La Clique show founders fight over its name

• La Clique Un Spectacle Sensuel at the Spiegeltent in 2005 won plaudits and helped establish a world brand. Photograph: Neil Hanna

Now one of the Fringe's most successful shows is in limbo amid a legal dispute over control of its name.

La Clique is the unique cabaret and variety show seen by hundreds of thousands of people world-wide since it first took shape in Edinburgh in 2004.

But producers of the show - which is not playing the Fringe this year - are meeting with the founder in the city this weekend in a bid to resolve a "legal quagmire" over its name.

It is one of the biggest and most successful brands to emerge from the Fringe. It's unique chemistry helped make its keystone acts into big names, ranging from Irish singer Camille O'Sullivan, performing at the Assembly Halls venue in Edinburgh this year, to the burlesque sword-swallower Miss Behave, to Amy Saunders, currently fronting the Fringe show The Crack.

But insiders claim there has been a bitter falling-out between the two men at the heart of the show, founder David Bates, owner of the Famous Spiegeltent, a Fringe institution that hosted La Clique until this year, and Brett Haylock, La Clique's house manager and master of ceremonies.

The dispute is believed to centre on Haylock being the individual who has carried the burden of the show and maintained the relationships with performers while Bates has retained rights to the name. "Brett is holding on to the cast, David has the name. They are no longer on speaking terms," said one source. Another said: "They have had a creative difference. Mick and Mark (co-producers Mark Rubenstein and Mick Perrin) don't under stand it, it's a world-wide success. David is a brilliantman but it's a great shame."

La Clique's London run was seen by more than 100,000 people, sold 2.5 million of tickets, and won the 2009 Olivier Award for "best entertainment" on the West End.

In June, it finished a month-long season in Paris, has since appeared in Stockholm, and is now heading to Hungary. But ticket sales for a Christmas run in London have been put on hold.

Sources said Bates has so far refused the use of the La Clique name, which he has owned from the beginning. "As it stands they are going to have to change the name, but want to carry on with the London season which would run through January-February," said one insider. "It is in a legal quagmire, ahead of a decision in coming days on what the name will be.

"The cast are talking about it. Everybody wants to carry on. It's a very sad and difficult process we have to work through."

Bates denied he was blocking the use of the name. "There are negotiations going on," he said. "I'm not prepared to talk about it. The ownership of La Clique is clear.The show is my show and it's going to have a big future."

He added that Haylock and he had "agreements and disagreements" at times.

This year, Bates created in the Spiegeltent a new music and cabaret act, Smoke and Mirrors, which earned mixed reviews. Few people who have seen La Clique, however, will ever forget it. The acts ran from the seductive and fiery songs of Camille, to Ursula Martinez, magician and stripper, to "bath boy" David O'Mer, spraying water from his acrobatic act over a bath.

Bates is an Australian who began his career as a jazz pianist. He first hired the Original Spiegeltent, made in 1920, from a Scottish brewer in 1996 and bought it in 2001. He made it one of the most popular Edinburgh venues, with several other Spiegeltents, or mirrored marquees, here this year. But he pulled out of Edinburgh in 2009, and this year threatened to cancel a return at the 11th hour for reasons that remain unclear.

He recalled yesterday how La Clique was used as a name for club nights at the tent but emerged as a show in 1984. "I created it with Marcus Pabst, the German director. Also Brett Haylock, who worked for me."

A new company, La Clique London, was formed to run the London performances, in the 1,400-seat Hippodrome, that included Rubenstein and Perrin, of the "Just for Laughs" company. They worked closely with Haylock on London and European dates while Bates focused on hows in Australia. Haylock did not return calls.