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‘Hamilton' creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is going to let the lawyers “do their work” over an allegedly unauthorised production of the show by a church in Texas.
A production of the hit musical was performed and live-streamed by the Door Christian Fellowship Ministries in McAllen, Texas earlier this month and it infuriated bosses behind the show – and Lin-Manuel has now insisted the matter is now in the hands of his attorneys.
In a statement posted on Twitter, he wrote: “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.”
The church's production of the show was heavily criticised over changes to the script and a post-production sermon given by by the church's pastor.
Bosses of the Dramatists Guild accused the church of reproducing the show without a licence and added that they “changed lyrics and added text without permission.”
They said in a statement: “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 license and rewriting the text without authorial consent. No organisation, 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. And it is never okay to change the words, lyrics, or notes, without their express consent.”
The church performed the show on August 5 and 6 with the first production reportedly being streamed online.
The Dallas Morning News reports Door Christian Fellowship's pastor Roman Gutierrez told the publication that his church and the production company behind the show acquired legal permission to stage ‘Hamilton'.
However, representative for the original stage show Shane Marshall Brown told the publication in a statement that the musical “does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church”.
A cease-and-desist letter has since been issued over the alleged unauthorised use of the musical's intellectual property.
