When my friend Natalia came to visit, I suggested we see a show together and gave her some options. She chose The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse.
I'm sure she chose it for the title, but she loved it for the clever lyrics, driving pop music, and engaging storyline. (As did I.) The new musical by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley produced by The New Group is definitely worth seeing.
About that title... it comes from a headline in the New York Post labeling a photo of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton the "3 Bimbos of the Apocalypse." There were only three young women in that photo, but what if there had been a fourth?
In the play, three teenagers living in a nightmarish post-apocalyptic hellscape (a.k.a. the United States in 2025) notice a hand in the photo wearing a bracelet with beads spelling out COCO. This leads them down a path uncovering a one-hit wonder named Coco (played by Keri René Fuller) who disappeared leaving hardly a trace other than an obituary and a mysterious last selfie.
The audience then gets to watch this trio of sleuths, Brainworm (Milly Shapiro), Earworm (Luke Islam), and Bookworm (Patrick Nathan Falk), try to puzzle out what happened, all while dealing with their own online fans. Their Internet journey is hysterical and horrifying at the same time.
Rory Pelsue does a great job directing this Off-Broadway production, which manages to feel both intimate and epic at the same time. The show is playing until June 1, so see it while you can.
