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Victoria Wood to be celebrated in ‘nostalgic’ show coming to Liverpool
A show all about the late Victoria Wood is coming to Liverpool.
Performer Paulus, the brains behind Looking For Me Friend along with Michael Roulston, is paying homage to the comedian and actress who helped him accept his sexuality.
The 47-year-old, originally from Kent, is excited to “celebrate 21 of Victoria’s best-loved and most poignant songs” to a Scouse crowd at the Epstein Theatre.
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He told the ECHO: “When Victoria died in 2016, I met up with Michael Roulston, who shares the stage with me throughout the show. He suggested Victoria’s work in the 80s and 90s, particularly for gay guys like ourselves, felt like a modern polari – a coded language used by gay men – and that people could find friends, alliances and a tribe through the comedy style of Victoria. That is indeed after all how Michael and I became friends 25 years ago.”
Victoria Wood rose to fame after appearing on the talent show New Faces but is best known for her sketch shows and the sitcom Dinnerladies. The composer had several comedy songs, one of her most famous being The Ballad of Barry and Freda, also known as Let’s Do It. Victoria secretly fought cancer after she was diagnosed with the disease four years before she tragically died from it.
Paulus hopes to keep Victoria’s legacy alive through the show.
He said: “I know for a lot of people it felt like a huge loss far too soon from an entertainer that we could have had many more years of entertainment from. For us, when we perform it’s a love letter really to a missing loved one. It’s a tremendous honour, really, to share these songs with people that loved and admired her so much.”
Paulus was first introduced to Victoria when he was 10 years old. During this time, Victoria was doing her sketch show which was aired on the BBC. What drew Paulus to Victoria was she would wear men’s clothes at the start of the show.
He added: “She wore blazers, leather skinny ties, men’s shirts, not blouses, trousers, and trainers or pumpers – never a heel. If she was on TV today, I think people would suggest she was in drag at times or at least androgynous but we didn’t use those words in the 80s. We just said that’s Victoria being Victoria. So I think that really had an effect on me.”
The hour-and-a-half-long show is a “night of nostalgia” where guests can expect songs from Victoria Wood sung with a Paulus twist. He said despite the lyrics being written decades ago they are still relevant today with the opening number touching on “a nasty electric bill” and “failing conservatives”.
Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood comes to the Epstein Theatre on Saturday, May 20. Tickets can be bought online.
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