Les Misérables certainly requires no introduction as one of the world’s most beloved musicals. What was your first interaction with the show or earliest memory of it and do you remember that moment when it went from being a beloved cast album of yours to a performance goal?
Hayden: My first encounter with Les Mis was thanks to my stepfather. He was courting my mother at the time and he gave me the VHS recording of the 10th Anniversary concert. That was the moment I completely fell in love with the show and that was also the moment I accepted him as my stepfather, because he’d shown me that he actually got who I was. I started singing ‘Stars’ then and performed it on New Zealand television for the McDonald Young Entertainers program.
Robert: I love that story! He got to you through a VHS! [both laugh] I didn’t start singing until I was 15. I was given ‘Stars’ by my singing teacher and I thought it was a nice song. Then someone recommended that I buy the same VHS your stepfather gave you. I don’t remember who it was, but that’s when I fell in love with the show. Eventually, when I was 17 or 18, I decided I wanted to be a performer and I told myself that if I ever did get into the business, it would be through Les Mis.
Javert is a complicated character. How have you each approached the role? What inspiration have you sought in creating your version of this character. Between you two, having performed this role on a number of stages both locally and internationally what would each of you offer as advice to future Javerts?
Hayden: My approach has been to not make him a villain. Javert is an antagonist and he is there to put pressure on Jean Valjean to make certain decisions. He does bad things for good reasons and I always try to make the audience understand that he’s just doing his job and he never does anything for the sake of causing pain.
Robert: I also take the view that he’s doing his job. We only really see Javert in his professional guise until ‘Stars’, at which point we finally get to see inside his head and understand what drives him. If you play him as the bad guy up until then, that moment doesn’t work.
Each of you have had illustrious careers on the international stage as either performers or musical directors and conductors – playing stages on Broadway, London’s West End, Dubai and South Korea as well as through Europe and New York’s cabaret and theatre scene.
Where is somewhere – either a city a particular theatre - that is still on each of your performing bucket lists?
Robert: I’ve never performed in London, which is something I’d love to do. As the conductor of a choir, I have conducted in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and I’m not sure it gets much better than that. We even performed as a flash mob in the middle of the Pantheon!
Hayden: Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall!
Robert: I’ve sung on the stage in Carnegie Hall … but nobody was there! [both laugh loudly] I was in New York on a scholarship and three of us were on this tour. The guy there asked if anybody wanted to sing and I immediately said ‘yes’.
Hayden: What was it like looking out on that beautiful space?
Robert: Awe-inspiring.
Hayden: … and the sound?
Robert: It’s great. The sound actually bounces back a bit – like singing in a bathroom.
What advice would you give to young performers especially young guys keen to start out in the industry? And what is a piece of advice you were given along the way that has always stuck with you and who was it from?
Robert: Don’t try to be somebody else and don’t try to be somebody that someone tells you to be.
Hayden: My first singing teacher said, “Butterflies are great as long as they fly in formation.” In other words, nerves are good, use them. Surf that energy! And don’t believe the haters. Just put your blinkers on and stay in your lane. It’s not a competition. Finally, you each have a number of performances coming up. What do we need to know not to miss and through the respective shows what is something, perhaps a message or theme that you hope your performance or the show leaves the audience talking about well after leaving the theatre?
Hayden: My show is very much a journey of self-discovery and becoming comfortable with me being me. I spend so much time being other people. Therefore, I’d like the audience to find out who I am and hopefully have the courage to walk away and say, “I’m going to do what makes me happy.” I don’t feel I’ve wasted my life, but I do wish I’d come to certain realizations earlier.
Robert: That’s really interesting, because I started out as a vocalist without the acting side and so much of my performance was just me singing. Creating another person was the hard
part.
Hayden: We’re just back-to-front … isn’t that hilarious!
Robert: When it comes to my performance as Javert, I would really like the audience to understand why he does what he does. It would be nice if they thought, “I get his viewpoint. He took things a little far perhaps, but I get where he’s coming from.” The thing is, I always have. I’ve always understood him. I’ve been an educator for some time now and I totally understand the notion that doing the wrong thing warrants some comeuppance. I get that as a concept and I’d like other people to get that too.
RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS
Favourite production you have ever seen?
Robert: The Phantom of the Opera with Anthony Warlow
Hayden: Matilda with the original Broadway cast
You’re getting on a plane tomorrow and you can go anywhere in the world, where do you go?
Hayden: Waiheke Island
Robert: Vienna – I love Vienna.
Plays or musicals?
Both simultaneously: Musicals!
A hobby you have beyond the theatre?
Robert: Conducting and politics
Hayden: Makeup
What’s next for you after this show?
Hayden: The concert tour and then the universe will provide.
Robert: My cabaret Less Miserable with Daniel Belle, who’s playing Jean Valjean alongside me at the Riverside Theatre in February.
Les Misérables starring Robert McDougall as Javert plays at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta from 14-29 February. Tickets are available HERE.
Hayden Tee will be performing at the Garden of Light in Tyalgum on January 4 and Gold Coast HOTA – Home of the Arts on January 6.
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