Award-winning playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda alluded to possible legal action in response to a McAllen church’s rendition of his popular musical “Hamilton.”
In a Wednesday morning post on Twitter, Miranda thanked those who reached out to him regarding the “illegal, unauthorized production” which was put on twice by The Door McAllen over the weekend.
The church’s performance of the Tony-award winning play was edited to incorporate religious messages. In a sermon following the performance, a pastor listed homosexuality as a struggle that people might be dealing with along with broken marriages, alcohol, drugs, finances, and relationships, according to a video of the service taken by FriendlyAtheist.com.
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 his post, Miranda added, “Now lawyers do their work,” before referring to a statement by The Dramatists Guild, a national trade association of theater writers.
The Dramatists Guild condemned the church for their unauthorized production in a statement issued Tuesday.
“In addition to performing the show without a license, the Door McAllen Church changed lyrics and added text without permission,” the statement read.
“We hold up the Door McAllen Church’s brazen infringement to shine a light on the problematic pattern of some theatrical organizations performing authors’ work without a license and rewriting the text without authorial consent,” the guild added. “No organization, professional, amateur, or religious, is exempt from these laws.
“No writer’s work, whether they are a student who has just written their first play, or Lin-Manuel Miranda, can be performed without their permission,” the statement continued. “And it is never okay to change the words, lyrics, or notes, without their express consent.”
