Bombshell – Bread and Roses Theatre, London

Writer: Madison Mayer

Composer: Aila Swan

Director: Emory Kemph

Leading up to the very last eco-conscious cabaret at rundown Vegas dive Club Fistfight, Bombshellplays on its nominative duality: audacious women and shocking revelations.

Having failed to make global warming HOT at the venue she’s inherited from her father, Club Fistfight owner Scarlett rallies her fellow showgirls, Eliza and Jane, for one last attempt at glamourised eco-activism: the true story of Scarlett’s love affair with over-eager environmentalist Tony. Lasciviously setting the scene in flouncy red tops and saucy bodysuits, Scarlett, Eliza and Jane whirl around, taking us back to pre-romantic onset: “Memory, memory, memory…”

A run of previous Fist Fight eco-shows on ‘Big Bad of the Week’ themes follows, including glacial melting (the Ice Man Comedy Show, culminating in Scarlett giving birth to a pointy glacier), marine depletion (Jane as a ‘pescatarian’ nun in fishnets), reluctant activism (Luke Warm, sung by Scarlett: “If he doesn’t care about Mother Earth, better believe he’ll treat you like dirt.”)

The Fistfight shows are interspersed with scenes of burgeoning romance, presaged by the showgirls backstage about having kids: “I never want a three-year-old as a roommate!” says Eliza, “My apartment, my choice.” Scarlett wants a child who could save the world. She’s clearly hankering for love.

Which helps explain why she’s bowled over by the arrival of Tony, played by Jane and Eliza in a series of BluTak, cheesy Wotsit and Christmas cracker moustaches. Judging by his accent and demeanour, he’s an old-school British cad, laced with Hugh Grant charm, and apparently bored by the action at the club. Despite a first date involving foraging (“Mother Nature is our restaurant!”), an epipen, and a night in A&E, Scarlett finds herself falling for Tony.

The Fistfight shows become steadily more extreme under his malign influence, starting with the bovine welfare-influenced ‘Moo Ha Ha’, progressing to arrests after the showgirls storm a car dealership, and suggestions of live onstage bloodletting.

The edge is slightly taken off the ensuing ‘Bombshell’ revelations by the use of date and name clues from the outset. And the play ends rather abruptly, having delivered its message; maybe a song and dance finale would be better. Overall, though, there’s enough content, craft and oomph to make Bombshell worth seeing.

The showgirls are all impressive. You can really see the high-kicking genes in Madison Mayer / Scarlett, a confident, brassy glamazon who creates equally convincing moments of awe and pathos. Emory Kemph / Eliza is a suitably sultry chanteuse, and plays Tony with mid-Atlantic-accented vigour. Jane / Aila Swan excels as the ‘more eco-aware than thou’ singing nun, bringing amusing Brit deadpan to her renditions of Tony. The close harmony singing is very good, and all three players can really belt out the tunes capably turned out by Swan. The melodies flow seamlessly, aligning perfectly with the action, from high melodrama to base ‘carbon fart print’ humour.

A bit more over-the-top grotesquerie would be welcome: it’s burlesque-lite as it stands, although fringe venue restrictions may be putting paid to athletic moves and squirting of actual liquids. Bigger stages may help, but they might restrict the free movement of the cast among the audience. There’s frequent engagement, some of which works well – cow teats offered up for squeezing – some less so. Playgoers baulk at inflating a seriously shrivelled, ex-seagoing sex doll.

Raised by a Vegas showgirl in the era of Inconvenient Truth, theatre grad Madison Mayer was a certified shoo-in to rustle up this amusing take on eco-activist themes. Director Emory Kemph (also at NYU’s Tisch theatre school) was “lit” when she saw the script, and they hit on the plan of turning it into a musical after Mayer met Scottish songsmith Aila Swan (trained at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire) on a UK panto tour in 2024. Cross the Pond Theatre Company was born with the dropping of Bombshell.

Premiering at New York’s Center at West Park to a packed-out crowd, it was also applauded at another NY venue, Caveat. Buoyed by audience approval, the irrepressible Mayer, Kemph & Swan took on all the necessary roles and embarked on a transatlantic journey. Now landed at the Bread and Roses theatre in Clapham,Bombshellis ready for a run-up in London and then to August for the Edinburgh Fringe.

Bombshell isn’t quite fully-fledged as a musical, but Vaudevillians need vehicles like this to refine their craft, and it’s hard to be stony-faced at a show presented with such verve, enthusiasm and raw talent. At a time when environmental concerns are being busily buried, perhaps the issues could do with the sort of amusing airing offered here.

Runsuntil14 June 2025and then tours