Charity tribute shows

Tributes are being paid to Victoria Wood in both York and New York next month.

Both events will feature some of her characters, sketches and songs and raise money for Jessie's Fund, of which she was patron. The charity provides musical therapy for seriously ill children.

In  the States, an off-Broadway theatre The Triad is staging Victoria Wood: As Seen In The Big Apple, with skits including Acorn Antiques, Two Soups, Kimberley and the Ballad of Barry & Freda. 

Wood – who died in April at the age of 62 –  is little-known in the States, so producers of the December 3 event have described her as ‘like a British Carol Burnett, Roseanne Barr or Tina Fey’.

Producer, director and actor, George C Heslin has put together ‘an ensemble of familiar and emerging New York-based British, Irish and Anglophile actors’ for the show at the The Triad Theatre on West 72nd Street. (Tickets). Elizabeth Taylor, Christopher Walken, Art Garfunkel, Kristen Wiig and Debbie Harry are among the stars who have previously performed there,

For the UK event, Wood’s friend Daniel Rigby, the comedian who played Eric Morecambe alongside her in the TV biopic Eric and Ernie, will share stories an anecdotes.

The event will take place in the 14th century Merchant Adventurers’ Hall, in York, the city where Jessie's Fund is based, on December 1

Sketches and songs will be performed by local all-female theatre collective She Productions, and there will be an auction of Victoria Wood memorabilia.

Tickets.

Published: 16 Nov 2016