Musical theatre star Hayden Tee is best known for his award-winning portrayal of Javert in Les Misérables, which he played in Australia, on Broadway, in London’s West End, and in New Zealand and Dubai. He has just finished playing Miss Trunchbull in the West End production of Matilda, and recently released a new album called Face to Face. Next month, he returns to Sydney – where he was last seen in 2017 when he played drag queen Lea Sonia in Alex Harding’s musical Only Heaven Knows at the Hayes Theatre Co – to perform a cabaret show called Up Close and Intimate at the Darlinghurst Theatre Company. He spoke to Limelight:

Hayden Tee. Photograph © Jake Wiesz

Your new album Face to Face is your third album, but your first dedicated to musical theatre. Can you tell us why the time felt right to do that now?

I think that in my 20s, some part of me wanted to be in a boy band, so I covered lots of pop music. I still enjoy doing theatrical versions of that genre, but my heart is rooted in musical theatre and it was time to do an...