“The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse”: a Gen Z musical mystery rabbit hole

A brisk, biting new musical has just blown into town! It’s Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley’s The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse, a sharp, funny satire focusing on pseudo-celebrities and podcast fame. It contains a raucous, rock-tinged score by Breslin and Foley which blows through the theatre like a blast of fresh air and full-throated, energetic performances from its cast.

The story revolves around a mystery from the pre-smart phone era. In a famous article in the New York Post, three celebrities — Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan — were labeled “Three Bimbos of the Apocalypse.” The paparazzi photo that accompanied the article shows the three women — but in the show’s reality, also the hand of an unidentified fourth woman.

Three 16-year-old Gen-Z internet detectives decide to find that fourth woman’s identity: Brainworm (Milly Shapiro), a successful podcaster who specializes in finding lost women; and the team of Bookworm (Patrick Nathan Falk) and Earworm (Luke Islam), struggling to make a go of their own podcast. Together, the team tracks down clues to the whereabouts of Coco (Keri René Fuller), a failed pop star who reportedly died 20 years ago. The imaginative detectives use clues in a selfie of Coco with two other women to piece together the truth. Faced with falling numbers of followers and veiled threats, they manage to find Coco, her sister Kiki (Natalie Walker), and her mother (Sara Gettelfinger). But they also find that truth can be stranger than fiction…

The cast, directed by Rory Pelsue and choreographed by Jack Ferver and Olivia Palacios, perform in an over-the-top, take no prisoners style that meshes perfectly with the material. Milly Shapiro turns in a strong performance as Brainworm, who while trying to find the whereabouts of lost women takes great pains to hide her own identity. Her pursuit of Coco leads to her leaving her room for the first time in four years and showing her face on Bookworm and Earworm’s podcast.

Luke Islam’s Earworm is a nascent Staten Island gay boy, playing off Patrick Nathan Falk’s adamantly straight Nebraskan, who build bridges of trust with each other while letting their freak flags fly on their podcast. As for the family unit of Coco, Kiki, and MOTHER!, Keri René Fuller, Natalie Walker, and the superbly chilling Sara Gettelfinger create a domestic unit whose many layers of lies and misinformation stoke the story’s suspense.

Staphanie Osin Cohen’s set, a series of nested arches, is flexible enough to become whatever the script calls for, including an upstage location for Dan Schlosberg’s rocking  band, with the aid of Amith Chandrashaker’s atmospheric lighting and the sound design of Megumi Katayama and Ben Truppin-Brown. Cole McCarty’s costumes capture the styles of both the Gen Z podcasters and the Y2K world of Coco.

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse is a promising musical, with a well-written and well-acted story and a fairly solid, original rock score. With a little work — maybe the addition of new scenes to enhance the storyline — this could turn into a show that would have a life in regional theatres and high schools. As it is now, it is a lively, funny show that moves at its own propulsive speed, bringing the audience along for a wild ride. 

I recommend you make the trip to 42nd Street to meet The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse!

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse is presented by The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd St., in New York, through June 1, 2025. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to thenewgroup.org.