La Bella Bimba! – Theatre Gamine / Canal Café Theatre, London

Carlotta and Cecilia dream of life as Broadway stars in La Bella Bimba! Will they make it, or will 1920s New York be too harsh a place for these two Italian girls?

La Bella Bimba!

I wrote when I saw Crownless last week that it was my last Voila! Theatre Festival outing for the year. That was technically true, as the festival is now complete for 2025. But the London theatre scene is rife with second chances, and I had one last night to see La Bella Bimba! by Theatre Gamine. Playing at the Barons Court Theatre during Voila! Theatre Festival, I saw it at the Canal Café Theatre by Little Venice. I suspect their cabaret-style seating actually suited this production very well and gave it some extra oomph.

La Bella Bimba! is the work of Virginia Ruspini and Lucrezia Galeone. It’s an hour-long show that tells the story of two naïve and hopeful Italian girls who arrive in 1920s New York with dreams of Broadway. Hanging around the big theatres hoping to be noticed, they perform their own musical numbers, accompanied by three musicians. Lucky them! But will their big break come?

Voila! Theatre Festival is famously multi-disciplinary and multi-lingual. La Bella Bimba!, as a cabaret/musical/clowning/theatrical work performed almost exclusively in Italian, fits the bill. But even outside of that context, La Bella Bimba! is funny and welcoming to audiences of all linguistic abilities. I can figure out some Italian, the Urban Geographer, who accompanied me, less so. But we both understood what was happening, as the characters Carlotta (Galeone, who is also lyricist/composer of the original numbers) and Cecilia (Sarah Silvestri) cling on to their American Dream. The scenes emulating other languages, and audience interactions through a language barrier, are particularly entertaining.

Charming and Well-Executed

La Bella Bimba! is an exceedingly charming work. With a running time of an hour, the central idea (the difficulty of ‘making it’ in show biz, of breaking through as a migrant) feels well-explored without being stretched past its limits. The three piece band (Musical Director Michele Maria Benvenuto on piano, Tasha Fish on percussion and Ben Howarth on guitar) give the characters more to play with, and help guide the audience in the correct response when something risks being lost in translation.

Over the course of the hour, Carlotta and Cecilia run a gamut of emotions, from hopeful and ebullient to weary, to nostalgic, and more. Interspersing cabaret-style physical comedy stops it from ever tipping over to too serious a note. I thought it was well-judged and clever.

The audience willing to see a work of theatre in a foreign language is perhaps somewhat limited (unless I have too little faith in my fellow theatre goers): I hope this show has a long life, but would also be interested to see what else the company can do. I thoroughly enjoyed La Bella Bimba!, and would recommend it heartily to those who enjoy physical and musical theatre that’s heartfelt and original.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

La Bella Bimba! on at the Canal Café Theatre until 29 November 2025 only. More info and tickets here, or follow @labellabimba_show for information about future dates and venues.