Conservative Texas church pulls watered-down Hamilton remake after copyright complaint

A Texas church’s conservative reimagining of Hamilton has led to its pastor apologising to the musical’s writer Lin-Manuel Miranda after clips of a performance went viral.

The right-wing Christian ensemble changed some of the more racy lyrics to words without sexual connotation that promoted values of pure living.

“Lock up your daughters and horses” became “Lock up your secrets and horses” in the version considered fit for the congregation’s ears.

“It’s hard to have intercourse over four sets of corsets” was changed to “It’s hard to keep them from me when I’m coming for your sources”.

While the Bible permits sex within marriage, The Door Christian Fellowship McAllen Church seems to have wished not to upset its attendees with mentions of promiscuity.

The stage production finished with a sermon in which the pastor compared homosexuality to being addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Hamilton’s legal team did not object to the Christian content of the remake - but rather its unauthorised reproduction of swathes of copyrighted material.

On Tuesday, pastor Roman Gutierrez apologised with a message on Instagram and promised the show would not be staged again within The Door’s walls.

He wrote: “The Door did not ask for, or receive, a licence from the producers or creators of Hamilton to produce, stage, replicate or alter any part of Hamilton; nor did we seek prior permission to alter Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work by changing the music, the lyrics, deleting songs, and adding dialogue.”

“And it is never permissible to alter an artistic work such as Hamilton without legal permission. Our ministry will use this moment as a learning opportunity about protected artistic works and intellectual property.”

The church added that it would pay any damages and destroy copies of the lyric books.