Texas Church Illegal Hamilton Production

About

Texas Church Illegal Hamilton Production refers to an illegal production of the Broadway musical Hamilton that was produced and performed by a church in McAllen, Texas. The performance was promoted and livestreamed on YouTube on August 5th, 2022, and struck down due to DMCA copyright violations soon after. Viewers noted that the production had taken creative liberties with the text of the play by changing dialogue to reflect anti-LGBTQ and biblical themes. The production also closed with a sermon that compared being gay to dealing with an addiction.

Origin

On August 5th, 2022, in a since-deleted YouTube^[1] livestream (retrieved from Way Back Machine), RGV Productions in collaboration with The Door Christian Fellowship Ministries of McAllen^[2] staged a performance of the popular Broadway musical, Hamilton, under the title, "Hamilton Play – Spiritual Revolution | TDM Church." According to the snapshot captured by Way Back Machine, the stream had approximately 1300 viewers 14 hours after it released.

A reupload of the play was posted to YouTube on August 9th by the New York Post's official YouTube account. The video was titled "‘Hamilton’ spokesperson slams Texas church’s anti-gay, unauthorized production | New York Post" and received over 400 views in a day.

Spread

On August 6th, 2022, Twitter^[3] user @HESherman tweeted, "Last night, The Door McAllen Church in McAllen TX committed a blatant copyright violation by performing and live-streaming their own production of @HamiltonMusical, which is not licensed for any productions. They changed text and tacked on a sermon including anti-LGBTQ message." The tweet received over 2,200 likes and over a 1,000 likes as of August 9th, 2022 (seen below).

The user goes on to quote an edited line from the illegal production, saying that "'Jesus gives me the strength to pull through when I needed him most he was right on time' is not part of @HamiltonMusical but The Door McAllen put those words in Eliza's mouth last night and they plan to do it again tonight. Tacked on sermon talks about sin. This is illegal."^[4] The tweet received 600 likes as of August 9th, 2022.

On August 6th, 2022, On Stage Blog^[5] was the first to report about the illegal production, publishing an article titled "Texas Church Illegally Performs 'Hamilton' with Anti-LGBTQ Messaging." The writer and founder of On Stage Blog, Chris Peterson, shared the article on his Twitter^[6] account as well, with a tweet that read, "A church in Texas is coming under fire today performing ‘Hamilton’ without obtaining rights to the show as well as changing the text and adding an anti-LGBTQ sermon at the end of the show." The tweet received over 1000 likes and 200 retweets (seen below).

On August 7th, TikToker^[7] @shedoublesbynight posted a screenrecording of a segment from the show with a text overlay that read, "The Door McAllen, TX really thought it was a good idea to post this for everyone to see." The video gathered over 3.9 million views in two days, and over 460,000 likes.

Hamilton Response And Cease-And-Desist Letter

On August 8th, 2022, Hamilton issued a cease-and-desist letter to the Texas church, with a spokesperson releasing a statement to various news outlets regarding the McAllen church's illegal production, stating that “We issued a cease and desist letter for the unauthorized use of Hamilton’s intellectual property, demanding the immediate removal of all videos and images from previous productions from the internet, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, their own website, and elsewhere."^[8]

Anti-LGBTQ Messaging

The illegal production of Hamilton came under fire for reasons beyond copyright infringement, with several viewers taking note of how the play changed lyrics and dialogue to reflect anti-LGBTQ sentiments and promote christian ideas. On August 7th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user @HemantMehta outlined various changes to the original Hamilton script in a series of tweets. The tweet received 400 likes and 124 retweets in two days (seen below).

More from The Door McAllen church's illegal Christianized "Hamilton."

I don't remember this scene in the original production. pic.twitter.com/k1vA8CClhq

— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) August 7, 2022

The user also posted a video of the anti-LGBTQ sermon delivered at end of the production, a speech that likened being gay to having an addiction to drugs or alcohol. The tweet received over 400 likes and over 200 retweets in two days (seen below).

This is how The Door McAllen church concluded its illegal production of Hamilton: with a sermon demonizing homosexuality. pic.twitter.com/FXpw8ycvbb

— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) August 7, 2022

Previous Copyright Infringements By The Door Christian Fellowship Ministries

The August 5th, 2022 Hamilton livestream is not the first time The Door Christian Fellowship Ministries has staged illegal productions of copyright material. According to the website^[10] of RGV Productions, the theater company working with the McAllen Church, previous live theater productions include plays about Disney's "Despicable Me," "Toy Story" as well as a rendition of "Beauty and the Beast."

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References