Lin-Manuel Miranda says he is aware of a bizarre, unauthorized staging of his megahit musical “Hamilton,” which took place at a Texas church – and that it is up to the lawyers to deal with it.
I am grateful to all of you who reached out to me regarding this illegal, unauthorized production,” Miranda wrote on Twitter. “Now it is up to the lawyers to do their work.”
At the Door Christian Fellowship Church in McAllen, Texas, the staging of “Hamilton” was modified to include biblical themes, as well as a sermon at the end of the play that compared homosexuality to addiction, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Miranda is well known for his pro-LGBT stance as a Broadway veteran.
A video of the two-hour-long performance, as well as the 15-minute sermon that followed it, was obtained by the paper on Aug. 5.
Texas lawyers handling an unauthorized biblical adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton”
The pastor said, “Maybe you struggle with alcohol, drugs – with homosexuality – maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, God can help you tonight,” he said in the sermon after he finished preaching. “He wants to forgive you for your sins, and he wants to make you whole again.”
A church pastor, Roman Gutierrez, told the outlet that the church is not anti-LGBT and that everyone is always welcome. Gutierrez said he obtained legal permission to produce the church’s show, but a Hamilton rep said that was untrue.
The spokesperson for Hamilton said that the company does not issue amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and that it did not grant one to The Door Church. There was also a cease-and-desist letter sent to the church by the lawyer.
As part of his tweet, Miranda included a letter from the Dramatists Guild. In their statement, the group condemned the church for changing the lyrics, adding text without permission, and performing without a license.
“By highlighting the Door McAllen Church’s brazen infringement, the Guild wishes to shed light on the problematic pattern of some theaters performing authors‘ work without a license and rewriting the text without the consent of the author,” the guild stated. In accordance with these laws, no organization, be it professional, amateur, or religious, is exempt from these laws.