Comedy / victoria wood
Cabaret star Paulus celebrates the music of Victoria Wood
Paulus, otherwise known as ‘The Cabaret Geek’, has long been a powerhouse in the London cabaret scene, finally coming to mainstream in the BBC One show All Together Now.
His nostalgia-filled music tribute to the much-missed comedian Victoria Wood premiered in London in 2020. It has now evolved into the touring show Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood, which comes to The Wardrobe Theatre on February 14.
Paulus is joined on stage by acclaimed musical director, Michael Roulston, and multi-award-winning cabaret artist Sarah-Louise Young directs.
is needed now More than ever
For Wood fans, there is a huge amount to look forward to – with many of her best-loved songs through the decades peppered through the evening, including It Would Never Have Worked and the Ballad of Barry & Freda (Let’s Do It), as well as lesser-known works.
And for those new to the style of musical comedy that Wood made famous, the show serves as the ultimate introduction.
Paulus himself has been a devotee since childhood. “I think I was 10 years old when I first saw Victoria on television,” he recalls. So what exactly was it that drew him to her?
“In the 80s, Victoria’s look on television was very androgynous. She chose to wear jeans, men’s shirts, men’s blazers, and she had spikey hair like myself. I thought it was just tremendous to see someone on television who was playing their own game, especially on a channel like the BBC in a time when for me being different – being other – was hard.
“I think Victoria has always spoken to outliers somehow. She seemed to be more interested in celebrating the elasticated waist than the new skinny celebrity that had just hit our airwaves – what would now be our social media – and I just think she tuned in really well to the things that most of us worry about and experience on a daily basis: tea bags, oven gloves, or digging fluff out of the tumble dryer.
“Life is full of tiny little annoyances, but also tiny little miracles. I think Victoria knew how to find that joy and share it with other people.
“When I’m doing the show, I look to diminish any barrier between myself and the audience who are all not after all there to see me, but because they love Victoria. If Michael and I can share that love and celebrate her with them, keeping ourselves out of the equation almost, then hopefully we have done our job properly.”
Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood is at The Wardrobe Theatre on February 14 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com. Follow @lookingformefriend on Insta.
All photos: Steve Ullathorne
Read more: Joyful, silly, interactive and celebratory: inside the Wardrobe Theatre
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