Texas church ordered to pay damages for illegal ‘Hamilton’ production

nypost.com:

refuted. The Texas house of worship that produced an unauthorized and highly religious version of the Broadway sensation “Hamilton” was ordered to pay an undisclosed amount in damages Tuesday after receiving a cease-and-desist letter.Pastor Roman Gutierrez also issued an apology, admitting that the Door McAllen Church did not receive permission from the producers or creators of the show to put on “Hamilton” — nor did they get Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blessing to alter the text, Entertainment Weekly reported. “The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church 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,'” reads a statement posted to the venue’s 897 Instagram followers. “Nor did we seek prior permission to alter Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work by changing the music, the lyrics, deleting songs, and adding dialogue.”The church said that they are using the snafu as a teachable moment about intellectual property and protected artistic works.

A post shared by The Door McAllen Church (@doormcallen)“Our ministry will use this moment as a learning opportunity about protected artistic works and intellectual property,” the statement continued. “We agree we will never stage the performance again and will destroy any and all video or sound recordings and images of the performances and rehearsals.”The production — dubbed “Scamilton” by Twitter users — first made headlines when a video of Pastor Roman Gutierrez surfaced delivering a sermon equating homosexuality with addiction.

Miranda responded to the production saying that he was grateful to his fans who reached out to him and said that lawyers were now involved.