by Atiya Jordan

June 13, 2022

Shots Fired! R&B Diva Nicci Gilbert Says ‘P-Valley’ Writer Ripped Off Her 2010 Stage Play

Nicci Gilbert, former lead vocalist of ’90s R&B girl-group Brownstone, weighed in on social media, claiming  the writer of the hit STARZ series P-Valley stole the idea from her 2010 stage play.

P-Valley‘s second season premiered June 3, and Gilbert had some words for series creator Katori Hall, award-winning playwright. The R&B Divas star blasted the show online after watching the highly anticipated premiere on the anniversary of her mother’s death.

“After watching last night’s episode of #PVALLEY & seeing the REAL reviews from REAL people and viewers vs the ‘Bot generated’ or ‘corporate interest’ ones,” Gilbert tweeted. “I realize that my Mama had a conversation with GOD & he said, ‘Let Me Handle It’.”

Gilbert’s social media blast comes six months after she filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Lionsgate, Chernin Entertainment, Starz, Hall, executive producer Liz Garcia, and co-producer Patrik-Ian-Polk, Bossip reported.

Gilbert claims the concept of her play, Soul Kittens Cabaret, was duplicated in P-Valley and note similarities in her characters, set design, and more. Fellow R&B artists Fantasia, Faith Evans, Syleena Johnson, Monifah, and KeKe Wyatt starred in Gilbert’s effort.

 

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A post shared by Nicci (@niccigilbert)

“I knew from the first copyright in 2004 that given the opportunity this story would resonate with audiences,” Gilbert wrote on a June 3 Instagram post. “I never would have imagined it would have become #Pvalley.”

P-Valley chronicles the lives of exotic dancers who work at The Pynk, an establishment in fictional Chucalissa, Mississippi, and their nonbinary boss, Uncle Clifford. On the other hand, Soul Kittens Cabaret, released on DVD in 2011, is a stage musical that follows “a group of women with judge-mental [sic] abusive loved ones who worked in a taboo industry” with a “non binary [sic] lead owner of a strip club,” Gilber wrote on her Instagram account.

On Twitter, Gilbert is maintaining the stance that her stage play was ripped off by P-Valley, writing that she has yet to see “said writer, write an original thought or idea.”

 


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