PEOPLE who snapped up tickets for Joan Rivers’ sellout Cliffs show have been assured they will get a full refund after the legendary comedian’s death.

The outspoken Hollywood star was due to perform at the Westcliff theatre on October 9 as part of her UK Before They Close The Lid tour.

However, Rivers, 81, who enjoyed a career spanning half a century in showbusiness, died on Thursday at a hospital in New York.

She had been on life support for several days after suffering a cardiac arrest during an operation on her vocal chords.

Southend Theatres’ marketing manager, Paul Driscoll, said: “The news of Joan Rivers’ death is a great loss and our thoughts are with her family.

“Of course, will be will issuing full refunds to all those who had tickets to her show.

“We will be emailing the majority of ticket holders explaining how theywill get their money back and the few we don’t have emails for, we will be contacting on the phone.

“All I would say to people is not to panic if they can’t get through to us on the box office number immediately, as this tragic news has come at a time when our new theatre brochure has come out. As a result, we expect it to be a very busy couple of days. However be assured everyone who bought a ticket will be getting their money back.”

Tickets to Rivers’ show sold out months ago and Mr Driscoll said they were like “gold dust”. He said: “Joan Rivers had performed here before, including last year, and she was always a big draw.

“I didn’t get to meet her personally last time, but the people who did told me she was just like she appears on TV and stage – an acerbic wit with a fun personality.”

The comedian rose to prominence in 1965 as a guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and spent her career dogging controversy for her outlandish humour.

Some of her political comments also landed Rivers, who was Jewish, in hot water. And prior to her death, a petition was signed by 26,000 people in the UK calling for her latest tour to be scrapped after she said Palestinians in Gaza “deserve to be dead” for ignoring Israeli air strike warnings.