A big publicity boost for a West End show can come from the most unexpected thing, but a legal challenge to the title of the play must be among the most alarming. The producers of Vardy v Rooney: The Wagatha Christie Trial were trying to establish this weekend whether they needed to make changes to the title of their play after Rebekah Vardy announced last week that she was the legal owner of the phrase “Wagatha Christie”.
“We didn’t see it coming,” said Eleanor Lloyd, the show’s originator and co-producer. “But so far, after looking into it all in the last couple of days, I can see no reason why I can’t go on without changing the name of the show.”
The play, which has been well reviewed, is an account of proceedings that took place in London a year ago when Vardy, who is married to former England football star Jamie Vardy, unsuccessfully attempted to defend herself against allegations that she had betrayed her friend Coleen Rooney, wife of Wayne, by selling stories about her to the media.
The show has returned to the West End after a short run late last year. It has been praised by some critics for the respectful way that it handles the emotional dispute, and all that it reveals about modern obsessions with celebrity lives. It will now run at the Ambassadors theatre until 20 May, before touring.
The court transcripts, which have been crafted into theatre by playwright Liv Hennessy, may now include a nod to the most recent development – a surprise legal move from Vardy. “I think we will make some reference to it in the script. I have been talking to the writer,” said Lloyd.
Vardy’s new trademark on the Wagatha Christie pun, which was created by blending the name of the famous whodunnit author with the popular acronym for footballers’ “wives and girlfriends”, seems to extend over several areas of potential commercial activity, from drinks to jewellery, but doesn’t appear to cover entertainment. Vardy applied to get the phrase registered for trademark in the UK in August, through the company London Entertainment Inc Ltd. It was officially added to the list of registered trademarks a week ago. The phrase was actually coined by comedian Dan Atkinson in an early tweet on the unfolding drama.
“I had been a little worried, wondering if the whole story had dropped out of the headlines for good. But then, no, here it is back again. Another surprise from this extraordinary story,” said Lloyd. “I admire both these women for their commercial savvy, their willingness to go for it. And that’s part of what the play is about. When I first had the idea for the show and bought the court transcript, I can remember reading it to see if there was enough in it. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, there is so much here!’”
The story has already formed the basis of a two-part television drama starring Michael Sheen, which was broadcast on Channel 4 in December.
Trouble for Vardy began long before the moment when she failed to persuade the court that she had been libelled, and was ordered to pay up to £1.5m of Rooney’s legal costs. Rooney had been monitoring her erstwhile friend’s social media activity for some months in 2019 to find the source of a string of leaks about her life to the Sun newspaper. She set up false leads to entice the leaker, then watched to see which reached the press.
At 10.29am on 9 October that year, Rooney posted her allegation on Instagram and Twitter, revealing the name of the woman she believed was to blame – Rebekah Vardy. Attempts at a settlement failed and so the matter became the most expensive celebrity wrangle in British legal history.
In 2019, reports that Vardy’s footballer husband had unsuccessfully attempted to trademark the phrase “Chat Shit, Get Banged”, which had become associated with him several years before when he was playing for Fleetwood Town, were denied by the couple.
• This article was amended on 23 April 2023 to remove incorrect references to “copyright” rather than trademark.
