The Stage

Kate Dimbleby - I’m a Woman

Published Monday 6 September 2010 at 12:23 by Paul Vale

With Pizza in the Park already a distant memory the search is now on for cabaret artists to find a new haunt in London. While the New End is unlikely to make its mark as a regular cabaret venue, it does lend an almost cosy intimacy to Kate Dimbleby’s new show.

I’m a Woman, something you are extremely unlikely to mistake of Dimbleby, is her personal tribute to the heroines of song and features numbers from both popular and slightly more obscure female singers and songwriters.

Accompanied by her band, the Honky Tonk Angels, a nod towards Kitty Wells’ ground-breaking country and western ballad, Dimbleby reminds us of the work of artists as varied as Bessie Smith, Sophie Tucker, Kirsty McColl and Dolly Parton.

Dimbleby’s stage persona, somewhere between head-girl and daddy’s girl tends to sit slightly off kilter with the sometimes tortured personal lives of her heroines but there is no doubt that she is an impressive and talented vocalist, formed both of strong technique and instinctive understanding.

Difficulties with the sound system led to a few minor problems with clarity but each number from the strong, gutsy belt of I’m Living Alone and I Like It to the almost impish, My Pa’s Not Home demonstrate solid technique coupled with a sharp sense of comic timing.

On a more sombre level there are moments of great depth too, particularly with Dory Previn’s painful The Lady with the Braid and indeed with Dimbleby’s own self-penned ballad Hold On.