When environmental scientist Scarlett finds herself in charge of an ailing nightclub in Las Vegas, she decides to seize the opportunity to turn the showgirls into advocates for climate action. With persistence, their efforts appear to reaping dividends not only for the climate but also for Scarlett’s drooping love life.

‘Bombshell’ is a brand new musical written by Madison Mayer and composed by Aila Swan. Scarlett (Madison Mayer) is the brains and the social conscience behind the notion of using stripping to save the world. Jane and Eliza are initially sceptical but soon become invested in their strip tease slash activist routines. Scarlett’s romance with Mustache Man is short and apparently sweet until his dark deception is revealed. Prior to that, there’s fun in his cringe-worthy attempts to write new material for the club’s performers.

The innuendos come thick and fast in both the script and the songs, sometimes sacrificing the storytelling, and the actors possibly enjoy it more than the solitary guy on the front row who bore the brunt of a lot of it during this performance. But the performers swiftly get stuck in with energy and exuberance. Scarlett (Mayer) delivers an assured performance and Swan and Kemph have great fun serving up a sideshow of supporting roles. Snappy direction from Emory Kemph makes pragmatic use of the available space and simple set and the skimpy costumes are spot on. Vocally, Swan, Mayer and Kemph are individually strong and many of the harmonies are (a)rousing though a few miss the mark.

For a show that purports to be about climate change,  some of the aspects Scarlett chooses to focus on feel somewhat peripheral – over-fishing (though this does enable Kemph’s extraordinary dying fish dance), lack of recycling and excess plastic, for example. If you’re after an education about the causes of climate change and the problems coming down the line because of it, other shows might serve you better. But fossil fuels get a look in as we wind round to Scarlett’s swan song so it’s not entirely side-stepping the root causes.

Whether art or only activism can address the climate crisis is a topical question. ‘Bombshell’ is a buoyant and bouncy response.

‘Bombshell‘ has finished its Fringe run