The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse Off-Broadway Reviews

Especially in its latter half, “Bimbo” traverses the gap between the very online and the very not online with exuberant intelligence. Earworm and Bookworm have a lovely number about who they are in their private realities, when no one’s looking at them. For a show about pop stardom and fandom, it has a surprising amount to say about oblivion — and our inalienable right to it.

Though some technical elements are more confusing than illuminating — a lack of scenic or lighting differentiation between the “private” screen, where the YouTubers talk only to each other, and the public livestream was aggravating — Last Bimbo is a revelatory romp with enough cleverness to justify its twists.

Staged nimbly by Pelsue underneath arched Looney Tunes portals airily designed for speedy scenic needs by Stephanie Osin Cohen, the production easily rolls over most potholes in the plot. The lighting designed by Amith Chandrashaker lends color and dramatic shadows to events; a nightmarish “Stop Scrolling” sequence is illuminated cleverly by iPhones. While The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse is one curiously mixed-up musical, the production is sufficiently entertaining to amuse viewers willing to overlook its somewhat bipolar behavior.

Shapiro can’t quite carry the emotional weight of the musical’s central character, but she’s got plenty of support from scene-chewing Keri Reneé Fuller as Coco, Broadway vet Sarah Gettelfinger as MOTHER!, Natalie Walker as Kiki, and her wormy cohorts. Wrapped in a fake couture fur of Y2K nostalgia, The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse transforms yesterday’s tabloid into an excavation of celebrity obsession and Gen Z social media-fueled social anxiety.