Texas church rebuked for bootleg ‘Hamilton’ show with altered lyrics

(CNN) — A Texas church’s performance of “Hamilton” was an illegal staging that included altered lyrics about Jesus and Christianity.

Officials behind the musical sent a cease-and-desist letter, but both of the scheduled showings were performed at The Door, in the border town of McAllen.

“‘Hamilton’ does not grant amateur or professional licenses for any stage productions and did not grant one to The Door Church,” Shane Marshall Brown, a spokesperson for “Hamilton,” said in a statement to CNN on Monday.

He said the producers were made aware of the “unauthorized staging” after its first performance, on Friday. They allowed Saturday’s show to go on with certain conditions concerning recording and sharing — but they were not aware, he said, “of the extensive changes to the show or that there would be a sermon at the end.”

That sermon included a comparison of homosexuality to drug or alcohol use, as a thing to be “struggled with.”

“We have reserved all of our rights and are considering how to proceed based upon what we’ve learned,” the spokesperson’s statement said. “The Hamilton family stands for tolerance, compassion, inclusivity and certainly LGBTQ+ rights. We are in the process of reviewing the unauthorized changes made to the script to determine further action.”

CNN’s attempts to reach The Door for comment over the weekend and on Monday went unanswered.

Much of the video from the church’s first “Hamilton” performance was scrubbed from The Door’s social media accounts, per the production’s cease-and-desist request. But some clips were preserved online and shared by Hemant Mehta, a writer and atheist advocate.

One clip shows an altered version of “That Would Be Enough,” a romantic duet between the characters Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler. The rewritten lyrics have Eliza singing,  “My hope is in Jesus. If you could just give him a chance today, that would be enough.”

Another clip shows The Door pastor Victor Lopez addressing the audience from the stage, with “Hamilton” set behind him. He says: “Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs, homosexuality. Maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, relationships — God can help you tonight.”

“Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda is a staunch supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and famously used his 2016 Tony Awards acceptance speech to read a sonnet that addressed the shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, that killed 50 people hours before the award show.

Miranda has not individually commented on the unauthorized production.

The smash hit retells the tale of the “10-dollar founding father” Alexander Hamilton and his contemporaries with a cast mostly composed of people of color.

It won both the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony for best musical, and its producers have launched productions on Broadway, in Chicago and in San Francisco, among other cities, not counting its multiple touring companies. It is not available for licensing to theater companies.

Per copyright law, churches do have an exemption that allows them to perform copyrighted music during religious services but that exemption does not allow for streaming or distribution of those performances and does not extend to any other public performances outside of service.

Some arts critics who weren’t attached to “Hamilton” took issue with the McAllen church’s unauthorized production and the changes to its text.

Howard Sherman, an arts administrator and writer who was one of the first users to widely share news of the production, said the rights of the artists behind “Hamilton” had been violated.

“The work of Lin Manuel, Tommy Kail, Alex Lacamoire, Andy Blankenbuehler, David Korins and others cannot be taken for free or manipulated to send other messages,” he wrote. “I respect all faiths, but I cannot respect The Door McAllen for stealing material to serve their own purposes.”

The statement from the spokesperson for “Hamilton” thanked the show’s “devoted fans” for “bringing this to our attention.”