LA BELLA BIMBA! Review, Voila Festival at Barons Court Theatre 21 – 23 November 2025

‘Italian, clowning and cabaret’ ★★★

There is a lot of talent in this company whose show presents two Italian girls arriving in 1920s New York with Broadway ambitions. What they actually do is to busk outside theatre stage doors There’s no plot as such. They simply perform, argue, support each other, become elated when it goes well, cast down when it doesn’t -  and amuse the audience.

Because Carlotta (Lucrezia Galeone) and Cecilia (Sarah Silvestri)  don’t speak English we hear a great deal of high-octane Italian – and they’re clearly enjoying sending up the innate volubility of both the language and most of its native speakers. I know only “music” Italian mushed in with bits and pieces deduced over the years via French and Latin. Nonetheless Gelone and Silvestri ensure that most of what they say is comprehensible to the audience members like me and that’s quite a skill.

Working with three fine musicians on Baron Court’s tiny stage they sing - pretty well – in a range of styles including opera parody. It’s a good idea too to place them (director Molly Rolfe) between the MD on keys (Michele Maria Benvenuto) guitarist (Ben Howarth and percussionist (Tasha Fish) who sit like three points on a triangle. It ensures that the musicians can see each other very clearly so the music is punctiliously precise and when the trio become part of the action it’s seamless.

La Bella Bimba! is a 60 minute  show which is good fun and quite original but it is, by definition, small scale and fringe so it’s hard to see where its future might lie.

LA BELLA BIMBA! by Theatre Gamine

Lucrezia Galeone and Virginia Ruspini

Barons Court Theatre, part of the Voila Festival

Cast & Creatives

Director: Molly Rolfe

Producer: Elena Rigoni

Co-composer and performer: Lucrezia Galeone

Sarah Silvestri: Performer

Ben Barrow: Co-composer

The photographer credit is Isadora Baccon – @bacconfilms