Just a day after the Church of Texas produced several unauthorized depictions of an edited version of hamilton said he would pay damages, the show’s producers announced their intention to donate those funds.
“hamilton will donate all damages paid by The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church to the South Texas Equality Project,” the production said in a statement. STEP is a coalition of state organizations that focus on advocacy, education, and support for the LGBTQ+ community in the Rio Grande Valley.
The news follows a statement Tuesday from the church’s pastor, Roman Gutierrez, confirming that the community has neither requested nor obtained a license to produce the show for its two performances in early August, including one that was broadcast live.
“The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church has not sought or received any license from the producers or creators of hamilton produce, stage, reproduce or modify any part of hamilton; nor did we seek prior permission to alter Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work by changing music, lyrics, removing songs and adding dialogue,” the statement read.
In addition to damages, the church agreed that it would “never stage the performance again and destroy all video or sound recordings and images of unauthorized performances or rehearsals, and require all of our members to do the same.” “.
Excerpts from the live-streamed performance show scenes not from the original musical of characters making direct religious references, including the “lord and savior”‘s repentance, as well as a much-criticized post-show sermon that suggested that being gay is a sin and something individual can “struggle with”.
The apology came a week later hamilton designer Lin-Manuel Miranda made a public statement denouncing the reproduction of the church. “Thank you to all of you who communicated with this illegal and unauthorized production. Now the lawyers are doing their job,” Miranda tweeted.
