Well, in a twist, the people behind the Les Misérables Twitter account for the show’s current run in the U.K. have never seen the musical or read the novel or had any idea what they’re promoting. That’s the only thing that makes sense for how they’ve been tweeting recently. Based on the musical (so, talking specifically from the musical standpoint), we follow as the June Rebellion of 1832 takes place in France, and it is an inspiring journey into rebellion against the monarchy. So the official Twitter account’s desire to keep supporting the Queen of England (I guess because the musical is set in Paris, which is also in Europe?) or fight back against a rail strike is … beyond me.
Yes, you read that right. The OFFICIAL Twitter account for Les Misérables, a musical that shows the struggle of those fighting back against the monarchy and how they continued to fight to their dying end, is being used to … support a monarchy and take an anti-worker stance … Can anyone make it make sense?
The first issue with the account came with the Queen’s Jubilee, after the account was mocked for a deleted tweet, when @ChiliPontiff pointed out that the memorabilia they shared had a bit of a conflict with the show’s message, but I guess they were trying to be topical?
When many pointed out that it was weird that Les Misérables was doing this, they deleted the tweet—but not before attracting some jokes about how the cops of the musical (yes, I’m calling Javert the cops) probably tweeted it out.
And just when we thought, “Well, surely that will be the end of that,” the official account tweeted that they would “see you on the barricade” about the show going on even though there is a rail strike in the U.K. right now—you know, which would have been an interesting move (and an apt one) if the show didn’t go on, in support of the strike, because … the context of the show.
Have they seen Les Misérables?
Look, I run The Mary Sue’s social media. I know that it’s hard to know everything about every single thing and event you might need to tweet about, but it’s important to at least know the basics of what’s going on. Too bad the Les Mis account doesn’t seem to care about the context of the one musical they’re covering, because boy oh boy is it bad that this happened twice.
It’s truly laughable at this point that the show that is often quoted as part of rebellions, sung during strikes, and held up as the anthem of fighting back is … just tweeting out the opposite vibes online.
I suppose it is a good thing that people know this show so well, because if the Twitter team was in charge of the only PR and idea we had for the show, they’d be in danger. But maybe this will teach them that maybe they shouldn’t be anti-strike and pro-monarchy when tweeting for a show like Les Misérables—or, you know, at all. Maybe save that stuff for any number of outdated, regressive musicals that are still being put up.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
