Lin-Manuel Miranda Responds to McAllen Church HAMILTON and Thanks Dramatists Guild

As BroadwayWorld reported earlier this week, RGV Productions of The Door Christian Fellowship Ministries in McAllen, Texas performed an unauthorized, wildly edited version of Hamilton last week that has raised eyebrows across the country. The two illegal shows, for which they did not hold have the rights to perform, included vastly different dialogue and lyrics.

Today, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda has spoken up about the issue on Twitter. "Grateful to all of you who reached out about this illegal, unauthorized production," he writes. "Now lawyers do their work. And always grateful to the Dramatists Guild, who have the backs of writers everywhere, be it your first play or your fiftieth."

Yesterday, the Dramatists Guild, which exists to help aid dramatists in protecting both the artistic and economic integrity of their work, released the below statement:

The Dramatists Guild condemns The Door McAllen Church for its unauthorized production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's groundbreaking musical Hamilton, performed on August 5 and August 6, 2022, in McAllen, Texas. In addition to performing the show without a license, the Door McAllen Church changed lyrics and added text without permission.

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. No organization, professional, amateur, or religious, is exempt from these laws.

No writer's work, whether they are a student who's 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.

For more on why you should not change the words or music without the writer's approval, please visit: https://www.dramatistsguild.com/dontchangethewords.

To report an unauthorized production in confidence, please call 1-855-71-WORDS.