Texas church forced to pay damages for unauthorized Hamilton production
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Pastor Refuted: The Texas church that was booed and hissed for its unauthorized production of Hamilton will pay an unspecified amount of damages.
The Door McAllen Church headed by Pastor Roman Gutierrez issued a statement Tuesday that acknowledged it "did not ask for, or receive, a license from the producers or creators of Hamilton to produce, stage, replicate or alter any part of Hamilton; nor did we seek prior permission to alter Lin-Manuel Miranda's work by changing the music, the lyrics, deleting songs, and adding dialogue."
"I recognize as the Pastor of the church that I have an obligation and responsibility to follow the law and educate our community about these protocols," the statement continued. "Our ministry will use this moment as a learning opportunity about protected artistic works and intellectual property." The church has agreed to "never stage the performance again and will destroy any and all video or sound recordings and images of the performances and rehearsals."
A rep for Hamilton told EW the production will donate all damages paid to the South Texas Equality Project (STEP), a coalition of organizations that work to advocate for, celebrate, uplift, educate, and provide support to the LGBTQIA+ community of the Rio Grande Valley.
The church made headlines earlier this month after it produced and livestreamed a production of the Tony Award-winning musical that altered lyrics to reference Christianity. It concluded with a sermon by a pastor who compared homosexuality to drug addiction, per video of the since-removed musical shared by NBC News. "Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs, homosexuality, maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, relationships," the pastor said. "God can help you tonight."
Miranda responded to the production after it went viral. "Grateful to all of you who reached out about this illegal, unauthorized production," he tweeted while sharing an official statement from the Dramatists Guild. "Now lawyers do their work. And always grateful to the @dramatistsguild, who have the backs of writers everywhere, be it your first play or your fiftieth." The guild condemned the production for "brazen infringement."
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"No writer's work, whether they are a student who has just written their first play, or Lin-Manuel Miranda, can be performed without their permission," the guild said. "And it is never okay to change the words, lyrics, or notes, without their express consent."
Reps for Miranda and the Door McAllen Church didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment on Tuesday.
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