The Door McAllen Hamilton scandal ran for three weeks in August 2022. It ended with an apology, the promised destruction of every recording, and damages sent to an LGBTQ charity. It began when a Texas church staged Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical without a license. The church rewrote the lyrics to preach Jesus. Then it closed the night with a sermon attacking the LGBTQ community. Here is what happened, in order, with links to the original reporting.
An unauthorized production, rewritten line by line
On August 5 and 6, 2022, The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen staged two performances of Hamilton with RGV Productions. The show is not licensed to amateur or professional theaters. Only the Broadway and touring productions are authorized. The church never obtained a license. It also changed the music, cut songs, and added dialogue. On top of that, it rewrote lyrics to carry Christian messages, as the Washington Post first reported. In short, the Door McAllen Hamilton production was unauthorized from the first note.
The edits were not subtle. In one scene, a character reads the Bible to a despairing Hamilton. He tells him that “God is the only one that can help you.” In another, the actor playing Eliza sings that her hope is in Jesus. The writer Hemant Mehta preserved footage from the livestream. That is how most of the theater world first saw it.
Oh. My. God.
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) August 7, 2022
This is the opening of The Door McAllen church's Christianized version of Hamilton. pic.twitter.com/T7emXGrCcQ
The sermon that drew the backlash
After the bows, the production turned into an altar call. According to CNN, pastor Victor Lopez addressed the crowd with the Hamilton set still behind him. He said that “alcohol, drugs, homosexuality,” and other struggles could be fixed by God that night. Christianity Today covered the same conversion themes from inside Christian media. The reaction was immediate. Within hours, critics, theater fans, and LGBTQ advocates condemned the show.
Hamilton’s cease-and-desist
The Hamilton team moved quickly. It sent a cease-and-desist letter. As Axios and Playbill reported, it also denied giving the church any license. The team did let the second performance go ahead. However, it set strict conditions: no livestream, no recording, and no social media. Importantly, the team later said it had not known about the script changes or the closing sermon.
The Door McAllen Hamilton permission claim
Then the church changed the story. On Sunday, August 7, senior pastor Roman Gutierrez told his congregation a different version. He said the Hamilton legal team had given the church permission to perform. The claim first reached reporter Ryan Wood of OnStageBlog by email. Gutierrez then repeated it from the pulpit.
You don’t remember the part of ‘Hamilton’ where Alexander is *saved* right before “It’s Quiet Uptown”?
— OnStage Blog (@OnstageBlog) August 7, 2022
Thankfully the folks at the Door McAllen added that part in for you…🙄
(This is from their performance last night btw. You know, the one they said was cancelled…) pic.twitter.com/CCkOPtkTlY
More from The Door McAllen church's illegal Christianized "Hamilton."
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) August 8, 2022
The song is supposed to go:
"But I’m not afraid
I know who I married
So long as you come home at the end of the day
That would be enough" pic.twitter.com/CUitoUXQ34
Industry condemnation and Miranda’s response
The backlash soon spread to the wider industry. The Dramatists Guild publicly condemned the unauthorized production. Miranda is a longtime LGBTQ ally. He addressed it briefly online and called the production “illegal.” He added that lawyers would now take over. He also thanked the Guild and the fans who had flagged the show. Meanwhile, local outlets obtained video of the event. The Dallas Morning News, via NBC DFW, reported on the permission dispute. The Philadelphia Inquirer carried the syndicated coverage nationally.
The apology and the damages
Roughly three weeks later, the church relented. It posted a statement to Instagram, attributed to Gutierrez. In it, The Door McAllen apologized to Miranda, the producers, and the show’s contributors. The church admitted that it had no license. It also admitted altering the music, deleting songs, and adding dialogue, as the Guardian and Playbill reported. Furthermore, it promised never to stage the show again. It also agreed to destroy all recordings and images.
Finally, the church agreed to pay damages. It did not disclose the amount. According to Entertainment Weekly and Deadline, the Hamilton team will donate every dollar. The money goes to the South Texas Equality Project. That coalition supports LGBTQ Texans in the Rio Grande Valley, where McAllen sits.
What the Door McAllen Hamilton apology left out
The apology was notably narrow. It said nothing about the anti-LGBTQ sermon. Yet that sermon had caused much of the outrage. It also ignored the church’s other unauthorized productions. Those reportedly included altered versions of Beauty and the Beast, Despicable Me, and Elf: The Musical. The church belongs to the Christian Fellowship Ministries network, better known as The Potter’s House. For that network, the Door McAllen Hamilton story fit a familiar pattern. The church treated outside rules, whether copyright law or basic accountability, as optional.
