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The Door McAllen church released a statement this morning apologizing for their production of ‘Hamilton’, in which they altered lyrics to fit Biblical teachings and included a sermon at the end of the show that contained anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric. In addition to their apology, the church promised to never perform the show again, to destroy all recordings of the show and pay damages to the ‘Hamilton’ team which will then be donate to an LGBTQIA+ support organization.
The church released the statement, assumedly prepared by senior pastor Roman Gutierrez, on their Instagram account.
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This statement seemingly closes the door on a three-week saga that captured the attention of the theatre world. The church performed the unauthorized production on Aug 5 and streamed it to their YouTube channel where it was instantly noticed by theatre fans. The case was a perfect storm of copyright violations. The church did not have permission to perform the show, make changes to its lyrics, use its logo, use copyrighted music as a backing track, advertise the production, and stream it on YouTube.
It was also reported to me from multiple sources that merchandise such as t-shirts with the Hamilton logo were also sold during the event. However, I have not been able to obtain photos of that merchandise.
Following our report on the production, the church issued a statement that they had received a license to perform the show. However, the legal team at ‘Hamilton’ stated that permission was given to only perform on Aug 6, with strict rules. The team also reserved the right to discuss this further with the church.
It is likely that this specifically worded statement is a result of those discussions. It is not known at this time how much in damages the church has agreed to pay.
However, according to a statement from the team at ‘Hamilton’, all funds will be donated to an LGBTQIA+ support organization.
See here for the background. Honestly, this is a perfectly fine outcome. The church admitted they were wrong, they promised to stop doing this sort of thing again, they destroyed the bootleg media of their unauthorized performances, and they paid some damages that then got donated to a worthy and fitting cause. I have no notes. Rolling Stone has more.