Church apologies for copycat Hamilton play after hit musical took action

Categories: America, Disputes

Ellis Sweetenham
August 25, 2022

An absolute Broadway and now West End smash hit musical, Hamilton is a musical tracking the birth of America.

Written by Lin Manuel Miranda, who also starred in the first US runs, the show has millions of fans, and even resulted in the show recording hitting Disney Plus.

With the musical being such a success, it isn’t surprising that others want a slice of the pie. However, this case may differ to the normal copycat claim.

The Door church in McAllen, Texas has been putting their own performances of the show without permission to do so. In addition, they have changed lyrics of the songs within the musical to refer to Christianity and Jesus, with also references that state that substance abuse and homosexuality is wrong.

Once he had been made aware of this, the copycat show was condemned by Miranda. Following the sending of a cease and desist letter, the Church has acknowledged that it had never received permission to “produce, stage, replicate or alter” Hamilton, and they will not be performing the show again, and all materials or recordings have been destroyed. This is in addition to an unspecified amount of damages.

In response to the conclusion of the matter, Hamilton has confirmed that the damages would be donated to the South Texas Equality Project, a coalition of organisations that supports the LGBTQ community and LGBTQ-friendly businesses in South Texas.

This was a relatively quickly resolved matter and a clear instance of copyright and trade mark infringement.

A lesson for anyone who wants to take their favourite musical and put their own spin on it!

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Written By:

Ellis Sweetenham

Ellis is a contentious and non-contentious intellectual property (IP) solicitor at Lawdit Solicitors. Ellis also is an the Director and an intellectual property law consultant at Lawdit’s sister company Trademarkroom. Ellis qualified as a solicitor in 2019, and over her qualified years has gained valuable experience in all contentious and non- contentious matters relating to trade marks, copyright, designs and patents. Ellis has represented clients in a variety of matters, including those relating to infringement, licensing, oppositions, cancellations, invalidations, assignment, portfolio management, pre-filing due diligence and registration. This includes matters before the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, UK Intellectual Property Office, EU Intellectual Property Office and Word Intellectual Property Organisation. In addition to IP matters, Ellis is also experienced in other commercial law matters, including music law, defamation, data protection, civil litigation and commercial disputes. Ellis has built a reputation for being detail-focused and thorough, always available to provide clients with the highest level of client care. Ellis acts with the highest level of professionalism to ensure that her clients are well informed and their best interests are at the centre of all advice given and action taken. Ellis is a regular on the Lawdit Solicitors Mark Wing Podcast, and has written many legal articles, both for Lawdit and Trademarkroom’s reading room, as well as for external IP publications. Ellis is based in our Isle of Wight office.