Church apologises for unauthorised ‘Hamilton’ production
Religious version showed Alexander Hamilton accepting Jesus | Hit-show’s creator thanks fans for alerting him to “illegal, unauthorised production”.
A Texas-based church has formally apologised for showing performances of “Hamilton”, adapted to include religious themes.
The Door McAllen Church had performed the unauthorised version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton” in Texas in early August. In addition to performing the show without a licence, the church changed lyrics and added text without permission.
According to social media reports and videos, religious themes and messaging were added to the musical, including a scene where Alexander Hamilton accepts Jesus Christ and a post-show sermon that described homosexuality as being a sin.
Forbes reported that ‘Hamilton's' attorneys sent a cease-and-desist to the church after being made aware of the unauthorised production. And, after the church responded, “Hamilton” allowed the second performance to be held with certain conditions, including no live-streaming, recording, or sharing of any footage or photos on social media.
On August 10, Miranda tweeted: "Grateful to all of you who reached out about this illegal, unauthorised production. Now lawyers do their work."
The Dramatists Guild—the US trade association for playwrights, composers, and lyricists—condemned the church’s activities.
It said: “We hold up the Door McAllen Church's brazen infringement to shine a light on the problematic pattern of some theatrical organisations performing authors’ work without a licence and rewriting the text without authorial consent. No organisation, professional, amateur, or religious, is exempt from these laws.”
Yesterday, 23 August, the church apologised on Instagram, stating that it would pay damages for its action and destroy all recordings and images of the unauthorised performance and rehearsals.
The church apologised for "staging and unauthorised production of ‘Hamilton’ that infringed on the rights and copyrights of many”.
It added: “We respect the copyrights of ‘Hamilton’s’ author and contributors. These copyrights are protected by federal law. We acknowledge there are lawful avenues to obtain a licence to stage properties which we did not pursue. And it is never permissible to alter an artistic work such as ‘Hamilton’ without legal permission."
A spokesman for Hamilton told WIPR that any damages paid by church will be donated to the South Texas Equality Project (STEP), a coalition of organisations that work to "advocate for, celebrate, uplift, educate, and provide support to the LGBTQIA+ community of the Rio Grande Valley".
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