BOOK, MUSIC, AND LYRICS BY MICHAEL BRESLIN

BOOK, ADDITIONAL MUSIC AND LYRICS BY PATRICK FOLEY

 

Directed BY AND DEVELOPED WITH Rory Pelsue 

Dramaturgy by Ariel Sibert & Catherine María Rodríguez

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CHOREOGRAPHY: JACK FERVER​

ADDITIONAL CHOREOGRAPHY: OLIVIA PALACIOS

Scenic DESIGN: Steph Cohen

Costume design: Cole McCarty

LIGHTING design: AMITH CHANDRASHAKER

Sound design: MEGUMI KATAYAMA & BEN TRUPPIN-BROWN

HAIR & WIG DESIGN: MATTHEW ARMENTROUT

PROPERTIES SUPERVISOR: JACKSON BERKLEY

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER: CLARISSA MARIE LIGON

 

 

Cast:

PATRICK NATHAN FALK, KERI RENE FULLER,

SARA GETTLEFINGER, LUKE ISLAM,

MILLY SHAPIRO, NATALIE WALKER

 

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press HIGHLIGHTs:

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While it has become a trope for shows to display projections of group chats or online comments (often with redundant voice-over), “Bimbo” refreshingly steers clear of such contrivances. Under Rory Pelsue’s fluid direction, we hear online comments voice-bombing Brainworm’s internal monologue. They range from fetishistic (“show me your toes”) to hostile (“my day sucked and you made it worse”), and are alternately read aloud by Brainworm and menacingly embodied by the other worms. Unsurprisingly, the more vicious the comments, the greater the number of viewers on the worms’ TikTok channels.

 rhoda feng, new york times

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Impeccably directed by Rory Pelsue, with organic feeling choreography by Jack Ferver that often adds to the humour, there is a precision to the execution of the production but not at the expense of its thrillingly daring, raw punk spirit that put me in mind of Rocky Horror. Stephanie Osin Cohen’s set design is simple but impactful and one of the most effective aspects of the show’s staging is the use of light cubes as iPhones which illuminate the performers’ faces as the characters are spellbound by their screens.

This premiere production is scheduled through June 1st, but this show deserves to return for a longer run. I was SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP. AND YES, I KNOW I’M TYPING IN ALL CAPS. Do not sleep on this show.

james kleinmann, the queer review

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Since this is a musical story that plays out almost entirely online, Stephanie Osin Cohen’s set suggests Radio City Music Hall as a holodeck, with scenes materializing and disappearing seemingly with one click. Pelsue maintains a furious pace throughout, reinforced by Jack Ferver’s manic pop choreography and Amith Chandrashaker’s disorienting lighting design. No one is having as much fun as costume designer Cole McCarty, who conjures authentic Iraq War-era fashion alongside the permeant pajama-party duds favored by our cloistered heroes. And really, if you’re only ever going to be seen from the waist up, why bother squeezing into uncomfortable pants and shoes?

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Unapologetically campy, Last Bimbo is also stealthily brilliant, pulling back the curtain on the smoke-and-mirrors show that has overtaken much of our culture and politics. This high age of fraud is also a golden opportunity for storytellers, and no theatermakers are seizing it with as much glee as Foley and Breslin.

ZACHARY STEWART, THEATERMANIA​

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Though the story addresses the obsession with digital devices (everyone in the cast is recurrently holding a cell phone, checking it, and using it to light up the darkness) and social media (the three sleuth “worms” are podcasters), the staging slyly moves away from relying on projections. Instead, the cast strikes freeze poses to represent the still photograph in which their characters are seen (then move into action as the sleuths theorize about what might have happened) and, in place of screening videos of Coco’s taped musical appearances from the height of her career, sings them live on stage...the avoidance of projections, at a time when so many Broadway shows are dependent on them, is an interesting twist on insecure characters who live their lives online and haven’t ventured outside in many years, are heard but not seen in their podcasts, and base their self-esteem on the number of followers they have and the Likes they get, but won’t read comments about themselves, largely out of fear of being trolled...And it’s all done with youthful vision and satirical humor by an engaging ensemble of creators and performers, with appeal to a new generation of theatergoers.

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The artistic design supports the youthful narrative and personalities, with costumes by Cole McCarty and hair and wigs by Matthew Armentrout that differentiate between the comfy at-home attire and plaids worn by the worms, the bright glittering jeans, halter tops, and upscale garment rack of Coco, and the ominous black outfit of Mother! (recalling Gettelfinger’s previous creepy roles as Morticia in The Addams Family and Cruella de Vil in The 101 Dalmatians Musical). Stephanie Osin Cohen’s simple set of three receding arches, with a central panel that rises, movable elements that roll in and out, and props by Jackson Berkley that make for easy transitions from one scene to the next – along with the all-important doctored painting of the actual photo of “The Three Bimbos of the Apocalypse” that appeared in the New York Post (an enlargement of which you can see in the lobby), adding an arm reaching out from the back seat and wearing a beaded bracelet with the name Coco – is enhanced with mood- and character-appropriate lighting by Amith Chandrashake and sound by Megumi Katayama and Ben Truppin-Brown.

DEB MILLER, DC THEATER ARTS

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