Latest news with #FiddlerOnTheRoof
Wales Online
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Adrian Dunbar says ‘everybody jumped to conclusions' about rap trio Kneecap
Adrian Dunbar says 'everybody jumped to conclusions' about rap trio Kneecap The group, known for their provocative lyrics and championing of the Irish language, were also banned from entering Hungary to appear at a music festival. Adrian Dunbar at the press night performance of "Fiddler On The Roof" at The Barbican Theatre earlier this month (Image: Alan Chapman/) Northern Irish actor Adrian Dunbar has said people "jumped to conclusions" about Belfast rap trio Kneecap, who have been in the headlines since one of their members was charged with a terror offence. The group, known for their provocative lyrics and championing of the Irish language, were also banned from entering Hungary to appear at a music festival. Kneecap have had several shows cancelled in recent months, including TRNSMT festival in Glasgow and at the Eden Project in Cornwall in July. The group has said there is a smear campaign against them because of their support for Palestine and criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza. Line Of Duty actor Dunbar, 67, who recently went to a Kneecap gig with his daughter, was asked if the BBC was wrong not to live stream their Glastonbury performance in June. He told Times Radio: "Were they wrong not to stream it? I think that's a question for the BBC, not for me. "But I do think that everybody got too heated about them. I think everybody jumped to conclusions about them. "I think they're a band of good musicians. They make great music. They're promoting the Irish language. Very clear about who they support and who they don't support. "We had a great time. But those decisions are for the BBC." Glastonbury organisers faced pressure to drop the group from the line-up amid criticism from politicians, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saying it would not be "appropriate" for the band to perform. The BBC decided not to live stream their performance but later uploaded the set to BBC iPlayer. Kneecap – comprised of Liam Og O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh – were formed in Belfast and released their first single in 2017. They hit headlines in April when footage emerged that appeared to show a band member saying "Kill your local MP" at one gig and and "Up Hamas, up Hezbollah" at another. In May, O hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence relating to allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a London gig in November 2024. O hAnnaidh and his bandmates were cheered by hundreds of supporters when they arrived at Westminster Magistrates' Court on June 18. Article continues below Musicians including Nadine Shah and Gurriers have said they will attend court to support the group when O hAnnaidh returns on August 20. Kneecap have apologised to the families of murdered MPs and said they have "never supported" Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK. They were also investigated over their set at Glastonbury in June, but Avon and Somerset Police said they would be taking no further action.
New York Times
02-08-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Gift of Making Yourself Disappear
For my next act of fatherhood, I plan to help my son disappear. My oldest son, Sebastian, is about to turn 19 and — painful as it is to admit — what he really needs is a little less of me. OK, a lot less of me. When I was his age I pulled my own vanishing act. I left college, drained my bank account and bought a plane ticket to Prague. My plan? Live cheaply and finish my screenplay about a con artist who falls in love with a beautiful one-armed girl. I promised my parents I would check in by pay phone. This was 1994. My family had no cellphones, no GPS and the only inbox we checked was the one nailed to our front door. You could actually vanish back then. This sort of escape, of course, is a privilege — something you can do easily only with a passport that opens doors and a future to return to. I didn't appreciate this at the time. My mind was on other things, like whether my backpack would fit in the overhead bin. The first leg of my trip was a train ride to New York. My father drove me to the station in downtown Buffalo. The moment felt like 'Fiddler on the Roof' in reverse. In the musical, Tevye says a tender goodbye to his daughter at the station, as she departs for a life far from home; and here was my father, bidding me farewell as I returned to the land from which we came. My dad was so upbeat about my grand adventure. Both my parents were. It wasn't until I boarded the train and glanced back through the window that I caught a glimpse of something else. The glass was tinted: I could see Dad, but he couldn't see me. I watched as he searched the long line of windows. I saw his worry and his sadness; the breeziness had been an act and also his gift to me. Sebastian starts college in January, and in a strange, almost mythic twist, he's heading soon to Prague. The same city. The same age. The same beautiful, naïve hope of becoming something else. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Sun
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
My husband's openly gay but we still have a great sex life – people are confused but it works & we're trying for a baby
HEADING off stage Samantha Greenstone beamed with delight. She'd just auditioned for a part in Fiddler on the Roof and it had gone excellently but if the directors had any doubts, she had already secured one fan. 6 6 'A fellow actor approached and told me that if I didn't get the part they were crazy,' Samantha, 38, recalls. 'He introduced himself as Jacob and we wished each other luck. ' Auditions were often cold and competitive environments, so it stuck out to me that he'd been so sweet.' Not long after Samantha received the news she was hoping for, she had secured the part and much to her delight so had Jacob. A month later they began rehearsals and Samantha and Jacob became fast friends. 'A few days into rehearsals, we went out for drinks with another cast member,' Samantha says. 'While they headed off after a couple of rounds, Jacob and I kept chatting till 4am, and he ended up sleeping on my sofa. 'From then on, we hung out whenever we could, grabbing dinner or going to the gym. 'Jacob told me he was gay, but that he wasn't out to his parents yet.' But while Samantha was secure in their friendship it seems others were less so. I'm much taller than my 5ft husband - people think he's my son and say he's not a 'real man' but we have the best sex ever 'Friends would ask if we were dating,' Samantha says. 'I knew we had something special but I wasn't sure what. 'Jacob and I never wanted to be apart from each other, even sleeping in the same bed after nights out. 'And something between us just didn't feel like a normal friendship but I just assumed I must have misinterpreted things.' After 18 months as best pals Samantha visited an energy healer for advice on her relationship with Jacob. 'She told me the two of us shared a 'spiritual umbilical cord',' Samantha says. 'With that, everything clicked into place for me. 'I didn't want to live with the uncertainty any more, and I was sure that, come what may, our friendship was strong enough to survive.' 6 6 Samantha plucked up the courage and sent Jacob a text asking whether he felt anything more than friendship for her. 'A few minutes later he replied telling me that of course he felt more than friendship and he was willing to see where this went,' Samantha says. 'I was as giddy as a teenager.' That weekend, Jacob and Samantha were both due to attend a friend's birthday party. 'When I saw him at the party, it wasn't awkward at all, and afterwards we headed back to my place,' she says. 'We were watching a film in bed, and he leant over and kissed me. 'It felt so natural and it made me wonder why we'd waited so long. 'We slept together that night and it was totally magical and romantic, like a Hollywood film.' From then on Jacob and Samantha were a couple. She says: 'None of our friends were surprised, and plenty of them asked what had taken us so long. 'I'd met his parents before, and when Jacob called his mum to tell her we were dating, she was so happy she cried.' The couple moved in immediately and began building their life together. 'Jacob was such a care-taker, always bringing me coffee or cooking us dinner,' Samantha says. 'But as the honeymoon period faded, we both began to worry whether the relationship would work long-term. 'I worried I was trapping him or taking him away from a man but he always assured me he wasn't missing out. 'Yet he was still feeling anger and frustration from not having fully come out to his parents.' One afternoon when Samantha was visiting her family she had a call from Jacob. He explained that he had come out to his dad but was still in a relationship with Samantha. 'His dad was confused but accepting and Jacob said it was a huge relief,' she says. 'He explained that living a seemingly 'straight' life, without being fully open about his sexuality, had been driving him crazy.' From then on it was smoother sailing for the pair, who began seeing a couples' therapist together. Samantha says: 'To our surprise she told us she was also in a mixed-orientation relationship – she considered herself straight, but was married to a woman. 'It was a revelation to realise our situation wasn't totally unique. 'Jacob told me he wasn't bisexual and was solely attracted to men, and that's important to his identity. 'But he explained that I was his soulmate and that's its own star in another galaxy.' While friends worried that her relationship might make her feel less physically desirable Samantha said it was quite the opposite. 'He doesn't just see me as body parts but as a whole,' she says. 'Jacob told me that he'd initially been concerned about whether the physical aspect of the relationship would work, but in the moment it had felt completely right.' After six years together, the couple went ring shopping. Then, just a few months later, Jacob proposed to Samantha on a red carpet outside the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel. 'Both of us had our own ideas for the wedding – from Jacob's Phantom of the Opera entrance music, to my Titanic-themed wedding cake,' she says. There were 35 guests in attendance, including both of their families. After the marriage ceremony, the couple posted a selection of photographs online. 'I'm marrying a gay man at the court house! I captioned it, cheekily,' Samantha says. 'We were flooded with questions – with people even saying our relationship was a tax dodge. 'Loads of commenters wanted to know whether we slept together.' Samantha made a TikTok video in a bid to clear things up. 'We have a great sex life, and we have sex the traditional way,' she explained to her followers. 'If you need us to tell you about the birds and the bees, then that's not our problem.' "We don't have an open marriage either - we're 100% monogamous to each other." The couple received messages from others in mixed-orientation relationships too. 'It just shows it's more common than you'd think,' she says. 'Now we've been married for six months, and we're trying for a baby. 'My husband may be gay, but I'm 100 per cent sure he's the man for me.' 6
Daily Mail
18-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Teenage killer raped and murdered best friend before carrying out the unthinkable
A teenager raped and murdered his best friend in her bed before joining his victim's parents in their grief just hours later like nothing had happened. Daniel Bartelt, who was 19 at the time, killed 19-year-old University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student Jessie Blodgett in the summer of 2013. Hours before her death, promising young musician Blodgett had been partying with her friends and fellow cast members of the Fiddler on the Roof production she had been starring in. On the night of the slaying, Bartelt snuck into her family home in Hartford, Wisconsin, where he sexually assaulted her and strangled her before then fleeing the scene. With no sign of a forced entry, Blodgett's death sparked a major whodunnit within her friendship group of fellow actors, with many of them completely at a loss at who could be behind the heinous act. Blodgett's death is put under the microscope in ID's latest episode of A Killer Among Friends, which reveals Bartelt had been behind another senseless act before he killed his best friend – but it also exposes his chilling behavior in the hours that followed. On July 15, Blodgett's mom had found her dead in her bed and immediately called the emergency services. Hours after murder, a group of Blodgett's friends – including Bartelt – returned to the site of the killing to comfort her parents amid their grief. At this point in time, nobody knew who the killer could be. 'It became tough to conceptualize who could have done this thing,' friend Ian said in the episode. 'Every person that surrounded Jessie was of, what I thought to be, great character because she bonded with great people. 'So, every stranger was a suspect and every person on the street could be guilty.' Bartelt had been at the Blodgetts' house sharing memories of the victim when he was called to come in for questioning by cops at the station. His interrogation, however, didn't raise alarm bells among his friends as they didn't suspect he had anything to do with her death. 'We expected him to be questioned because he was close to Jessie,' Jackie, another friend in the group, said. 'And when we dropped him off, he said, okay, maybe you can come and pick me up in 30 minutes?' 'We drove back to the police station to pick him up and we were met outside by a police officer asking if we were there for Dan. He had said, "we can't release Dan, he's being detained.'" The friends were left in a state of shock after learning that Bartelt had been detained. 'We couldn't picture Dan being the type of person who did this,' Ian added. And like the friend group, Blodgett's dad, Buck, refused to believe Bartelt was his daughter's killer – especially given that he had joined him just hours after her life was taken. Sharing his initial doubt in the episode, he said: 'It's not Dan, he's never been in any trouble at school or the law, that we know of. 'Jessie and Dan sit together at school; he was a straight A student... they would write songs together and sing together, he was welcome in our home. 'He was just over, the day after Jessie's murder, sharing hugs and memories and tears with us until his phone rang and he was called in for questioning.' While being completely devastated by his daughter's death, Buck was still somehow able to have compassion for her killer. 'Our first reaction wasn't, "we hate this kid," it was "oh my God, what happened to Dan?"' he said. After a 16-day police investigation, Bartelt was charged with Blodgett's murder, and in August 2014, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. He also pled guilty to first-degree reckless endangerment for tackling an unknown woman in a park to the ground while he wielded a knife just days before the murder, on July 12, 2013. When questioned by cops over the attack, he explained that it was a 'spur of the moment decision' and that he wanted to 'scare' the victim. For the attack, he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment and five years' extended supervision, to be served consecutively to his life sentence. To this day, Bartelt's motive for killing Blodgett's is unclear and he has maintained his innocence. After being convicted, he addressed Blodgett's parents, Buck and Joy, in the courtroom. Speaking to them, he said: 'I can't give you the answers that you're looking for. 'I pray for you, for all of you, and I hope that — I believe that — someday we will be before a court that will know that my conscience is clear.' A Killer Among Friends airs Mondays at 10/9c on ID, with new episodes weekly. Episodes will be available to stream on HBO Max.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Multi-award-winning musical to visit Bristol on UK tour
A MULTI-award-winning musical is visiting Bristol as part of its first UK tour in over 12 years. The critically acclaimed revival of Fiddler on the Roof will stop at Bristol Hippodrome from August 26 to 30, as part of its UK and Ireland tour. This follows from the show's success at this year's Olivier Awards, where it won best musical revival, best set design and best sound design. This first UK tour of this classic musical in more than 12 years will travel to cities and towns across the country until January 3 next year. This classic musical of joy, revolution, and community is an exuberant celebration of love and life. Fiddler on the Roof features well-known songs like If I Were A Rich Man, Tradition, Matchmaker and Sunrise, Sunset. Tickets are on sale now for the Bristol show, from the Hippodrome website, with prices starting from £25.
