This jaunty American musical takes us into a series of seemingly ordinary days in which ordinary things happen in the lives of four young New Yorkers. They go to work or college, they stop for coffee, they get stuck in traffic, they argue with partners, they take the subway – and yet they are also remarkable days because each of the characters is forging ahead and building relationships with others.

First we meet Warren, played with a gentle humour by Aidan Cutler. Here is a man trying to remain positive and believe the best of people. Working for an artist, he spends his days handing out leaflets bearing encouraging messages – and yet finds that most people will not even stop to receive them.

Then there’s Deb, played by Dora Gee returning to the role having played Deb previously at the Town and Gown in Cambridge. Dora gives plenty of frantic laughs to the young woman desperate to get on in life but who doesn’t yet know where she fits in.

We see Jason, played as an eternal optimist by OJS Theatre artistic director James Edge, who is just moving in with his girlfriend Claire, portrayed with layers of emotion by Melisa Camba - but can their relationship weather the storms of life?

As each character bumps into the other we share their highs and their lows, getting to know them a little better and hoping that somehow everything will turn out OK.

All four members of the cast are excellent, slipping on their characters like second skins so that we feel their pains and their joys. While we may not recognise our exact experience in theirs, we also see character traits and ambitions which we are familiar with.

With music and lyrics written by Adam Gwon, the show features some great songs including the fun Sort-Of Fairy Tale, the frenetic Calm and the powerful I’ll Be Here, all performed with heart by the cast.

Premiered in the United States in 2008, Ordinary Days hasn’t had much of an airing in the UK so full marks to the Old Joint Stock for being prepared to stage a show probably new to most in the audience.

The city centre venue is also ideal for such a production. Directed by Karl Steele, the show takes place surrounded on three sides by audience and in the small space of the Old Joint Stock Theatre, we are so close we feel ourselves pulled into these lives. This is enhanced by numerous instances where cast members interact with the audience so that all of us are part of the story.

The staging is simple - a few blocks double up as taxis, buildings and subway trains while a picture frame encapsulates The Metropolitan Museum of Art - and this works really well as it allows us to focus on the action and the conversation.

My one difficulty with the show is that at times the lyrics are hard to hear. Whether this is because the singers are sometimes facing away or because of diction I’m not sure but it’s disappointing as it does sometimes affect the understanding of the interaction between characters and some of the finer points of the story.

A co-production between the Old Joint Stock Theatre and West End Best Friend Productions, and with a running time of under two hours including interval, Ordinary Days is also greatly supported by the technical crew with live music.

The show offers us a wry look at life in the Big Apple with four hugely relatable and likeable characters. We are all rooting for them - here are people living lives like ours and yet overcoming obstacles and finding their own paths.

Hugely life-affirming, the show made me both laugh and cry. It reminds us that even on what may appear to be the most ordinary of days, people can still be extraordinary.

Four stars

Reviewed by Diane Parkes at The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham, on Thursday 10 April.
Ordinary Days continues to show at the venue until Sunday 20 April