A Texas church issued an apology for a recent unlicensed production of Hamilton that it performed for its members.
The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church posted a video of the performance to social media on August 5, WFAA reported. The church issued the apology on August 20, stating it would pay damages.Â
In the production, the church allegedly changed some of the lines to relate to the Bible, according to WFAA.
“On behalf of The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church, I would like to personally apologize to the creator of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, the producers of Hamilton, and the numerous others who contributed their intellectual property to Hamilton for staging an unauthorized production of Hamilton that infringed on the rights and copyrights of many,” the apology posted to Instagram shared.
The church admitted in the post that 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 it “seek prior permission to alter Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work by changing the music, the lyrics, deleting songs, and adding dialogue.”
The Broadway musical Hamilton” was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and inspired by the life of one of America’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton. Shane Marshall Brown, a show spokesperson, told WFAA that they do not allow for any professional or amateur productions of the show.Â
The Broadway show producers contacted lawyers who got in touch with Pastor Roman Gutierrez and presented the church with a cease-and-desist letter.Â
The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church’s apology went on to say that they agree to “never stage the performance again and will destroy any and all video or sound recordings and images of the unauthorized performances or rehearsals.”
They said they would also request that all their members do the same. Lastly, The Door said, “We will pay damages for our actions.”
Brown did not reveal precisely how much the church would pay, WFAA reported.Â
He also spoke to USA Today, sharing that the cease-and-desist letter also called for the removal of any online videos of the production.Â
“We issued a cease-and-desist letter for the unauthorized use of Hamilton’s intellectual property, demanding the immediate removal of all videos and images from previous productions from the internet, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, their own website, and elsewhere,” Brown said.Â
The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church was allowed to proceed with its second-night evening performance on Saturday, provided it met certain conditions. According to the Hamilton spokesperson, it could not be live-streamed or recorded, and no photos or videos from the production were allowed to be posted online.
When Broadway fans first learned of the production being presented by The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church, they took to Twitter to alert the show creator himself, USA Today reported. Miranda posted a response to fans, expressing gratitude.Â
“Grateful to all of you who reached out about this illegal, unauthorized production. Now lawyers do their work,” Miranda’s tweet said.Â
Grateful to all of you who reached out about this illegal, unauthorized production. 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. 1/2 https://t.co/yMtM3z9crI— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) August 10, 2022
In the week of August 28 alone, the Broadway production of Hamilton grossed over $2 million, according to Broadway League. Hamilton first opened on August 6, 2015, the show’s IBDB page shared, and has been running since then.Â
Since 2015, over 2,300 Hamilton Broadway show performances have been performed.Â
😳The church must be audacious or ignorant of copyright laws. Justice was served.