The film follows Shelly Gardner, a 57-year-old Las Vegas showgirl who’s been performing in Le Razzle Dazzle, a classic French-style casino revue show, for over three decades. Despite her age, Shelly maintains her position in the show alongside much younger dancers, including Mary-Anne and Jodie, who look up to her as a maternal figure. Her close friend Annette, who was previously let go from the show years ago, now works as a cocktail waitress but maintains a strong bond with Shelly.

The story kicks into gear when Eddie, the show’s producer, delivers devastating news during an impromptu dinner at Shelly’s home – Le Razzle Dazzle will be closing in two weeks. The casino has already started replacing their prime performance slots with a more contemporary neo-burlesque circus show, and declining ticket sales have sealed their fate. Shelly takes the news particularly hard, viewing the replacement show as tasteless and beneath their classic production’s dignity. Meanwhile, her younger castmates Mary-Anne and Jodie pragmatically begin auditioning for other Vegas shows, much to Shelly’s disapproval as she considers these newer productions too risqué and lacking class.

The closure poses serious problems for Shelly, who has no retirement savings and dwindling resources. Her situation becomes more precarious as her paychecks shrink due to lower attendance, and she faces additional stress when she’s charged for damaging her costume. Her friend Annette isn’t faring much better, struggling with both alcoholism and a gambling addiction that drain her finances.

In the midst of this crisis, Shelly reaches out to her daughter Hannah, with whom she has a complicated relationship. Hannah, now studying photography in Tucson and approaching graduation, spent most of her teenage years living with family friends rather than her mother. When Hannah visits Shelly’s home, their reunion is awkward and tense. Shelly’s disconnection from her daughter’s life becomes painfully obvious as she fumbles basic details like Hannah’s age and education. Though Hannah initially declines to stay for dinner, she later changes her mind, leading to a brief moment of genuine connection between mother and daughter.

Without Shelly’s knowledge, Hannah attends a performance of Le Razzle Dazzle. Afterward, she confronts her mother in the dressing room, expressing her hurt and anger over Shelly choosing the show over raising her. When Shelly storms out of this confrontation, Hannah has a brief encounter with Eddie before leaving. Later, when Jodie comes to Shelly seeking comfort over her own mother’s rejection, Shelly responds coldly and pushes her away, perhaps projecting her own maternal failures onto the situation.

The pressure begins to affect Shelly’s performance. During one show, when Jodie refuses to help her prepare in retaliation for her earlier coldness, Shelly struggles with her costume, ultimately missing her cue and breaking down backstage. This leads to a pivotal dinner with Eddie, where Shelly opens up about her fears of aging and obsolescence in an industry that values youth above all else. During their conversation, it’s revealed that Eddie is Hannah’s father, though they’ve kept this secret from Hannah her entire life. The scene becomes charged with mutual recrimination – Shelly criticizing Eddie’s absence from Hannah’s life, while Eddie implies that Shelly’s parenting choices were far from ideal.

In one of the film’s most powerful sequences, Shelly attends an audition alongside Mary-Anne. The scene is devastating as Shelly, clearly nervous and out of touch with modern audition styles, struggles to perform. The director stops her mid-routine and brutally explains that they’re looking for more acrobatic or “sexy” performers. He cruelly points out that while her youth and looks made up for her limited dance talent when she was first hired at Le Razzle Dazzle, she’s no longer “selling” what they need. Mary-Anne sacrifices her own audition slot to help a humiliated Shelly leave the stage, but Shelly lashes out at her in the parking lot, rawly expressing her bitterness about sacrificing everything for an industry that’s now discarding her and rejecting Mary-Anne’s attempts at daughter-like comfort.

The story takes another turn when Annette reveals she’s lost her home and has been secretly living out of her car, using the casino’s locker room to shower. Shelly offers her a place to stay, showing that despite her own struggles, she still has capacity for generosity. As the show’s final performance approaches, Shelly begins trying to make amends, leaving an apologetic voicemail for Hannah and working to repair her relationships with Jodie and Mary-Anne.

The film’s ending is beautifully ambiguous. During Le Razzle Dazzle’s final performance, Shelly envisions Hannah watching proudly from the audience alongside Eddie, and sees her smiling supportively backstage. However, the film leaves it unclear whether this represents real reconciliation or simply Shelly’s hopes and dreams for closure with her daughter. This ambiguity serves to underscore one of the film’s central themes – the complex relationship between reality and fantasy, both in show business and in personal relationships.

The Last Showgirl works as both a character study and a larger commentary on aging in an industry obsessed with youth. Through Shelly’s story, it explores how people define themselves through their work, the sacrifices made for art and career, and the often painful process of facing obsolescence. The film also delves deep into the complexities of mother-daughter relationships, examining how career ambitions can conflict with family obligations, and the long-lasting impact of choices made in pursuit of a dream.

The ending suggests that while some wounds might never fully heal, there’s always possibility for growth and change. Whether or not Hannah actually forgives Shelly is less important than Shelly’s journey toward acknowledging her mistakes and attempting to make peace with her past. The film closes on a note that’s neither entirely hopeful nor entirely tragic, much like the bittersweet reality of life itself.