A second helping of music, mirth and macaroons from the team that brought you the critically acclaimed production ‘Looking For Me Friend’
What Wood Victoria Do? is a brand new show from Paulus The Cabaret Geek, directed by multi-award-winning Sarah-Louise Young and takes an even deeper dive into the world of Wood. It is a celebration of those women who don’t mince their words but make everything better with a cuppa and a mutual distaste for next door’s extension.
With a fresh batch of brilliant tunes from The Victoria Wood Songbook, this show is about navigating friendship and loss amongst tea towels and village halls.
It’s been ten years since we lost Victoria Wood. How on earth have we all survived the past decade of modern living without her observational wit and wisdom? What would she make of an Air Fryer? The Repair Shop? K-Pop Demon Hunters? Paulus The Cabaret Geek is on hand to help us find answers. Though Victoria may be gone, she has left behind so many nuggets of
advice to help us build community based upon camaraderie, gossip and Custard Creams.
There’ll be songs from her musicals, Easter eggs for the mega fans and plenty for those less familiar with Victoria, because her words are just so funny.
Writer and performer Paulus says: “Vic’s work is set in hairdressing salons, keep fit classes, the WI – and as a little queer kid in the 1980s, that’s where I was welcomed when I wasn’t welcomed anywhere else. Those were the doors opened to me by ladies who said yes and they offered kindness in a world which was very unkind to a kid like me.”
The tour is premiering, fittingly, at The Victoria Wood Theatre in Windermere in September 2026 – a venue Victoria herself was patron of and is still run by people from her circle. The tour then takes in a select number of UK venues this Autumn and next Spring.
TOUR DATES 2026
Fri 25th Sep: The Victoria Wood Theatre, Windermere
Sun 27th Sep: The Crazy Coqs, Central London
Thu 1st Oct: Lichfield Garrick, Lichfield
Fri 2nd Oct: Bakewell Town Hall, Bakewell
Sat 3rd Oct: Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
Thu 8th Oct: Hull Truck, Hull
Fri 9th Oct: Waterside Arts, Sale
Fri 16th Oct: Vera Fletcher Hall, Thames Ditton
Sat 17th Oct: The Albany, Coventry
Sat 18th Oct: The Old Woollen, Leeds
Fri 23rd Oct: Harraby Theatre, Carlisle
Sat 24th Oct: Leslie Town Hall, Glenrothes
Sun 25th Oct: Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock
Fri 30th Oct: Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot
Sun 1st Nov: MMC Venue, Loughborough
Thu 5th Nov: Storyhouse, Chester
Fri 20th Nov: Valley Arts, Chew Stoke
Sat 21st Nov: Under The Edge Arts, Gloucester
Sat 28th Nov: Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury
Tickets available here: whatwoodvictoriado.com
Paulus The Cabaret Geek
Paulus has been working in entertainment for over 30 years since he curated his very first ‘Variety Show’ at the age of just 15.
As a drag performer he cut his teeth at the world- famous Madame JoJo’s in 1999 as Trinity Million. He made his New York debut at both Don’t Tell Mama and Birdland. He has also performed at Melbourne’s The Butterfly Club, Paris, Dublin, Nicaragua and Berlin as well as cabaret clubs up and down the UK.
As an actor, Paulus played Sylvia St. Croix in the UK premiere of the musical Ruthless, for which he won Musical Stage’s Best Actor in A Musical award; was in the original cast of Beautiful & Damned choreographed by Craig Revel-Horwood; did Sweeney Todd for Dundee Rep and created the role of Philip Salon at worship stage in the musical Taboo by Boy George.
On TV, Paulus has judged look-alikes on Sky Living’s Bigger Than… mentored retired performers back into the industry for Mary Portas’ C4 programme Mary’s Silver Service and appeared as hard-to impress member of The Hundred judges on All Together Now for BBC One, alongside Geri Horner and Rob Beckett for two series and a Christmas Special.
As a producer, Paulus worked for 15 years with cult London cabaret venue The Battersea Barge, producing many cabarets and their annual adult panto’s, which he also wrote, directed and starred in alongside Sarah-Louise Young, Dusty Limits, Laurie Hagen, Piff the Magic Dragon and Fancy Chance.
Paulus’ work on the Barge gave early opportunities to artistes like Sara Pascoe, Holly Walsh, Lou Sanders, Bernie Dieter, Kerry Godliman, Shazia Mirza, Euan Morton, David Menkin and Frisky & Mannish.
Sarah-Louise Young
Sarah-Louise is an actor, director, writer, improviser and internationally renowned cabaret artist. She has recently toured extensively with her hit show An Evening Without Kate Bush. She appeared in the West End with Julie Madly Deeply, Fascinating Aïda, La Soirée and Olivier Award winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, and performed internationally including Off Broadway and on multiple tours of Australia and New Zealand.
She has written numerous shows with Musical Director Michael Roulston, such as Cabaret Wh*re, Roulston & Young: Songs For Cynics and Roulston & Young: Songs For Lovers And Other Idiots, Je Regrette!, plus a full length musical, Maxa The Most Assassinated Woman In The World.
Other directing credits include: Jarman (written and performed by Mark Farrelly); Gertrude Lawrence – A Lovely Way To Spend An Evening (written and performed by Lucy Stevens); The Bobby Kennedy Experience (written and performed by Russell Lucas); Lynn Ruth Miller: Not Dead Yet (for which she and Michael also wrote the songs); Miss-Leading Ladies (starring Ria Jones and Ceri Dupree); Alice Frick: Live Like A Criminal and Nicky Gayner’s Empty Nest and Hooray For Love. She has mentored and consulted on numerous other projects and re-staged Kravitz, Cohen, Bernstein & Me for the Edinburgh Fringe (written and performed by Deb Filler).
She directed Paulus in Looking For Me Friend: The Music Of Victoria Wood and she is currently touring a new interactive theatre-piece called The Bob Ross Effect.
