Frozen Playwright Accused of Plagiarism

English playwright Bryony Lavery has been accused of plagiarizing passages from a criminal psychiatrist and a magazine writer in her Tony Award-nominated play about a serial killer and his psychiatrist.

Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell of The New Yorker said they had found at least 12 instances of plagiarism in "Frozen," which earned a Tony nomination for best play this year.

Biographical and thematic details had also been taken from a New Yorker profile Gladwell wrote about Lewis in 1997 and from Lewis' 1998 book "Guilty by Reason of Insanity," the two charged.

"Had she asked for material we would have given it to her, but what she has done is a theft," Lewis' lawyer, Martin Garbus, told The Associated Press Saturday.

The charges were first reported in Saturday's editions of The New York Times.

"Attorneys have been engaged, the discussions are amicable, and we expect a resolution," Boneau said in a statement. He did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.

"Frozen" opened in New York last March at off-Broadway's East 13th Street Theatre. It transferred to Broadway in May and closed in August.