Russian Sequel To Broadway Musical Raises Copyright Concerns

Lovers of the Broadway musical First Date will need to brush up on their Russian to watch the sequel.

Last month, the Broadway Moscow Theatre Company presented a sequel to the short-lived Broadway musical First Date. Named Lovers’ Day, the new musical catches up with the original characters, who fell in love after their first date, as they now plan their wedding.

“The spontaneity, ease, and lightness of First Date, the charm of its characters, [and] its very recognizable relationships and situations in which we often find ourselves … made the continuation of the story simply inevitable,” explained Dmitry Bogachev, the lead producer, in Russian. “I invited the authors to come up with what happened next, and to raise the stakes even higher in the relationship of the main characters,” he said.

The Russian creative professionals that Bogachev recruited to continue the story “made a musical no worse, and, in my opinion, better than the American musical,” commented one audience member. “It was simply excellent,” remarked another theatergoer, as another person exclaimed that “we do not need to orient ourselves to the West, because what we create ourselves is always closer, more interesting, more natural.”

Yet, despite the rave reviews, it does not appear that the Broadway Moscow Theatre Company had permission to make the sequel.

Under federal copyright law, the authors of copyrighted works have the exclusive right to create and to allow others to create new works based on their original copyrighted works. Somebody cannot write another book in The Hunter Games series without getting permission from the original author, Suzanne Collins, and any unauthorized sequel would be considered copyright infringement.

American authors are protected against copyright infringement of their works overseas through a collection of conventions and treaties, and the Berne Convention requires its signatory countries like Russia to give foreign copyright owners the same rights and treatment that Russian copyright owners would receive. American authors do not need to register their works or comply with any other formalities in foreign countries in order to protect their works from copyright infringement.

However, even if the Russian producer did not have permission to make the sequel, it is unlikely that the authors of First Date will choose to pursue legal action.

While the original authors, Austin Winsberg, Alan Zachary, and Michael Weiner, declined to discuss their plans, if they want to file a lawsuit, then they “would need to get a lawyer in Russia to handle the complaint,” commented Duke Law professor Jerome H. Reichman. “Russian courts might be difficult for those unfamiliar with either the language, system of establishing precedent, or jurisdiction,” added UConn Law professor Steven Wilf.

In addition to hiring local legal counsel and translators, it might be necessary to bring in expert witnesses, and “[a]dditional costs will be incurred simply in litigating at long distance,” stated some attorneys. Waging a war in a foreign land would not be cheap, and the legal costs that the authors would rack up in the process would likely exceed any awarded damages.

Also, the outcome of a case in a Moscow court might be like a game of Russian roulette. “Courts can interpret the same case differently in different countries,” observed professor Reichman.

The best approach might be for the authors to send a cease-and-desist letter, and, like a bad first date, to move on and learn from the experience.