alleged that Stereophonic 'copies the heart and soul of Making Rumours'. Their complaints centred around the fact that Stereophonic is essentially told from the perspective of a producer, 'Grover', just as the story in Making Rumours is. And from there, the pair argued, the alleged similarities piled up.
These alleged similarities, Caillat and Stiefel contended, ranged from the stage set – with the audience positioned behind the studio's mixing desk – to the fact that Grover is promoted from sound engineer to co-producer during the recording of the play's album, just as Caillat was during Rumours, for which he won a Grammy.
Narrative details and conversations from Making Rumours were also uncannily close, Caillat and Stiefel argued. For example, an outburst from Christine McVie, who died in 2022, towards Caillat is closely replicated in Stereophonic, as is a nasty physical altercation between Buckingham and the producer after Caillat recorded over a take on Buckingham's instruction. Caillat's use of the phrase 'wheels up' is used by Grover, while a scene about 'Houseboat wars' – battles between local houseboat dwellers and residents – appears in both Making Rumours and Stereophonic.
Caillat and Stiefel sought damages, an injunction and legal fees from the makers of Stereophonic, which they estimated to have grossed $20 million. The case was settled out of court in January. Speaking together for the first time since they wrote the book, Caillat and Stiefel tell me what Rumours – and Making Rumours – meant to them.
'Recording Rumours was the highlight of my young adult life,' says Caillat. 'I loved working with Fleetwood Mac, making them sound even better than they do in real life, putting my magic into the sound. You never know when you're going to be part of history, so always strive to do your best.'
The Californian says that for years, friends would ask him to retell stories about recording Rumours. Then, in the Noughties, someone suggested he write a book. 'I sat down, gathered all my historical track sheets about everything we did each day during the production of the album. These notes were rich with information about what instrument we used and what song we worked on each day. Armed with this information, I wrote the story of my year of making this album. While I was writing, I was thoroughly convinced that I was that 29-year-old boy again,' he says.
Caillat then passed his 80-page document – single-spaced, no paragraphs – to Los Angeles-based writer Stiefel, who turned detailed notes into a book with a narrative arc. 'We set out to tell an Almost Famous-esque story, where the band is sort of the backdrop to the primary story of a young studio engineer trying to succeed,' says Stiefel. 'Getting to work on this book was, for me, akin to Ken's opportunity to work with Fleetwood Mac back in the day. The journey of Making Rumours (the book) and Rumours (the album) are similar in that they were all-consuming creative processes.'
Caillat and Stiefel won't comment on their settlement with Stereophonic's creators, beyond saying things were 'resolved on mutually agreeable terms'.
Adjmi has always maintained that Stereophonic's inspiration comes from multiple sources, including Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Butler's own Arcade Fire and female-centred bands like The Mamas & the Papas and Heart. He told Variety that the initial idea actually came when he was listening to Zeppelin's Babe I'm Gonna Leave You on a flight a decade previously. He imagined Robert Plant singing, with all the inherent desire and anguish in his voice. He then thought about the dramatic possibilities presented by a cloistered environment such as a studio. The glass wall that separates artist and producer, for example, allows conversations to be half-private, half-shared.
Just like Rumours, Stereophonic had its own rocky ride to runaway success. And this is where things get even more meta. An initial 2020 production was derailed by Covid, while sound designer Ryan Rumery (who later won a Tony for the play) said Stereophonic was the 'most arduous' project he had ever worked on because all the sound is relayed live to the audience via a real studio console. Adjmi has spoken about a 'combustible, interesting' on-stage energy stemming from the tension between his exacting dialogue and director Daniel Aukin's more flexible approach.
One group of people who haven't seen the play are, apparently, Fleetwood Mac themselves. Nicks hadn't heard of Stereophonic when asked about it in an interview last year, while Deadline reported that the three other living members – John McVie, Buckingham and Fleetwood – haven't seen it either.
Still, Adjmi has said that he's interested in adapting it for the silver screen, while Caillat and Stiefel tell me that their book, Making Rumours, has 'garnered interest from Hollywood' – with a draft of a feature script already completed. On top of this, Fleetwood Mac are working on a 'definitive' authorised documentary with Apple TV+ (directed by Hollywood heavyweight Frank Marshall), although given that Stereophonic is nothing to do with the band, one imagines there won't be much overlap.
So prepare for a full-on Mac attack, or at least a Mac-adjacent one. But whether it's a case of 'Don't Stop' or 'Oh Well' rather depends on your perspective.