Life Rights on Stage: Legal Routes to Telling Real Stories on Broadway

Broadway loves musicals about real people. Roughly 40% of new musicals in the 2023-24 Broadway season received inspiration from real people’s lives.¹[1]2023-2024 Broadway Season, BROADWAY NOW & NEXT, https://www.broadwaynowandnext.com/seasons/2023-2024/season_shows (last visited Feb. 8, 2025). The trend of bio-musicals may feel new, but the Broadway stage is no stranger to these stories. From the makers of Gypsy and The Sound of Music to Hamilton and Hell’s Kitchen, many Broadway greats of past and present have navigated the legality of telling someone else’s story.

Life rights, sometimes called “life story rights” are agreements between a producer and a person whose story the producer wishes to tell.²[2]Jorge L. Conteras & Dave Fagundes, The Life Story Rights Puzzle, 14 HARV. J. OF SPORTS & ENT. LAW 153, 157 (2023). The basic legal framework is that an individual has legal rights and personal interests in protecting their life story, and producers simultaneously have broad rights to creative freedom.³[3]Jorge L. Conteras & Dave Fagundes, The Life Story Rights Puzzle, 14 HARV. J. OF SPORTS & ENT. LAW 153, 153–58 (2023). Depending on the circumstances, the creator of a new play or musical may not need or want to engage with an individual to make a show about them.⁴[4]Id. However, engaging with the subject may be essential to gain access to information and avoid potential legal liability.⁵[5]Id.

This legal friction has led producers to take different approaches to reaching – or choosing not to reach – agreements with the subjects of their stories.⁶[6]Id. Depending on artistic priorities and preferences, theatre producers may choose to: (1) collaborate with a celebrity, (2) purchase all-encompassing rights, (3) rely exclusively on what is publicly available, or (4) anonymize material that would otherwise require legal clearances.⁷[7]Tom Isler, Whose Story Is It, Anyway? Obtaining a Subject’s Life‑Story Rights, INT’L DOCUMENTARY ASS’N (Mar. 24, 2008), https://www.documentary.org/feature/whose-story-it-anyway-obtaining-subjects-life-story-rights; Lisa A. Callif, Cinema Law: Do I Need to Obtain Life Rights?, MOVIEMAKER MAG. (Jan. 31, 2023), https://www.moviemaker.com/cinema-law-do-i-need-life-rights/. This article will review relevant laws surrounding this decision and analyze the risks and benefits of these four common approaches taken by those who hope to turn someone else’s story into a Broadway hit.

What Are Life Rights?

There is no singular law of life rights.⁸[8]Id. “Acquiring life rights” usually means that a producer entered an agreement with an individual for use of their story.⁹[9]Conteras & Fagundes, supra note 2, at 158. For example, an agreement may define life rights as:

[T]he irrevocable, exclusive, perpetual, and universal rights to use Owner’s name, likeness, sobriquet, voice, and biography; depict, portray, impersonate, or simulate Owner in any way whatsoever; and make use of all the incidents of Owner’s life preceding surrounding, following and otherwise, in any way relating to incidents about Owner’s life that Producer deems in its sole direction necessary or appropriate to produce [artistic content] whether wholly or partially factual or fictional . . .¹⁰[10]Life Story Rights Agreement, PDF document, SXSW, Mar. 2018, https://www.sxsw.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Life-Story-Rights-Agreement.pdf.

The agreement may also give a producer rights to develop scripts, promote the work, make spin-offs, copyright their creations, and deviate from the facts of the story for dramatization.¹¹[11]Id. It could also arrange producer access to non-public material, and describe the level of involvement with the subject.¹²[12]Conteras & Fagundes, supra note 2, at 158; Mark Litwak, DEALMAKING IN THE FILM & TV INDUSTRY, (3rd ed. Silman James 2012). Finally, the agreement will likely define fees or a profit sharing structure and describe limitations to the subject’s ability to sue for defamation or invasion of privacy.¹³[13]Id.

But a producer may not need or want to enter into an agreement with the subject, especially if she is hard to find or unlikely to agree to such a deal. Because public facts – with some exceptions – are in the public domain, life rights agreements can sometimes be avoided.¹⁴[14]Conteras & Fagundes, supra note 2, at 157. Regarding the limitations of disclosure of facts see, e.g. N.J.S.A. 47:1B-1(a) (Daniel’s Law, limiting disclosure of addresses) and CONG. RSCH. SERV., Defamation, Constitution Annotated, https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt1-7-5-7/ALDE_00013808/ (last visited Feb. 16, 2026) (describing the relationship between true information and defamation). In such cases, laws of publicity and invasion of privacy may be relevant for producers eyeing Broadway.¹⁵[15]Tom Isler, Whose Story Is It, Anyway? Obtaining a Subject’s Life‑Story Rights, INT’L DOCUMENTARY ASS’N (Mar. 24, 2008), https://www.documentary.org/feature/whose-story-it-anyway-obtaining-subjects-life-story-rights; Lisa A. Callif, Cinema Law: Do I Need to Obtain Life Rights?, MOVIEMAKER MAG. (Jan. 31, 2023), https://www.moviemaker.com/cinema-law-do-i-need-life-rights/. The right of publicity protects individuals from the unauthorized commercial exploitation of their name, image, and likeness.¹⁶[16]N.Y. CIV. RIGHTS LAW § 50 (McKinney 2025). Some state’s publicity statutes extend after death for a certain number of years, which may, for example, give a celebrity’s estate rights to that celebrity’s story.¹⁷[17]N.Y. CIV. RIGHTS LAW § 50(f) (McKinney 2025). New York’s post-mortem right of publicity, for example lasts 40 years after death. Id. States may have relevant privacy laws, including defamation, which protects individuals from communications that harm their reputation.¹⁸[18]Restatement (Second) of Torts § 559 (1977) Which state law applies requires a review of state statues and common law.¹⁹[19]For example: New York’s post mortem right of publicity applies to people who were domiciled in New York at the time of their death. N.Y. CIV. RIGHTS LAW § 50(f), Anyone who uses the name image and likeness in the state of New York may be sued for damages. § 51. Regarding defamation, “[T]he general presumption in a defamation case is that ‘the local law of the state where the publication occurs determines the rights and liabilities . . . unless, with respect to the particular issue, some other state has a more significant relationship . . . in which event the local law of the other state will be applied.’” Middleton v. The Hollywood Rep. LLC, 137 F.4th 1287 (11th Cir. 2025) (quoting Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 149 (Am. L. Inst. 1971)). A producer may wish to review the laws of the state in which the person was domiciled at the time of their death (if deceased), the state a living subject is domiciled, and the state the show will be produced.²⁰[20]Id.

Putting Life Rights into Practice

Path 1: MJ The Musical and Hell’s Kitchen:
Big Time Celebrities and Their Life Rights Arrangements

Given the number of legal considerations, it is not surprising that artists seeking to depict real people desire involvement of the subjects themselves. The subject may even be involved in the project from the onset and have close control over the material. Both the producers of MJ The Musical, based on the life of Michael Jackson, and Hell’s Kitchen, loosely based on Alicia Keys’s upbringing, collaborated closely with their subjects.²¹[21]Michael Paulson, Alicia Keys on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Nods: I’m in ‘a Deep State of Freaking Out’, THE N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 30, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/theater/alicia-keys-hells-kitchen-tony-nominations.html; Michael Paulson, Michael Jackson Musical Is to Open on Broadway Next Summer, THE N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 10, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/theater/michael-jackson-musical-broadway.html.

Alicia Keys worked on Hell’s Kitchen through its more than 10-year development process.²²[22]Michael Paulson, Alicia Keys on ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Nods: I’m in ‘a Deep State of Freaking Out’, THE N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 30, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/30/theater/alicia-keys-hells-kitchen-tony-nominations.html. The story is inspired by her past, but not explicitly autobiographical.²³[23]Gillian Russo, How ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ reflects and differs from Alicia Keys’ life, N.Y. THEATRE GUIDE (Apr. 20, 2024), http://newyorktheatreguide.com/theatre-news/news/how-hells-kitchen-reflects-and-differs-from-alicia-keys-life. Similarly, Michael Jackson’s estate is a producer for MJ The Musical.²⁴[24]Michael Paulson, Michael Jackson Musical Is to Open on Broadway Next Summer, THE N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 10, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/10/theater/michael-jackson-musical-broadway.html. Under California publicity laws, Jackson’s estate will retain control over Michael Jackson’s right of publicity until 2079, seventy years after his death. CAL. CIV. CODE § 3344.1. The estate’s involvement is stamped throughout MJ The Musical’s playbill, which lists the entirety of its staff and credits them for allowing access to Jackson’s private writings.²⁵[25]MJ The Musical, PLAYBILL, https://playbill.com/production/mj-the-musicalneil-simon-theatre-2021-2022 (Last visited Feb. 9, 2025) (page 15). This path can favor both parties. It gives producers access and reduces potential legal claims, while allowing a star (or their estate) to exercise control over their story.

Path 2: The Sound of Music:
The Non-Celebrity Life Rights Arrangement with No Strings Attached

People who are not celebrities may struggle to navigate these rights. The Sound of Music represents the pitfalls that can affect such individuals. Rodgers and Hammerstein, the creators of The Sound of Music, acquired life rights to Maria Von Trapp from German film producers who had previously purchased the rights to her story in the 1950s.²⁶[26]Joan Gearin, Movie vs. Reality: the Real Story of the Von Trapp Family, PROLOGUE MAGAZINE, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Winter 2005), http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2005/winter/von-trapps.html. The Von Trapp family never saw a dollar from the profits and has since spoken publicly about the imperfect depiction of their family, especially of Maria’s husband.²⁷[27]Id. In a 1998 interview with the New York Times, one of the Von Trapp children said, “[The] Sound of Music simplifies everything. I think perhaps reality is at the same time less glamorous but more interesting than the myth.”²⁸[28]Id. Of course, by the Von Trapps signing away these rights, Rodgers and Hammerstein could do what they wished with the family’s story – a result that turned out quite well for the songwriting duo.²⁹[29]See Todd S. Purdum, The Sound of Music: 40 Years of Unstoppable Success, N.Y. TIMES (June 1, 2005), https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/arts/the-sound-of-music40-years-of-unstoppable-success.html.

Path 3: Hamilton and Evita:
Relying on or Reinventing Historical Information

Many musicals are made about people who have been long-deceased or whose lives are so rooted in public fact that obtaining rights is not necessary.³⁰[30]See infra “What Are Life Rights”. In the case of Hamilton, creator Lin-Manuel Miranda did not have to acquire life rights to tell Alexander Hamilton’s story.³¹[31]Hausman, Lauren M., Leaving the Best of Artists and Authors Helpless: Lin‑Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton Illustrates How the Fair Use Test Is Too Gray, 20 CHI.-KENT J. INTELL. PROP. 270, 285–87 (2021) (describing that history is in the public domain). Miranda chose, however, to obtain a copyright license to Alexander Hamilton, a biography by Ron Chernow, which inspired the musical.³²[32]Eriq Gardner, ‘Hamilton’ Producer Fights Copyright Claims to Alexander Hamilton’s Life, HOLLYWOOD REP. (Sept. 23, 2019), https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hamilton-producer-fights-copyright-claims-alexander-hamilton-s-life-1242425/. Miranda collaborated with Chernow and even shared a percentage of the show’s profits with him.³³[33]Id. Hamilton’s producers have not fully avoided the court, though. In a recent suit, Hamilton producers claimed an Alexander Hamilton museum exhibit infringed their copyrighted material, since it likely drew inspiration from the musical’s success. This is another example of copyright sweeping in where life rights do not apply. Because much of Hamilton’s life is in the public domain, Miranda could take generous artistic liberties in representing the character’s life.

The conception of the 1979 musical Evita is similar. It too tells the story of a historical political figure, Eva Perón.³⁴[34]Evita, PLAYBILL https://playbill.com/production/evita-broadway-theatre-vault-0000012263 (last visited Feb. 9, 2025). As with Hamilton, the creators did not have to navigate life rights because so much of Eva Perón’s life is public.³⁵[35]Hausman, supra note 36. Instead, the creators licensed copyrighted material, a biography titled The Woman With A Whip, to add color to fact.³⁶[36]NICHOLAS FRASER & MARYSA NAVARRO, THE REAL LIFE OF EVA PERÓN 199 (W.W. Norton & Co. 1996). This book, however, has been criticized by many, including by Eva Perón’s official website, for political biases and inaccurate information.³⁷[37]Dolane Larson, Evita versus Evita, EVA PERON https://www.evitaperon.org/evita_the_opera.htm (last visited Feb. 9, 2025). A post on Peron’s website criticizes Andrew Lloyd Webber, the show’s composer and creator, for not “conduct[ing] any objective indepth research,” and refers to the source book as a collection of “gossip columns” that lack citations.³⁸[38]Id. Because historical information (here, the facts of Peron’s life) are in the public domain, Perón’s descendants likely had no legal power to challenge her representation.³⁹[39]Dave Fagundes & Jorge L. Contreras, Private Ownership of Public Facts: Docudramas, Deals, and Life Story Rights, 57 U.C. DAVIS L. REV. 743, 747–48 (2023).

Path 4: Come from Away and Stereophonic:
Anonymizing or Abstracting a “True Story”

Some artists may be unsuccessful or disinterested in obtaining rights to a person’s life story. They may be able to curtail legal trouble by abstracting or anonymizing information and accepting related legal risks.⁴⁰[40]Callif, supra note 16. A producer may even opt to secure rights to a primary subject but fictionalize side-characters, like the subject’s child or ex-lover, to avoid ancillary life rights agreements.⁴¹[41]Id.

Come from Away is a musical based on the real-life story of September 11th planes rerouting to a small Canadian town, an event for which the facts are in the public domain.⁴²[42]Come From Away, NAT’L ALL. FOR MUSICAL THEATRE, https://namt.org/musicals/come-from-away/#:~:text=Development%20History,in%20March%20at%20CMTP/Sheridan (last visited Feb. 22, 2025). Instead of opting to tell an individual’s story and deal with the legal implications, Come From Away’s creators opted to interview witnesses present at the event and fictionalize them.⁴³[43]Id. By limiting inspiration to a public domain news event and anonymizing particular stories, the producers mitigated their legal risks.⁴⁴[44]Gordon P. Firemark, The Dangerous Myth of “Life Rights” – And How It Can Derail Your Film, FIREMARK (July 21, 2025), https://firemark.com/2025/07/21/the-dangerous-myth-of-life-rights-and-how-it-can-derail-your-film.

As another example, the play Stereophonic details conflict within a band without citing inspiration from an actual band, likely avoiding life rights agreements.⁴⁵[45]Id. Still, the production found itself entangled in legal trouble when Steven Stiefel, a former sound producer for the band Fleetwood Mac, claimed the writers of Stereophonic infringed on the copyright of his book Making Rumors: The Inside Story Of The Classic Fleetwood Mac Album.⁴⁶[46]Caitlin Hudson, ‘Stereophonic’ Settles Lawsuit with Fleetwood Mac Producer, THE HOLLYWOOD REP. (Dec. 4, 2024) https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/stereophonic-settles-lawsuit-fleetwood-mac-producer-1236077002/ The parties settled out of court.⁴⁷[47]Id.

Conclusion

Navigating life rights has long been a part of developing new musicals and plays, but in recent years, the rise of musicals created in direct collaboration with celebrities has brought more nonfiction stories into the spotlight. Considerations involving whether the subject is alive or dead, or a historical figure or a public figure, determines the necessary level of involvement—if any—with the individual or their estate. While life rights provide access and legal protection for both parties, choosing against life rights may allow for greater creative freedom. Tackling a life rights arrangement correctly can open the door to a wealth of information and creative opportunity for a theatre maker. For the subject, a good agreement can rake in money and fame. In the words of Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton, “who lives, who dies, and who tells your story,” may make all the difference … and maybe, who negotiates your life rights agreement.

Written by: Elise Belluccia
Elise is a 2027 J.D. Candidate at Brooklyn Law School.