Andrew Lloyd Webber is involved in an unusual copyright infringement lawsuit against a fellow composer who had previously sued Webber over the same song. The case is scheduled to be heard in New York federal court on Mon., Sept. 9.
Songwriter Ray Repp of Maryland filed suit against Webber six years ago, claiming that the title tune of Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" was plagiarized from "Till You," a religious song written by Repp in 1978. That allegation was heard in New York federal court last year. Though two musicologists testified that the songs were "strikingly similar," U.S. District Judge Shirley Wohl Kram disagreed. She ruled that there was no actionable resemblance between the two, and dismissed Repp's suit.
More than a year after Repp initiated his suit in 1990, Webber filed a counter-claim, contending that Repp had actually lifted "Till You" from "Close Every Door," a song from Webber's early work, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Judge Kram allowed that suit to go forward.
Repp's attorney, William Coulson of Chicago, feels the deck has been stacked against his client since the judge's ruling in the original case. "It's highly unusual for expert testimony to be ignored in that way," Coulson said. "We offered testimony from Wiley Hitchcock, president emeritus of the American Musicological Society; and from James Mack, a Chicago professor who often testifies in such cases, but never before on behalf of a plaintiff."
Jane Stevens of Gold, Farrell & Marks, the firm which represents Webber, said, "This case has obviously never been about money for Andrew Lloyd Webber. That's why we're trying to go forward only on the injunction to prevent Mr. Repp from further exploitation of his song if, indeed, it is judged to have been copied from 'Close Every Door.' "
Coulson contends that Webber's counter-suit is "just an effort to cow Ray Repp, to make him go away. That's why Webber's attorneys are trying to deprive us of a jury trial by dropping all of their counter-claims except the injunction itself. Webber's afraid of a New York jury." Coulson can't appeal Judge Kram's decision in the original case until Webber's counter-claims are resolved.
The disparity between Repp's lack of financial resources and Webber's multi-millions continues to affect the situation. "We're looking for places to stay in New York for the trial," Coulson said, "because we really can't afford a hotel. Any place around Foley Square would be nice. I'm very serious."
Though Webber has often been charged by music critics with appropriation of melodies from such composers as Puccini, Mendelssohn, Ravel, and Mahler, Stevens said the only previous copyright infringement action against her client involved "a fellow in England who also claimed to have written the title song of 'Phantom.' " That suit was thrown out when the court determined that Webber had written the song prior to his composition of the rest of the "Phantom" score and, therefore, prior to the date when the opposing party claimed to have au