Elliot C. Williams
Sarah Y. Kim
A wildly popular Bridgerton-inspired TikTok phenomenon has become the talk of the ton — and the subject of a lawsuit.
On Friday, Netflix filed a federal suit against musicians Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear — aka Barlow & Bear — who just a few days earlier staged their musical The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical in front of a sold-out crowd at the Kennedy Center.
It all began in January 2021, when now 23-year-old singer Abigail Barlow posted a simple question about the hit Netflix and Shonda Rhimes-created series Bridgerton, itself inspired by Julia Quinn’s novel The Duke and I: “What if Bridgerton was a musical?” Barlow asked on TikTok, singing the first of many original ballads she and Bear would team up to compose. The videos quickly amassed millions of views and followers begged for more.
Netflix even tweeted out its support, writing in response to a duet Barlow posted: “Absolutely blown away by the Bridgerton musical playing out on TikTok.”
As the two began recording The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical album, Netflix says in the lawsuit it repeatedly warned Barlow and Bear to stop. The 15-song album won a Grammy for best musical theater album earlier this year, making the pair the youngest-ever winners of that category and the first to start their Grammy-winning album on the social media platform.
Things took a turn when the songwriting duo brought their album to the Kennedy Center last Tuesday, performing alongside the National Symphony Orchestra, all while Netflix was hosting its own immersive Bridgerton pop-up experience in D.C.
In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of D.C., Netflix alleges that the singers stole the valuable work of hundreds of artists and Netflix employees. The company says Barlow and Bear made a world tour announcement, sold merchandise, and used the show’s trademark despite Netflix’s repeated objections. Specifically, the company claims that the Kennedy Center performance confused fans who might have thought it was affiliated with the Netflix brand.
“Barlow & Bear’s Kennedy Center performance interfered with Netflix’s long-announced offering of the Bridgerton Experience in Washington, D.C.,” the suit reads. “It attracted Bridgerton fans who would have otherwise attended the Bridgerton Experience and created confusion as to whether Netflix had approved of Barlow & Bear’s unauthorized derivative works. Barlow & Bear benefited from the confusion and false association with the Bridgerton brand.”
A representative for the Kennedy Center declined to comment for this story. The venue is not named as a defendant in the suit.
Others had already questioned the legality of the TikTokers’ creation. In April, right after the Grammy win, Slate’s ICYMI podcast hosts asked, “How Is TikTok’s Grammy-Winning Bridgerton Musical Legal?” Law professor Kristelia Garcia explained that there are four legal factors that determine whether “fan works” are fair use, but that “those factors are not necessarily always applied equally or given any particular weight.” The bottom line to consider, she said, is the fan work’s “transformativeness.”
“Does it add something new or important that the previous work didn’t have?” Garcia said on the episode. “That is a generalization but helpful shorthand.”
Representatives for Barlow and Bear did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By the time Barlow and Bear began recording their TikToks, about 82 million households had streamed Bridgerton on Netflix. Production for the show’s third season has begun, though Netflix has not yet announced an official release date.
@abigailbarlowww
