American actor Will Smith and rapper Jay-Z's hit Broadway musical FELA has been sued by a New York photographer after she alleged that one of her pictures was used in the production without her permission.

The show, co-produced by Smith and Jay-Z, is about a late Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and features an iconic picture of the singer's Nigerian nightclub as a backdrop.

Photographer Marilyn Nance, who took the 1977 photo of the Africa Shrine venue, is suing the show's producers for 100,000 pounds alleging that they used the picture without her permission.

"You have employed our client's registered image without her permission, license or consent," the Daily Express quoted Nance's lawyer Edward Greenberg as writing in the legal papers.

The suit also claimed that the image was used on souvenir books, the show's soundtrack CD and in a music video.

A publicist for the production, Richard Kornberg, has recognized the legal action and insisted that Nance should have notified the producers of the problem sooner.

"We tried to resolve the claim but could not, and are now in the process of replacing that image. Unfortunately, this photographer waited two years to voice an objection to our use of this image. Had she notified us earlier, we would've replaced it then," Konberg told the New York Daily News. (ANI)