‘Born to be a Rose' – Queensland woman following in her mother's Rose of Tralee footsteps
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From the age of just six, Siobhan Edwards dreamed of representing her Queensland community at the Rose of Tralee.
This year, her dream will come true as she has been selected as the Queensland Rose for 2025 – 36 years after her mother Alannah Mahony represented the state.
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RTÉ News
12 hours ago
- RTÉ News
'I never got into the business to be famous'
Jason Donovan is returning to Dublin to play Dr Frank N. Furter in the latest touring production of The Rocky Horror Show. Before that, he talks to RTÉ Entertainment's John Byrne about the show and his career. It's impossible to not like Jason Donovan. He just comes across as a sound guy who enjoys his career as a performer, without taking himself too seriously. He also takes the rough with the smooth, accepting that it's all part of life's rich tapestry. He famously became famous as the replacement Scott Robinson in the then massive Australian soap Neighbours back in the late 1980s - nearly 40 years ago, folks - before embarking on a pop journey that saw him mime on mountain tops and sell millions of records before turning to musical theatre in the early 1990s. Taking on the lead role in the London Palladium version of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, he enjoyed his third solo UK number one with one of its songs, Any Dream Will Do. He's endured a few bumps and enjoyed the odd diversion since then, but in 1998 he took on the role of Dr Frank N Furter in the UK touring production of The Rocky Horror Show. He enjoyed it. It was a hit. And there was more. It was also where he met stage manager Angela Malloch, who would eventually become his wife and the mother of their three children. No wonder this show is dear to his heart. Roll on to 2025 and he's back in the Frank N Furter role again as Richard O'Brien's much-loved show celebrates the 50th anniversary of the film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The original stage show first debuted two years earlier, in 1973. It's running at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre August 11-16 and - just in case you don't know - tells the story of two squeaky-clean college kids, Brad and his fiancée Janet, and a rather strange encounter. Their car breaks down outside a creepy mansion and when they knock on the door they meet the charismatic Dr Frank'n'Furter, a bonkers transvestite scientist, who eventually unveils his Frankenstein-like creation, Rocky. It's great fun in fishnets, and audience participation is guaranteed with songs (and dances) such as the Time Warp, the show's totem pole tune. As I greeted Jason I'm tempted to ask him to take a jump to the left, then a step to the right. Instead, I offer him a trip across the Irish Sea. John Byrne: Hi Jason: You've been on tour for the last year with The Rocky Horror Show - and now you're coming over to the Emerald Isle . . . Jason Donovan: Yes I am! I'm excited. The Bord Gais - love that theatre. Dublin. Ireland. I've never played the show in that part of the world - at least I don't think I have. I can't remember. Dublin's a great city. It's a vibrant city. And I have a lot of history of doing shows there. I don't know many people in the touring circuit - doing what I do - that don't love coming to Ireland. It's going to be good. I know you've been doing musical theatre a long time now, but Dr Frank N. Furter, your character in The Rocky Horror Show, is right up there as one of the top iconic roles. Producers like to call him the Hamlet of musical theatre - I don't know about that. I'm not a big follower of Hamlet, but I like Shakespeare. It's a great acting part and the show has some fantastic songs. It's very forgiving in terms of musical theatre. It's not Andrew Lloyd Webber-esque in terms of, you know, you have to be precise with your vocals. Essentially, I get to be a rock star each night. And the basis of it is very much in the acing, in the characterisation. And that all allows you to . . . it's like being Mick Jagger . . . it's a rock show! And it's a rock show that's been around for 50 years or so and it's still extremely popular. So they must be doing something right? It's pretty much become a timeless classic. I think so. I think it's very simple. That's one of the reasons why it works so well. It's hard to write songs, it's hard to write shows, it's hard to write lyrics. It's hard to write poetry. It's simple - but there's no fat on it. It's a very lean show, with this sort-of crazy plot. It resonates with people because it's about being different - and daring to be different. Misfits. It's about dreaming to be that other person, which I think resonates with a lot of people. As for yourself, you've gone from Neighbours to pop stardom to musical theatre and many other things over the course of a 40-year career. I hope you see it as a compliment when I describe you as a survivor? Well, I hope so. I think I'm very lucky in my life, to do what I love. I've always said to my kids, in terms of their work, it's a really important thing to get right. And if you can spend your life being passionate about your work, it makes things a lot easier. You're not looking at the clock each day. And I never got into the business to be famous. I got into this business because I like to act and sing. That sort of held me well. Look, the pivotal stepping stone for me was Neighbours and the exposure that brought. When you have a moment like that, you either run with it - or not - and I did run with it. Music and musical theatre, shows like Rocky Horror, have been a good stable for me for many years. To keep working. To keep busy. It's also the kind of thing you can dip in and out of, and go off and do some other projects - like radio, or whatever. I've done lots of musicals. I've done lots of shows. I've done radio. I've done TV. Not so much film. I'd like to have done a little bit more film in my life. That's something I wish I would have taken a few more decisions about earlier on in my career, because I think it's a path I could've gone down. And music! You know, music is the backbone of the decisions that I've made. Because I think music is magical. And in musical theatre you're getting a kind two-for-one experience as you're singing and acting. It's pretty good deal from a performer's perspective. I like musicals. I think there's a lot of prejudice against certain musicals. I think that when people think of musicals they think of one type of performance or performer. But I do think it's a genre that has lasted throughout the ages. It has attracted a greater audience number than straight plays. You can't beat a good tune! And a good story.
The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
Big Brother's JoJo Siwa and Chris Hughes pack on PDA in smitten snaps as her ex goes public with new romance
JOJO Siwa and Chris Hughes have shared brand new loved up snaps to celebrate National Girlfriends Day. The couple, whose friendship turned romantic after meeting on Celebrity Big Brother back in April this year, have proven inseparable over the last few months. Advertisement 6 Jojo and Chris have shared new loved-up snaps together Credit: Instagram 6 Marking National Girlfriends Day, Jojo gushed about how lucky she was Credit: itsjojosiwa/Instagram 6 The pair have been inseparable since meeting on Celebrity Big Brother Credit: Rex On Friday, the pair shared new Instagram Stories of each other, marking National Girlfriends Day with pictures cuddled up together. Chris shared a photo of them in a kitchen together, with Jojo leaning into his cheek as he put his arm around her. On Jojo's story, she shared a snap of them on the sofa together, with Chris asleep on her chest. "Happy national girlfriends day to me," she wrote on the snap. "Lucky lucky girl I am." Advertisement READ MORE JOJO SIWA The new photos came on the same day that The non-binary star shared photobooth pics kissing Australian footballer Tilly Lucas-Rodd. "The rumours are true! YES I still (stupidly) believe in love!! 🚀" they wrote. Kath and Jojo were dating for four months before Jojo's stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house, with the DJ giving their full support of Jojo as she entered. Advertisement Most read in TV Exclusive However, things got complicated when fans became aware of how close Chris and Jojo were becoming, often sleeping in bed together and having a tactile friendship. Flying over to reunite with Jojo at the final, the pair awkwardly broke up at the wrap party when Kath confronted their girlfriend about what they'd seen. Chris Hughes reveals baby plans with JoJo Siwa as 'besotted' hunk gushes over new love Chris and Jojo remained friends after leaving the house, but in the space of a few weeks admitted their relationship had become a romance. Since then, the pair have been Advertisement However, they've been forced to fend off trolls who have But , telling The Sun: "Meeting Joelle [Jojo's real name] gave me this magical feeling. She is the most precious person. Advertisement 'Life has an unexpected way of bringing two people together, and this feels like that. We were meant to cross paths. "We keep saying to each other it was serendipity. Life handed me a blessing in my lap.' 6 Starting as friends, Jojo and Chris came clean about their romance back in May Credit: itsjojosiwa/Instagram 6 Kath Ebbs has now gone public with their new romance after splitting from Jojo Credit: Instagram Advertisement 6 Kath and Jojo dated for four months before Jojo dumped her at the CBB wrap party Credit: Getty
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
Bring Her Back director Danny Philippou: ‘I love the psycho-biddy genre. It allows actors to really play'
The artists formerly known as RackaRacka require no drawing out. Danny and Michael Philippou , Australian YouTubers turned acclaimed horror directors, share answers like doubles partners in an Olympic ping-pong match. You're never quite sure who's replying. But you know the ball will be moving at speed. We last met a little over two years ago. Talk to Me , the twins' first-rate supernatural shocker, was receiving raves after a smash US debut at Sundance Film Festival . They were enjoying the surprise elevation. I imagine making Bring Her Back, the follow-up, may have been a bit more nerve-racking. They once had nothing to lose. The new film was easier to finance, but now there were expectations. [ Talk to Me: RackaRacka's Philippou brothers get serious with a bracingly grim horror Opens in new window ] 'Definitely way more pressure,' Michael practically yells. 'There was a kind of prebuilt expectation, whereas the first time there wasn't. So you're exactly right. It was easier to get it up, but then it also had a lot more eyes on it. The first critics screening was the most terrifying thing ever.' 'There was an expectation of how it would be received by critics,' Danny adds. 'I didn't expect that. I still don't know what the hell we're doing. We always feel out of our depth. The pressure was on.' READ MORE I'll trust him when he says they don't think they know what they're doing. But the Adelaide lads, now 32, still radiate a blistering confidence. At any rate, they needn't have worried about Bring Her Back. The chilling new film, which expands and intensifies their transgressive aesthetic, stars Billy Barratt and Sora Wong as troubled orphans sent to live with an apparently amiable former social worker. Pay heed to that 'apparently'. It soon transpires their new foster mum – in the deceptively familiar form of Sally Hawkins – has been driven to necromancy by the death of her own daughter. Genuinely horrible events follow. At the early public screening I attended, grown adults were covering their eyes and hyperventilating. But, as well as delivering gross shocks, the film has important things to say about the process of grief. 'Our cousin lost her two-year-old while we were writing,' Danny says. 'So I think that made its way into it. And then our family friend passed away right at the start of pre-production. That, again, shifted and changed the script. It altered where we were going and the tone of things. You're always trying to be as personal as possible and to write from real experience.' The time has, perhaps, passed for us to treat the Philippous' route into cinema as novelty. Film-makers once saved every penny to buy stock for their Super 8 cameras. They went to film school. A later generation came up through advertising. The one after that honed its skills on pop videos. For the past decade or so, YouTube and its competitors have provided a hotter path to the big screen. The lads began by filming their own backyard wrestling matches. By 2013 they had launched a YouTube channel called RackaRacka and were scoring hits with parodies such as (do we need to explain?) Harry Potter vs Star Wars . 'I hope that this helps other YouTube creators get their foot in the door,' Danny says. 'While we were trying to get Talk to Me up, it was not easier because we were YouTubers. That was to our detriment a little bit. A lot of people would say, 'What have they done?' We'd send them YouTube videos for an example. They're, like, 'What the f**k? We're not funding this.' There was a little bit of that. 'But there's a whole generation of people who are going to become film-makers that have access to Instagram or TikTok or YouTube – people that are storytellers at heart.' Some Australian veterans were supportive. The creator of Mad Max is just the sort of fellow you'd expect to warm to these renegades. ' George Miller was the first film-maker that we spoke to who said, 'If had YouTube back in the day, I would be on it. One hundred per cent'.' Danny confirms. 'He was the first film-maker we'd known who was not looking down at us. He could embrace it. That was back in 2015. Even now the attitude is changing with the studios. Which is great. It's so rare for an Australian film to break through and get seen.' [ 'It was our film and Oppenheimer. I thought, What the f**k? This is crazy' Opens in new window ] Talk to Me really did land like a doodlebug. Following that triumphant Sundance premiere, distributors were fighting over the title in the foyer. It got raves. It took close to $92 million on a budget of less than $5 million. My guess if that, after the film proved a hit, they must have got offers from all directions. They are just the sort of guys who Marvel or DC like to inveigle into the franchise game. Can they tell me what they turned down? Danny and Michael Philippou, directors of Bring Her Back 'We can't speak specifically what we were in talks about,' Michael says. 'It felt like every door had blown open. We had so many amazing opportunities. We had offers. I guess there was an expectation to go bigger and broader. You have to step it up. But we wanted to do something that was personal to us and felt right in a story – not to be won over by a Hollywood offer. That's not to say we wouldn't do that in the future.' They will point out that they were not complete novices when they moved to the big screen. They had worked on the crew of such features as Jennifer Kent's groundbreaking The Babadook. But the assurance is still astonishing. Neither of their two films has a hint of ramshackle about it. Lushly shot by Aaron McLisky, Bring Her Back, again making great use of Australia's humid suburbia, is as rich in its visuals as any studio blockbuster. They are disciplined guys. When you ask film-making brothers how the work is divided, they usually hum and haw. That is not the case with the current directors. The Philippous, of Greek descent, are clear as to who does what. 'Yeah, especially with post-production,' Michael says. 'Danny would be more focused with colour and VFX; myself with the sound and the music. That's how we do those different things. But we're both there every day in the edit. We're both there for every day on set. The writing is more Danny with the co-writer [Bill Hinzman]. And I'll give input there. I couldn't imagine doing this completely by myself. My hat goes off to directors who do that. Seems an impossible task.' They look to have a great connection with their actors. Barrett and Wong are utterly convincing in the juvenile roles. Sally Hawkins, the Oscar-nominated star of The Shape of Water and Happy-Go-Lucky, revels in the opportunity to move away from the warmer characters she so often plays. There is maybe a little of Paddington's pal in the opening scenes, but, as events progress, the Londoner gets to roar, rant and spit blood. 'Sally is so great. She's such a character actor,' Michael says. 'Every film that she does, she embodies a completely different person. So the idea of a sinister version of that was so fascinating to us. We didn't think she'd actually say yes. She'd never done a full, proper horror film before – a villain like this.' The Philippous admit that they were looking back to scary mature ladies from earlier horror films. One thinks of Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (More 'horror-adjacent', perhaps.) Kathy Bates in Misery meets the criteria. Also, Beryl Reid and Flora Robson in the British cult gem The Beast in the Cellar. 'I love the psycho-biddy genre,' Danny says. 'I love a really powerful actor like Bette Davis going to these extremes. She always would have to play things really realistically. She would be at seven, but the genre allowed her to hit 10. It's such a big performance. That's what's so exciting about the genre, how it allows these actors to really play.' As we speak, the brothers have made it back home for a spell. They are working on a documentary about deathmatch wrestling. One wonders if success has changed their relationship. It doesn't seem that way. 'Exactly the same,' Danny says with a cackle. 'We fight just as much. Yeah, I don't think anything has changed between us at all.' Bring Her Back is on general release
