Special Reports

Broadway Shockers: Just Stop Oil Protesters Just Stop a Performance of Les Misérables

The climate activists invaded the stage at London’s Sondheim Theatre during a musical high point.

Zachary Stewart
London
Protesters invaded the stage of London’s Sondheim Theatre.
(© Just Stop Oil)

As 2023 draws to a close, TheaterMania looks back on some of the most jaw-dropping stories of the year.

At approximately 9pm on October 4, activists from the UK-based climate organization Just Stop Oil invaded the stage of the West End’s Sondheim Theatre, which hosts the long-running mega-musical Les Misérables. As the cast moved into marching formation for the revolutionary anthem “Do You Hear the People Sing?,” the activists unfurled their own banners and assailed the audience for their complacency during the climate crisis. You can watch what happened in this video posted to the group’s social media:

Venue owner Cameron Mackintosh must be relieved that British punters no longer come to the theater armed with rotten vegetables. Judging from the audio of the above video, they would have thrown them. But damage was still done, resulting in the cancellation of the performance and £80,000 in refunds, according to a November 3 hearing of Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

At that hearing, aggravated trespass charges were brought against Hannah Taylor, Lydia Gribbin, Hanan Ameur, Noah Crane, and Poppy Bliss (a moniker that surely popped out of an online generator for English activist names). All have pleaded not guilty.

Gribbin raised eyebrows when she made a special request that the trial be postponed to late February so as not to disrupt a planned trip to India (it is unclear whether she booked her passage to India via sailboat or gas-guzzling airliner). “I am afraid I am not going to wait for you to get back from India,” District Judge Michael Snow responded to the request, adding, “If you have to miss out on things, you have to miss out on things.” The trial is scheduled to start February 5.

The above post from Just Stop Oil misrepresents Les Misérables as a French Revolution-themed show. While the events of the Schönberg and Boublil musical take place during a civil disturbance, it’s not the one in 1789 that took down the ancien régime. Rather, it’s the 1832 student revolt that attempted to topple Louis-Philippe, who was himself installed on the throne during the “July Revolution” two years prior and holds the distinction of being the one and only King during France’s brief fling with constitutional monarchy. Those of us lucky enough to catch the second act of Les Mis know the result of that abortive revolution: empty chairs at empty tables.

But if the young activists of Just Stop Oil can take one bit of solace from French history (if not musical theater), it’s this: Louis-Philippe was given the heave-ho in 1848, ushering in the second French Republic. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again — and they surely will once mummy and daddy pay back the thousands of pounds they owe Delfont Mackintosh Theatres.