A scion of the Dimbleby broadcasting family is giving new life to a singer-songwriter who bears another well-known name.
Cabaret singer Kate Dimbleby, daughter of David and granddaughter of Richard, hopes to bring a new generation of fans to the work of Dory Previn, who was known as the queen of confessional songwriters.
Dory won a string of Oscar nominations for music she wrote with her first husband André Previn before he became a globe-trotting conductor, had an affair with the actress Mia Farrow and left her.
The heartbreak prompted more original music which Previn sang herself as well as seeing versions recorded by stars including Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Doris Day.
Dimbleby, 40, said she, her pianist Naadia Sheriff and Amy Rosenthal — the daughter of Maureen Lipman who helped write the show — felt an empathy for Dory, who wrote sadly but wittily about being a brunette abandoned for a much younger blonde.
“We’re all 40-year-old brunettes,” Dimbleby said.
The Dory Previn Story, which is running tonight and tomorrow night at The Crazy Coqs, Piccadilly, is an updated version of a production she premiered two years ago. It now has new songs added ready for a run in New York later this year.
Dimbleby said there were many fans of Dory Previn whose hits include Twenty-Mile Zone and The Lady with the Braid — which was chosen by Jarvis Cocker as one of his Desert Island Discs — but also many people who had no idea who she was.
“I felt that she deserved a second listen. She has a voice that is so truthful you can’t help but listen to it and you think, Oh my god, she is talking just to me.”
The singer, who is married with two children, admitted she might have “a personal interest” in observing how her heroine handled a famous name. Dory retained André’s surname even after re-marrying.
But she said she was now “at peace” with her own famous heritage.
“When you’re young it’s quite distracting, but I’ve now got my own people who know what I am and what I do,” she said.
