An evangelical Texas church will likely face a fusillade of lawsuits after putting on an unsanctioned version of the groundbreaking musical Hamilton in which it changed lines and the lyrics of songs to demean LGBTQ people, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
Audience members were, um, “treated” to lines that depicted the characters of Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler recounting how Jesus “saved” them. To watch, people didn’t have to be in the room where it happened: the church live streamed the performance. For that, and a number of other reasons, the church is likely to face a lawsuit from Lin-Manuel Miranda and the owners of the copyrights of the musical.
Church pastor Roman Gutierrez claims that he got the rights to perform the musical prior to the August 5th performance. However, rights to perform shows explicitly bar significant changes to the form, message and structure of the piece, particularly changing lines and lyrics.
At the end of one of the performances, Gutierrez came on stage to preach to the audience. “[God] knows exactly what you’ve gone through,” Lopez said. “You’ve gone through maybe broken marriages. Maybe you struggle with alcohol, with drugs – with homosexuality – maybe you struggle with other things in life, your finances, whatever, God can help you tonight. He wants to forgive you for your sins.”