The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse

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You may recall the New York Post headline and photograph from November 26, 2006 which named Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears the “three bimbos of the Apocalypse.” However, you probably never knew that there is a fourth person in the photo: failed pop star Coco whose hand with a bracelet spelling out her name can be seen on the back of the seat of the car in which they are all sitting. But what happened to Coco who disappeared from public view soon after? The New Group’s latest musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalype purports to investigate this burning question.

The search is led by Brainworm, a 16-year-old TikTok sleuth who hasn’t left her room in four years, who attempts to solve the case from the confines of her bedroom in this delightfully zany pop musical. The creators of the show are Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley, the duo behind the 2021 Pulitzer Prize-nominated Circle Jerk, another cutting-edge stage musical intended for Gen Z but probably not their parents. Directed by and developed with Rory Pelsue who also staged Circle Jerk, the show is the epitome of hip and cool with alternating pink and blue sets by Stephanie Osin Cohen that suggest a miniature Radio City Music Hall with its arched stage.

With her online handle She/Her/Sherlock, Brainworm runs an Internet show in which she seeks out missing girls. In her search for Coco, the one-hit wonder, she is joined by fading internet influencers the gay Earworm and the straight Bookworm, two other 16-year-olds living in different states, who could not be more different as they report on pop culture. Bookworm knows the photograph well enough to have stated that it “created the digital dystopia we live in today.”

Using PerezHilton.com, they discover an obituary of Coco from December 10, 2006, and the last selfie of her in a dress shop surrounded by palm trees with two other people, an older woman and what looks like Coco’s stylist. But is that a knife they can see on one of the shelves of the shop? And when Coco’s bracelet is mailed to Brainworm, the threesome has all they need to solve the case. Ultimately, they locate Coco’s mother and sister and nothing is what it seems. In the end, Brainworm is freed to be herself rather than a shut-in.

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse with book by Breslin and Foley, and a score by Breslin with additional music and lyrics by Foley, a very clever satire of the TikTok generation, will leave you breathless as the show moves at 100 miles an hour and doesn’t let up for a minute. The score with its 17 musical numbers ranging from big scale pop-rock songs, to big band songs to an occasional quieter ballad also offers pastiche of the musical period it is recalling. The four-member band led by Dan Schlosberg and playing keyboard, drums, percussion, bass, cello, guitar and ukulele, joined by two playback engineers, makes the music sound like it is being performed by a much larger orchestra. The unified design concept includes Amith Chandrashaker’s startlingly pink and blue lights which alternate scenes and help create their own worlds.

The cast of six dressed in Cole McCarty’s chic 2006 pink and blue tight jeans of that era and contemporary plaid grunge wear in blue white and black could not be better. Throwing themselves into their roles, they take the over-the-top story totally seriously. Milly Shapiro makes an endearingly earnest heroine as Brainworm, while Patrick Nathan Falk as Bookworm and Luke Islam as Earworm could not be more different from each other.

When we meet Natalie Walker as Kiki, Coco’s sister, she is the most down-to-earth of all the characters. Keri René Fuller’s Coco when she makes an appearance is a hilarious satire of the self-involved pop star who lives for nothing but her fame and public. Though seen little Sara Gettelfinger as her mother (with an exclamation point!) goes through a series of changes before we find out her true story.

And what does it all mean? The new musical takes on pop fandom, celebrity, the Internet, MTV, pop culture, influencers, Gen Z and everything in between. The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse is not only cutting-edge but it may presage the dawning of the next kind of musical – which may not be to all tastes. It may also take you by surprise as to how much it pulls you into its story and investigation of a period a little less than two decades old.

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse (through June 1, 2025)

The New Group

Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visits http://www.thenewgroup.org

Running time: 95 minutes without an intermission