The impact of our celebrity-obsessed digital culture is explored in the intimate and funny new musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse from The New Group at the Signature Theater Center. The book by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley sharply satirizes the click-crazy ecosphere which values appearance and flash over substance. The energetic rock score by Breslin (music and lyrics) and Foley (additional music and lyrics) captures the empty ache experienced by many Gen Z-ers seeking meaning through their devices. The show could have been as shallow as the situation it purports to parody, but the authors have captured the sweet innocence of an alienated youth, isolated by COVID and unable to recover in-person social skills. “I’ll take a picture on my phone/And post it so I’m not alone,” is one of the more haunting lyrics. “I don’t wanna do anything/And I want to be rewarded for it” is another which captures the desperate state of disconnection dominating our world.

The plot centers on an infamous picture of media sensations Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, and Paris Hilton which ran in the New York Post in 2006 with the caption “The Three Bimbos of the Apocalypse.” Breslin and Foley imagine there was a fourth “Bimbo” in the pic in the form of a barely visible wrist. An Internet sleuth calling herself “Brainworm” (a heartbreaking Milly Shapiro) is determined to find the identity of the missing girl. By searching for this elusive possible pop-culture icon, she hopes to find her own identity and possibly venture into real life. (She has not left her room in four years.) She is joined by a pair of gay male YouTubers identified as Bookworm and Earworm, one of whom is closeted (funny and flamboyant Patrick Nathan Falk and Luke Islam).

Their search leads to Coco (dynamic Keri Rene Fuller), the wrist in the photo and a wannabe singer who vanished after her one attempt at topping the charts failed. Along the way, the trio encounters Coco’s religious-fanatic mother (fiery Sara Gettelfinger) and an unidentified friend (quirky Natalie Walker) who holds the key to the mystery.

Director Rory Pelsue cleverly stages this journey through cyberspace as if the characters were all in physical proximity though they are mostly communicating through their screens. Amit Chandrashaker’s spectral lighting, some of which is through cell-phone illumination, aides in the illusion. Cole McCarty designed the kicky costumes spanning the last two decades of hipster fashion. Pelsue also balances the comic, satiric elements with compassion for the disillusioned Internet addicts. The cast, especially Shapiro, portrays them as broken loners rather than as eccentric goofballs obsessed with trivia. These are more than comic Bimbos, they’re human beings.

In another Off-Broadway show about young people coping with a difficult world, Natalie Margolin’s All Nighter insightfully dissects a quintet of female college seniors as they pull their final nocturnal study session and embark on becoming adults. Each is riddled with anxiety and insecurities as they down copious amounts of Adderall, energy drinks, white wine, and humus to maintain the stamina to complete their last assignments. A ghost is blamed for unusual happenings in their shared house as the night drags on and uncomfortable truths are revealed.

Margolin is a promising playwright, creating believable characters and skillfully building a riveting story arc employing interesting details and building suspense through careful clues. Jaki Bradley’s well-paced direction includes hilariously fast-motion action to denote the passage of time and Isa Briones, Kathryn Gallagher, Alyah Chanelle Scott and understudy Tessa Albertson deliver complex portraits of young women in conflict with themselves and each other. As Wilma, the outspoken outsider of the group, Julia Lester crashes into the action like a hurricane. Wilma longs to be noticed, and more importantly, accepted. Lester fullfils this objective with spectacular character choices, endowing each gesture and action with subtext. Even munching on a bag of potato chips or aggressively opening a collapsible stool so she can join the study table reveals tons about Wilma and her needs. It’s a fascinating performance in an excellent ensemble.

The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse: May 13—June 1. The New Group at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theater/Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St., NYC. Running time: 95 mins. with no intermission. thenewgroup.org.

All Nighter: March 9—May 18. Newman Mills Theater/Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, 511 W. 52nd St., NYC (this is not a production of MCC Theater). Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. allnighterplay.com.