Longtime Les Misérables cast member making his Canadian debut

Javert is a role Hayden Tee can’t escape.

The New Zealand-born actor first played the wolfish Les Misérables inspector over a decade ago in an Australian tour, before pursuing protagonist Jean Valjean on Broadway, in Dubai, on the West End, in Taiwan and across the United States.

“I adore the character. I’m always grateful to return,” says Tee, who has also played the dastardly principal Miss Trunchbull in the West End production of Matilda.

Next week, following a weeklong run in Minneapolis, Tee’s Javert will make his Canadian debut in Winnipeg at the Centennial Concert Hall as part of the North American touring production of Les Misérables, the beloved, long-running musical based on the novel by Victor Hugo, featuring standards such as I Dreamed a Dream, Do You Hear the People Sing? and One Day More.

Review: Actor connects multiple storylines in RMTC’s telecommunications drama Rogers v. Rogers

Inviting audiences into the inner sanctum of a dysfunctional dynasty, playwright Michael Healey’s Rogers v. Rogers does for the Canadian telecommunications industry what Adam McKay’s The Big Short did for subprime loans: surveying a national economic ecosystem that feels destined to take advantage of consumer’s best interests while lining the coffers of a controlling billionaire class.

Like McKay’s film, which adapted Michael Lewis’s bestselling post-mortem of the 2008 financial meltdown, Healey’s script — which he clarifies is fictionalized — is grounded in a journalistic account of corporate drama: Globe and Mail reporter Alexandra Posadzki’s moment-to-moment breakdown of the inner turmoil at the leviathan Rogers Communications as it attempted to swallow Shaw whole.

As in The Big Short, the grand challenge in this tale of consumer sovereignty is to make it interesting, infuriating and entertaining enough to compel the average audience member, and not just the daily stock checkers and economics majors, to find their place within the boardroom saga.

Healey knows this, and acknowledges as much during the production’s introductory address, delivered by Matthew Boswell, an impassioned civil servant who has been appointed to the office of federal competition commissioner.

Kitchener tiny-home initiative has outsized positive impact on the homeless community

KITCHENER, Ont. — Like most Canadians, Mari dreams about having a bigger home for her boyfriend Rob and their dog, Trouble, a mutt of undefined origins.

The trio currently resides in an eight-by-10-foot dwelling at A Better Tent City, Kitchener’s tiny-home community for homeless people. But Trouble, who is 18 months old and earns his name each and every day, is a big reason why Mari would like more space.

Having said that, Mari, 42, is in no hurry to leave ABTC, which has provided her with a safe and stable place to live for the last five years.

“Before I lived here, I was living in a tent anywhere I could,” Mari said. “The last place I had been was the parking lot at the soup kitchen. Before that, I lived in a field across from the U-Haul.”

New Royal Winnipeg Ballet artistic director takes big leap with new season

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s forthcoming 2026/27 season will mark the start of a new chapter for the company: it’s the first to be entirely programmed by newly minted artistic director Christopher Stowell.

“My perspective on planning this season has been one of looking in the rear-view mirror because of the great history of the RWB, but then also really looking forward about how we can continue to be innovative and dynamic and distinct,” says Stowell, who began in the role last June.

“And the other thing is really wanting people in our community to be able to connect with us in a much broader variety of ways make it more easy, more accessible, more welcoming, less of a commitment, if that’s how they want it to be.”

The mainstage season will open in October at the Centennial Concert Hall with Stravinsky Stories, a double bill set to two pieces of music written for ballet by influential Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.

Fossilized vomit provides insight on predator that lived 290 million years ago

BRANDON — A Brandon University paleontologist has helped identify prehistoric barf that’s nearly 290 million years old — and could be the oldest known example of fossilized vomit from a land-dwelling predator.

Mark MacDougall, an assistant biology professor, was part of a research team that identified 41 bones from at least three animals inside the regurgitated cluster by using CT scans and chemical analysis, the university said in a news release.

Signs point to the vomit coming from a top predator — likely an early relative of mammals — that gulped down a mixed meal that included a small reptile, a fast-moving lizard-like animal and part of a much larger plant-eater, and later coughed it back up.

“It’s rare to get such direct evidence of who was eating whom nearly 300 million years ago,” said MacDougall, co-author of the international study published last month in the journal Scientific Reports.

Consolidation plan: Actor takes on challenge of multiple roles in Rogers v. Rogers one-man show

When playwright Michael Healey wrote a Succession-tinged, one-person show about the family saga of the Rogers telecommunications dynasty, there was no competition when it came to selecting his performer.

Carol Shields’ airport vignettes set to take off again

The first play by one of Manitoba’s finest writers is scheduled for a return flight to local stages this weekend, with the Shoestring Players bringing Carol Shields’ Departures and Arrivals to the Forrest Nickerson Theatre.

‘Neighbourhood staple’ Oakwood Cafe to shutter

At one of the Oakwood Cafe’s last lunch rushes, one might guess the restaurant packed full of diners was influenced by the announcement a day earlier the decades-old South Osborne neighbourhood institution would be closing its doors for good.

That’s partially true — some customers beeline to veteran server Kendra Menard with questions, well-wishes and hugs — but every time it happens, a chain reaction follows: diners just here for lunch, shocked, ask their companions if it’s true, if the Oakwood is really closing.

Menard has been a server at the Oakwood for 23 years, almost half her life. It shows: while speaking with the Free Press on Friday, she welcomes guests by name and preps drinks at tables reserved by regulars before they show up.

Pointing to a single-seat table, she tells a story of a regular, Bob, who was at that table for breakfast nearly seven days a week for years. Menard’s children shovelled his snow and staff would call to check on him if he didn’t show up.

Modern, historic letters showcase love in dangerous times

Love is in the air at Oseredok.

The Ukrainian cultural and educational centre’s current exhibition, Love Letters: A Timeless Experience, bears witness to the fraught and emotional journeys of past and present Ukrainian-Canadian couples through historical love letters, digital declarations and personal artifacts as they navigated courtship, separation and reunion.

Spanning the 20th and 21st centuries, the exhibition draws on a combination of archival material, including the cultural centre’s collection of rare wedding photographs and studio portraits, and visual installations to trace the love lives of Ukrainian-Canadians across the decades.

A letter-writing manual penned in 1913 by linguist and author F. Dojacek forms the backbone of the immersive show.

When it comes to naming local eateries, proprietors keep it in the family

What’s in a name?

“Opening a restaurant is exciting — but naming it? That’s where many entrepreneurs get stuck,” started a recent article in an online publication aimed at the hospitality industry.

Incorporating a dining spot’s location — think Eleven Madison Park in New York City or our own 529 Wellington — was one suggestion. Another was choosing a punny tag à la Dallas sandwich shop Bread Zeppelin. (Our favourite? Thai Tanic in Plainville, Mass.) Or one can always turn to their family for inspiration, the author wrote, citing Bud & Marilyn’s, a Philadelphia diner whose moniker pays homage to the proprietor’s grandparents.

A number of eating establishments in Winnipeg adhere to the writer’s third suggestion. We visited several ahead of Valentine’s Day because, let’s face it, what better way to show love than naming one’s livelihood for a child, parent… even an adored pair of pets?

Building Blocks, Crumbling Foundation: Child Care in Crisis

A six-part investigation into the state of child care in Manitoba, examining the underlying issues that put kids and families at risk.

Landmarks: Exploring unique and iconic Winnipeg locations

Landmarks is a monthly feature in which columnist Alison Gillmor explores unique and iconic Winnipeg buildings and locations.

Relationship with city’s icy waterways warms many a Winnipegger’s heart

In summer, a screened porch or gazebo adds another room to Winnipeg houses, full of light and fresh air.

A balcony in a high-rise apartment seems to double the horizon available to residents: it feels like you could step out into the branches of a big old elm or a cottonwood, full of birds.

In the same way, the frozen Assiniboine, Red and Seine rivers add concert hall- and football stadium-sized swathes of space to the city.

The iced-over rivers provide new ways of seeing and understanding this place we call home.

Romance bookstore Bound to Please finds its niche alongside horror-, crime-focused peers in Winnipeg

If you walk into the provocatively-named Bound to Please bookstore on Valentine’s Day, you’ll get the chance to tell a romantic story of your own — or a not-so-romantic one.

“If you come in on a date, you get 10 per cent off, and if you come in with a break-up story, you get 15 per cent, because you need the romance books more,” owner Dylan Yeun told the Free Press with a laugh.

Yeun, 23, opened Bound to Please at 995 McPhillips St. last month with the dream of joining Winnipeg’s collection of genre-specific bookstores after studying romantic literature in university.

“I took a lot of classes in university where we talked about what is and isn’t valued as a genre. And a lot of the time, romance isn’t valued as a genre worth studying because it’s kind of viewed as less serious, less important than a lot of other genres — and that primarily has to do with the importance of it for women,” she said. “So that was something that I was really interested in.”

Opening the book on how Winnipeg libraries get new material

Last week, local fans of the hit television show Heated Rivalry received a thrilling notification: “Your hold at Winnipeg Public Library is ready to borrow!”

The gay hockey romance has become a major CanCon export, turning Haligionian author Rachel Reid, who penned the books upon which the show is based, into a New York Times bestseller and wreaking havoc on library wait-lists everywhere.

Things started heating up at the Winnipeg Public Library last month.

“That’s when it really took off. There was some increase in December, but not enough to warrant additional copies,” says Aileen Clear, one of three collections librarians responsible for keeping the city’s 20 library branches stocked with new and popular material.